Blair Walsh only made half his field goals during a team practice session on Tuesday, possibly a sign that he is intimidated by facing the Seahawks again.
Thursday night the Minnesota Vikings face the Seattle Seahawks for the first time since last year’s bitter home playoff loss.
That’s not a game I have to remind Vikings fans about. It was gut-wrenching and lots of fans still haven’t forgiven Blair Walsh for his missed kick.
On that: Maybe it has nothing to do with facing the Seahawks again, but Walsh had a really bad day in practice on Tuesday.
Is Walsh experiencing flashbacks to his miss at the end of the game against Seattle?
Rough go for Blair Walsh today as he missed 3 of 6 field goal tries (41, 43, 48) in team sessions. Otherwise he's had a good summer.
— Andrew Krammer (@Andrew_Krammer) August 16, 2016
Walsh has gotten nothing but glowing reports from coaches lately but apparently he hit a speed-bump this week.
Well so what, you say? Everyone has a bad day. Just because Walsh missed three field goals in one session, that doesn’t mean he’s going to shank a few Thursday night.
Still, you have to believe Walsh is experiencing some bad feelings this week. Seeing those Seahawks uniforms again could trigger an all-out panic attack.
PTSD can be a terrible thing.
In all seriousness, I’m sure Walsh will be spot-on if the Vikings need him to make a big kick Thursday.
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And even if he misses a few it won’t necessarily be because he was thrown off his game by traumatic memories of last year’s bad kick. It could be because he just had another bad day.
Two bad days in one week is not unheard-of in the world of kicking.
Psychologically, I’m sure Blair Walsh is fine. And if he isn’t fine…well, there are other kickers out there.