The Gould standard

If he keeps refining his all-around game as much as he has this year, pretty soon Robbie Gould won't have anything left to improve on as a kicker.

Gould has been remarkably accurate and incredibly consistent almost from the beginning with the Bears.

After his rookie season, Gould has never finished below 85.7 percent for a season, although this year he's at 82.6 percent after missing 3 straight kicks in a rare midseason slump.

Only once before had Gould missed 2 kicks in a row. Since then, he has hit 7 straight including last week's career-best 54-yarder against the Detroit Lions.

That field goal, and the 2 touchbacks on kickoffs that traveled deep into the end zone, is the result of Gould's efforts in the off-season to improve a part of his game that he felt needed work.

“The biggest thing I focused on was just hitting the ball better and being able to move the ball more,” he said. “Most of the time we're kicking middle to left (on kickoffs) but we've mixed it up a little bit more this year, and the guys are covering great. So whoever's returning the ball is moving hard to their right or left a couple yards deep, and they're going to be more reluctant to bring the ball out of the end zone.”

Gould is the fifth-most accurate FG kicker in NFL history. His previous four seasons are the four most accurate in Bears history. He has never been known, however, as a kicker with the leg strength to connect from beyond 50 yards or to prevent returners from bringing kickoffs out of the end zone.

Now he's earning that reputation. He already has established a career high with 13 touchbacks.

“Robbie's an outstanding kicker, big leg and very accurate guy, and right at the top of the all-time kickers, accuracy-wise,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. “Kicking in a place like Chicago, which is a lot more challenging than some other places in the league, I think that just says even more about the quality of his performance.”

Belichick and Gould go way back. Gould was originally signed by the Patriots as an undrafted free agent out of Penn State in 2005. But with Pro Bowler Adam Vinatieri on the roster, there was no room for Gould. He found a place on the Baltimore Ravens' practice squad for three weeks, but he was waived at the end of September.

So he went back home to Lock Haven, Pa., and got a job working at a construction site for a friend of the family.

“You go to work all day and then go work out and kick after work and prepare yourself and be ready in case somebody calls,” Gould said.

Ten days later the phone rang and it was the Bears. He was signed to the Bears' 53-man roster after he emerged victorious from a tryout in which he competed with four other kickers to replace Doug Brien, who had missed 3 of his first 4 FG attempts.

Gould clearly recalls the competition: “Martin Gramatica, Steve Christie, Tim Seder and a kid by the name of Carter Warley. We were rookies at the same time, and he actually played at Cincinnati in the preseason when I was in New England.”

While the others are long gone, Gould has gone on to become one of the NFL's best and most popular kickers, and a favorite at Soldier Field where he may not have mastered the elements, but he's at least tamed them.

The next day after he won the Bears' kicking competition, Gould was on the team plane headed to Cleveland for a game against the Browns.

“Who's that?” a team employee asked a co-worker, when the baby-faced Gould boarded the plane.

“That's our kicker,” he was told.

“Oh,” he said, “I thought it was one of the ball boys.”

Gould fought back nerves and nailed his first attempt as a pro, a 44-yarder, but later in the game he missed from 48 and finished the season 21 of 27. His 77.8 percent success rate was his lowest as a pro but still respectable, although not necessarily a guarantee of continued employment.

That came the next season. Gould had made his last 2 kicks as a rookie, and he hit 24 in a row to open up the 2006 season, which ended with him playing in the Pro Bowl.

Gould's streak ended at 26 against, naturally, Belichick and the Patriots, when he had a 45-yard attempt blocked. But he still has fond memories from his time there.

“It's where I started,” he said. “It's who gave me the opportunity to be seen. If it weren't for them, I probably wouldn't be in the league right now and definitely wouldn't have gotten the chance to be picked up by Chicago. I can't thank the Patriots enough.”

Follow Bob LeGere's Bears reports via Twitter@BobLeGere. Check out his blog, Bear Essentials, at dailyherald.com.

Good as Gould

Bears kicker Robbie Gould has worked to improve his distance on kickoffs, and his accuracy on long field goals:

Kickoffs

Total Touchbacks

2005 54 1

2006 95 11

2007 76 3

2008 78 9

2009 73 8

2010 56 13

50-plus yard FGs

Made Attempts

2005 0 0

2006 0 0

2007 0 2

2008 0 0

2009 2 3

2010 3 4

Source: Bears