Short turnaround doesn’t give Packers rookie Trey Smack much time to iron out his form

GREEN BAY – Green Bay Packers rookie kicker Trey Smack will keep working on his foot strike to avoid another multi-miss game.

He just won't do it on the field until warmups before the Packers play the Carolina Panthers on Thursday night, Oct. 29.

Special teams coach Cam Achord said Smack needed to rest his leg because of the short turnaround between the Packers' loss to the Detroit Lions on Sunday and the game against the Panthers .

Normally, Smack would practice field goals, extra points and kickoffs on Wednesday and then go through a lighter workout on Friday during a Sunday-to-Sunday game schedule. But with just three days between games, Achord preferred Smack not kick this week.

"During a game, you kick more than you do in practices, because every time you're driving, whether you're punting or kicking, once the ball gets close to midfield, you're in the kicking net kicking as a field goal kicker on the side," Achord said Oct. 28. "As soon as you get an offensive possession as a punter, you're getting something [started] because you don't know how fast we're going to go to huddle, you don't know how fast the possession is going to go.

"So, you may kick 100 balls potentially in a game on the side before you actually get [one] in the game, So, you kick so much on game day, you need the rest. I don't know if anyone actually in the league kicks on a short week. There may be one or two [teams]."

Smack has some work to do to correct his kicks.

He missed a chip shot wide right from 26 yards out in the first quarter and a 35-yarder wide right in the fourth quarter of the 20-17 loss to the Lions .

He has attempted 16 kicks this year and missed five field goals and two extra points. His .688 field goal percentage ranks tied for 29th and his .867 extra point percentage ranks 31st.

Smack has missed a kick in four games this year and two or more in two of his past three games.

"We've got to improve the contact," Achord said. "Like we've talked and it's even in pregame and different things. It's all about just the contacts. To me, it's how are we making contact with the football? What's it like coming off the foot?

"And that's what we've got to continue to work with, is getting the contact back to where it was and where it can be, which he's shown to have right multiple times and responded from things, you know, good and bad."

Lions defender D.J. Wonnum got a finger or two on Smack's 35-yard miss, but it's hard to tell whether it affected the ball's direction. Achord said it might have missed right even if it wasn't tipped.

"I think we've just got to continue to push forward, hit a better ball, obviously right there, and then we're not having the conversation," Achord said

Smack missed an extra point in the season opener against Minnesota but also hit a 59-yard field goal. He was perfect against the New York Jets, including a 26-yard walk-off field goal in overtime. He connected on a 58-yard field goal against Tampa Bay, but since then he's been 5-for-9 on field goals and 6-for-7 on extra points.

Packers coach Matt LaFleur has said he has no intention of abandoning his commitment to Smack and thinks the sixth-round draft pick will iron out his issues.

Achord said that he's not worried about Smack's mental state. He said he keeps reminding him that even if you go 9 of 10, people will remember the one miss, and that's not how he should see it.

His focus should remain on the process that allowed him to hit the other nine.

"You're going to have some ups and downs, but understand what got you here, what gets you to the point," Achord said. "It's doing that process over and over, and that's where you build the confidence, what you've done in the past to get you to where you are today, and that's what you have to have conversations about.

"A lot of people want to talk about the negatives and all that, which is fair. It's very fair. There's nothing wrong about that, but we've got to go back to the process that got us here and what we did 90% of the time."