FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — A miss is rarely a good thing for a kicker.
But a ball the wind pushed left of the upright on the practice field Tuesday was a sign for Colts kicker Spencer Shrader.
An indication that Shrader is, at long last, starting to kick like himself again. When Colts head coach Shane Steichen sent Shrader onto the Gillette Stadium turf for a 61-yard kick to potentially tie Thursday night’s preseason game, Shrader felt more confident than he has since Raiders safety Triston McCollum dove into his kicking leg last October, tearing Shrader’s ACL and MCL in a single, heartbreaking moment.
Shrader hit it pure, blasting a high-arcing, gorgeous kick that made it through the uprights with room to spare, tying the game at 13 with 1:21 left in a moment that completely resets the open competition the Colts are holding between Shrader and veteran Blake Grupe. Grupe had a clear lead after the first two weeks of training camp, but special teams coordinator Brian Mason has said all along that kicks in preseason games would carry the most weight.
“It was big,” Indianapolis head coach Shane Steichen said. “Obviously, we wanted to work on some kicking with those two guys battling. For him to kick that long field goal, it was huge.”
Grupe missed from 61 at the end of the first half. Shrader hit his 61-yarder pure and true, a reminder of the potential that convinced the Colts to give him the starting job at this time a year ago.
“I really try not to think about getting back to where I was, because I put so pressure on myself, because I was operating at a very high level,” Shrader said. “I’ve really tried to keep that motto close to me, just 1% better, not comparing myself to where I was, necessarily. … But nights like tonight are inspiring, because I do feel like my former self a little bit.”
He started feeling that way after a miss.
Winds were whipping across the New England practice fields from right to left, pushing every kick hard to the left.
That's the same direction Shrader has been missing in training camp, what allowed Grupe to take the lead. The last time Shrader kicked at Grand Park, on Sunday, he missed four of his 10 field goals, hooking two 55-yard kicks hard to the left at the end of a two-minute drill, a performance that admittedly disheartened even Shrader’s unshakable belief in himself.
“You feel embarrassed, you feel like you let the team down, the fans are watching,” Shrader said. “You really just have to power through the struggles, not let those bad days get you even more down. Just understand that even if it’s bad, it can still be used for good.”
Two days later, in New England, he faced the same situation.
And Shrader missed again, the wind pushing the ball outside of the post at the last second, a result that should have been a blow to Shrader’s confidence.
Except that this was different. Shrader hammered that ball Tuesday high and straight, a pure strike, and it only pushed to the left because of the wind.
“Normally, you’re disappointed in any type of miss, but that one, I knew I hit it pure, I could feel it off my foot,” Shrader said. “Especially right now, I’m just trying to hit a pure ball. … If the wind or the weather affects it, that’s not that big a deal, because I’m just trying to get back to me.”
A pure ball has been the goal because Shrader is trying to do something most kickers rarely have to do.
A torn ACL and MCL in the kicking leg is a rare injury for a kicker, and there was no way to know how he’d come back. While Shrader hit every mark in his rehabilitation and felt strong enough to play soccer during the summer break, he still went eight months without kicking a field goal. Mason has spent the first two weeks reminding reporters that the Colts have always known it was going to take Shrader time to find himself again.
And for whatever reason, he has struggled with hooking the ball to the left, sometimes yanking a low, side-spinning ball that pulls to the left.
A ball that looks nothing like Shrader’s normal kick.
A ball that has admittedly been frustrating.
“I really was trying not to think it was injury-related,” Shrader said. “That’s not ever what you want to think, is you come back different. . … I don’t think it’s injury-related, because I know I can hit a really clean ball. I’ve seen myself hit a really pure ball. But those left mishits were definitely happening more than they used to. I tried not to think of it in a negative way, like this is how I am now. No, I can get back to where I was. I can get back to hitting a pure ball.”
Until this week, he hadn’t been able to hit it consistently, leaving him vulnerable in the competition with Grupe. Grupe is more experienced, a veteran of three seasons as a starting NFL kicker, and he has his own power; Grupe set the Indianapolis franchise record with a 60-yard kick against the Seahawks last December.
But Mason has acknowledged that Shrader’s size means that he has more power potential than Grupe, one of the reasons the Colts first took a chance on Shrader as an undrafted free agent out of Notre Dame.
He just hasn’t been able to access it consistently.
“Now, I know it’s there,” Shrader said. “I can build on that. That’s how I used to kick.”
Joel A. Erickson and Nathan Brown cover the Colts all season. Get more coverage on IndyStarTV and with the Colts Insider newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: How Spencer Shrader flipped the competition to be the Colts' kicker