The Indianapolis Colts dropped the regular-season opener on Sunday against the Los Angeles Chargers and while there were several issues that led to the loss, kicker Adam Vinatieri shouldered all of the blame.
In what was one of the worst performances of his career, Vinatieri missed two field-goal attempts—one from 46 yards and another from 29 yards—and an extra-point attempt on Sunday.
The loss isn’t all on the 24-year veteran, but he placed all of the blame on himself following the game.
“I had a lousy game,’’ Vinatieri said to reporters. “I sucked.’’
There were a number of plays that led to the Colts’ eventual demise on Sunday. Defensive tackle Denico Autry had a penalty that allowed the Chargers to score a touchdown while poor tackling allowed running back Austin Ekeler to take a screen pass 55 yards to the house.
Vinatieri feels after he missed the first one, he began to overthink his job.
“First one I kicked I thought I made and it just veered off to the right,’’ Vinatieri said. “And then I started probably overthinking and over-analyzing and trying to work through stuff. I wish I could tell you (why). I’ll go check out the film and see why they didn’t go where they were supposed to.’’
The blame can be passed around to just about everyone on both sides of the ball, but Vinatieri felt it was on him.
“It was me, 100 percent,” said Vinatieri.
The Colts will be looking to bounce back in Week 2 against the Tennessee Titans as will Vinatieri after a rough performance to open the season.
