It’s a question no team hopes it ever has to answer: what happens during a game if a specialist (nominally a kicker, punter, long snapper, or even holder) goes down?
Most teams have someone on deck for the latter two spots, and can occasionally use the other foot so to speak – which is what the Giants had to do Sunday, when kicker Graham Gano went into concussion protocol, forcing punter Jamie Gillan into kicking duty.
Gillan did well, booting a 31-yard field goal, an extra point, and three kickoffs (with two touchbacks) in Gano’s absence – and we learned that apparently, safety Julian Love is the backup holder (or at least was on Sunday), as he was the man putting the ball down on Gillan’s two tries.
“J-Love did a great job holding…maybe we should line him up for a couple of field goals this week too, see if he can get all of them – long snap, hold. Check all of the boxes for the year for him, right?” Gillan joked on Monday. “I haven't met a teammate like him to be able to do everything like that. We were literally on the sideline looking at each other and I was teaching him how to hold. Maybe three holds later, he had it down. I just said, 'Don't worry about the laces. We'll poke it through.' He nailed it. A great athlete.”
The Giants didn’t give Gillan a third chance, going for two (unsuccessfully) after the go-ahead and final touchdown in the fourth quarter, a move head coach Brian Daboll attributed to the situation allowing the team to “work some two-point stuff.”
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Not that he had any qualms about Gillan kicking…or Love holding, for that matter.
“Graham was out, and I just thought it was a good time to work some two-point stuff,” Daboll said. “It was a good time to kick Jamie even though he hasn't really been kicking very much, and Julian holding and doing all those things…you never know what could happen.”
Daboll recalled a Bills-Panthers game last year where Carolina kicker Zane Gonzalez hurt his quad pregame, leaving the Panthers scrambling to find a kicker – and ending up having to try two-point conversions after both of their touchdowns, run plays on multiple fourth downs instead of trying field goals, and have wide receiver Brandon Zylstra make three very shaky kickoffs.
“Basically, they had to go for it every snap,” Daboll remembered. “So just kind of trying to work some different situations with the players relative to what we were dealt with Graham going down there.”
Gillan was ready for the task on Sunday, though, as despite the differences between placekicking and punting, he said he’s up for whatever Daboll needs.
“I have a good routine going every day to take care of my body, and as we saw yesterday, anything can happen in a game,” Gillan said. “I can't say on the sideline, 'Oh no, I can't kick because I'm using different muscles.' I'm just going to go out there and kick it, right. If that was asked of me for this week, then I'll do it. I'll do anything for this team, whatever they want me to do.”
He even got some love from Gano, who was still on the sidelines despite being sidelined.
“Everybody was laughing, super happy. I guess people forgot or didn't know that I kicked in college, but we had a good giggle afterwards,” Gillan said. “(Gano and I) were chatting on the sidelines, and after the game, he gave me a big high five and a hug and was just saying, 'Good job.’ I channeled my inner Graham on the kickoffs because he's super smooth when he kicks it, so when I was back there and I was thinking, 'Just kick it smooth.
Hit the sweet spot, and the ball should fly.' He was very happy for me.”
Perhaps the only person who was upset it was Gillan called in to kick? Long snapper Casey Kreiter, who joked he wanted the chance to let the world find out who Big Blue’s backup long snapper is.
“I love kicking, I love punting, I love doing all of that stuff, so part of the competitor in me was a little disappointed Jamie got to kick off and not me,” Kreiter laughed. “Jamie’s a good athlete, too, he’s a ball striker. We don’t try to oversimplify things in our room. It’s see ball, kick ball; grab ball, snap ball.”
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Gano will hopefully be back for Sunday’s preseason finale with the Jets, although Big Blue is considering adding another kicker in the interim just in case – which could be bad news for players on the roster bubble, given that Tuesday afternoon is the deadline to cut down from 85 to 80.
“We've had preliminary discussions on it. We're possibly going to bring in a kicker; you don't want to wear Jamie out – the different angles he has to kick from,” Daboll said. “So, we're in the process of talking about that, and we definitely could bring one in.”
With a laugh, Gillan said he’s okay with that.
“I'm just here to hold and punt,” he smiled, “but if they need any more field goals from me again, I'll be there waiting.”
Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroWFAN
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