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Freese On Missed Field Goals: 'It's Not How You Start, It's How You Finish'

By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak

ALLEN PARK (CBS DETROIT) - Detroit Lions rookie placekicker Nate Freese has begun his NFL career in a rather inauspicious manner, missing the mark on three of the five field goals he has attempted in regular season games. Two of those misses came in a big road matchup with the Carolina Panthers.

Lions head coach Jim Caldwell said the team would not make any snap judgments on Freese, but he did not rule out looking at other kickers around the league and bringing some in for tryouts.

"We're still discussing, talking, looking at different options," Caldwell said. "I still believe that this young man is going to be a fine kicker in this league. I don't think there's any question about that, and we'll see how it goes here, but I still believe. You look at him, he had three kicks of 50 yards-plus in the preseason, so you know he can get it out there.

"Sometimes the guys have a bad day, but we'll look at that," Caldwell added. "In terms of whether or not we're going to bring kickers in, we never talk about who we're going to bring in. We never discuss that."

The coach said that the staff will analyze Freese's struggles just as it would the problems of any player, keeping an eye on the details to see if they can pinpoint any problems and get them fixed.

"We try to look at those from a technical standpoint," Caldwell said. "We try to look at all the variables and just to make sure we narrow it down and see if we can solve the problem. Take a look at what the problem was, what caused the problem, how do we go about correcting it."

Freese said he just needs to be more consistent, and he said Caldwell told him to keep his head up and continue working hard. Freese said he believes he still has the coach's confidence, and the kicker will not concern himself with the widespread dismay about his performance thus far.

"I can't really worry about that," Freese said. "That's out of my control. I just control what I can control."

Of course, Freese is disappointed, but not to the point of being discouraged.

"It's not how you start, it's how you finish," Freese said, "so I've got to keep moving forward and keep working hard."

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