This time he was kicking himself.
He stood at his locker, surrounded by TV cameras, microphones, reporters notebooks and non-stop interrogation. He didn’t duck a question and he didn’t spare himself.
“I did a very poor job today,” Nugent said quietly. “If I did what I was brought in here to do, we’d have two less losses this year, in my opinion.
“If I’m lucky enough to be back, I have be able to do my best and make sure I connect when the time comes.”
Whoa!!!
Lucky enough to be back?
Did the Centerville High School and Ohio State product think his performance Sunday would cost him his roster spot on the team of which he’s not only been a kicking cornerstone for most of seven seasons, but one that’s been in his heart since he was a little boy.
By the time he was 4 years old, he had a Bengals uniform which he wore when he came with his family to games at old Riverfront Stadium.
Cincinnati was the pro team he dreamed of one day being a part of and that happened in 2010, when the Bengals picked him up after he’d had stints with three other teams – four years with the New York Jets, four games with Tampa Bay, two more games with Arizona – and then unsuccessful tryouts with a half dozen other teams.
After that he had retreated – unemployed – back to Columbus to watch NFL games from his apartment couch .
When he joined the Bengals, he made an immediate splash – making his first nine field goal attempts – and was on his way to a superb year when an ACL tear sidelined him in mid-November.
Since then he has set several team kicking records and has made eight game-winning kicks in the final two minutes or overtime,
But then came the game against Washington three weeks ago in London. He missed an extra point and then a field goal in overtime for the win. The game ended up a 27-27 tie.
And then Sunday he missed the two extra point attempts he had in the first half, both of which caromed off the right upright.
In the bye week after the Washington loss, the Bengals brought in three other kickers and tried them out. One — Kai Forbath — went on to sign with the Minnesota Vikings and the Bengals passed on the other two.
But the message was clear. The team was concerned about the position. That’s what prompted Nugent to say “if I’m lucky enough to be back.”
Pressed on the thought, he explained:
“I don’t worry. It’s just the nature of the game. I’ve been cut before. Hopefully, it never happens again. But it’s one of those things where it’s not a decision of mine. I’m gonna work as hard as I can to improve.
“But at the end of the day I look at two losses on the record and I think if I was kicking better, we’d have two less losses.”
Before the game was even over, people were calling for his head.
The Bengals fan website Stripe Hype ran an entry with the headline: “The Loss Means Mike Nugent Needs To Go.”
And after Nugent missed his second PAT with 3:10 left in the half – leaving the Bengals ahead, 12-10 – many in the crowd booed him as he trotted toward the sidelines.
That’s when Bengals veteran cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones left the sidelines and came out to meet him. He leaned his head in close and talked earnestly with the rattled kicker for a few seconds.
What was said?
“I’ll leave that between me and him,” Nugent said. “It was just pure support. We’ve been teammates so long now. He was just being on my side.”
Later, across the locker room, Jones – in the most profane of terms – wasn’t shy about what he had said and thought at that moment:
“I told him to keep his head up. The (expletive) crowd is so (expletive) unfair, man! To boo a man in the middle of the game…
“(Expletive) when we’re in the middle of an (expletive) game and the crowd boos. (Expletive) like that — (expletive) it just don’t make sense!
“And you need to put that right in the middle of your (expletive-expletive) newspaper.”
But Pacman, how do you really feel?
As it turned out, before the NFL even got to its late games, kickers already had set a league record for futility. Eleven extra points had been missed by nine kickers in the early Week 11 games. The old record — set in 1985 — had been 10.
Sunday the New York Giants Robbie Gould missed two extra points, as well. So did Forbath in his first week with the Vikings.
Coming into Sunday’s games, NFL kickers already had missed 36 extra points this season and many people attribute that to the fact that the PATs had been moved back in 2015 to the equivalent of a 33-yard field goal.
In 2014, only eight extra points were missed by kickers in the league all season.
As for Nugent, prior to this season he had made 321 or 326 attempts. He’d never missed two point after attempts in a season, much less a game.
He said a 33 yarder still should be an almost sure shot.
When they aren’t – especially in a disappointing Bengals season like this 3-6-1 campaign – everything is amplified.
Add in the fact that the Bengals lost A.J. Green on the second play of the game with a hamstring injury that may well end his season, and no one was in an embracing mood afterward.
While the Bengals trail both Baltimore and Pittsburgh by 1 1/2 games in the AFC North and have a remote chance to catch them, the loss of Green dooms much of that hope and a chance at the playoffs.
Even with all the bad luck and poor play, the Bengals had a chance when they got the ball back at their 15 yard line with 2:30 left.
They managed to drove to the Bills 27-yard line, but a final Andy Dalton toss into the end zone was batted away.
“The game should have been 16-14 at that point and we could have won it with a not very long field go rather than needing a touchdown,” Nugent said. “That’s what’s so tough to take.”
But as Nugent kicked himself afterward, others in the dressing room did what they could to make sure he missed them, too.
“That first miss was on me,” said long snapper Clark Harris. “I gave him a terrible snap. It was high and fast. It was just awful.
“I told him that and now its just letting him do what he’s got to do. He’ll get it right tomorrow and we’ll be good the rest of the year.”
Standing next to him, Nugent wasn’t fully sure how many tomorrows there would be.
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