With 10 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Andy Borregales had a chance to break a 13-13 tie and give his team a win in the preseason opener over the Indianapolis Colts. However, the New England Patriots’ place kicker hooked the 49-yard attempt to the left and had to watch the ball sail pass the upright.
It wasn’t the first time this happened. Borregales had already missed two of his four previous field goal attempts, sending a 56-yarder and 55-yarder wide to the left in the first and third periods, respectively.
After the game, head coach Mike Vrabel was pretty straight-forward in his assessment of the situation.
“We expect him to make them,” he said. “That’s pro football. They’re banging them in from 60 yards. They have two kickers on their roster. Andy knows we have to make those field goals.”
While Vrabel’s answer was blunt, he did later express confidence in his team’s second-year kicker.
“We’re going to have misses, we’re going to have mistakes in everything we do. We just need to be able to come back,” he noted. “We need to be able to bounce back. We need to be able to answer. Guys are going to drop a pass. Guys are going to miss a block. We’re going to miss a kick. We just have to not let those things pile up.
“Andy’s been really good with that, and I would anticipate him getting back to work and really start to focus. Maybe it was a footwork thing or trying to over-swing, but I have confidence in Andy. You want to be able to make those. We got in a position to win the football game, and you got to be able to make them.”
Borregales joined the Patriots as a sixth-round selection in last year’s draft, and as a rookie won the kicking competition against former practice squad member Parker Romo. However, his career got off to a rocky start: he missed his first career field goal attempt and the following week shanked a couple of extra points.
Nonetheless, the Patriots showed trust in him. Borregales kicked a 53-yard game-winning field goal later that same game against the Dolphins, and went on to split the uprights on his next 37 combined attempts. He was a bit more shaky down the stretch but still remained a valuable contributor while making 81.6% of his field goals and 96.8% of his extra points as a rookie.