The Patriots had a good night on offense against the Eagles on Thursday, but the kicking game wasn’t quite as sharp.
With Nick Folk still out with an injury, rookie Quinn Nordin handled all the kicking duties for the Patriots. He missed two extra points and a field goal after missing an extra point in the preseason opener, which led to a question for Patriots head coach Bill Belichick at Friday’s press conference about where things stand with Nordin.
“I think when you go through any player’s performance in the preseason and really in any game, player or coach, they’re always some good plays and then some plays that we’d all like to have back,” Belichick said. “I thought Quinn did a good job of rebounding there in the second half, came back and hit the ball well, but obviously a big part of everybody’s game and certainly the specialists game is consistency and so, let’s say that we’ve seen a little bit of that from all the specialists in the first two preseason games. We’re all obviously working for more consistency and especially when you have a three-man operation there with a snapper, a holder and a kicker, then there’s an element of that. We’ll keep working through it and see where it goes.”
There’s not a lot of time left for Nordin to convince the Patriots that he can provide the consistency they’re looking for, so there may be some changes coming on special teams if Folk isn’t ready to reclaim his job by the start of the regular season.