but barefoot isn't

ksdsoft18h21

Last Sunday, the stakes were slightly higher. On a day when he'd missed a 47-yarder and connected from 47 and 43 yards, the Texans put their hopes on his shoulders.
OK, never mind. The Houston Chronicle strives to be a family newspaper. Back to the action.
"Normally, to break in a shoe, I wear it in the hot tub and walk around in it for a bit," [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] said. "I've got Flintstone feet, and the leather needs to stretch out a little bit. It had a different feel to it, but you do this enough, and you just go out and kick the ball."
Twenty years from now, they'll sit around the campfire and laugh about the day the kicker's shoe came apart moments before he was to attempt the game-winning field goal.
During further review
Not his first foot fault
[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]: "I need a shoe."
Truth be told, Gary Kubiak would have been surprised at everything that was going on behind him.
As you might recall, the Texans have an unpleasant recent history when it comes to late-game field-goal attempts. Last season, Kris Brown missed kicks that would have forced overtime against the Colts and Titans, and those misses are why [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] was signed in the first place.
Now they were positioned to win one of those special games, one that just might have some carryover in terms of confidence and resilience and all those other things coaches love.
Commentary
Game-winning kick almost a shoeless try
By RICHARD JUSTICE
Copyright 2010 Houston Chronicle
Sept. 22, 2010, 9:59PM
Marciano: "Hey, we're going to kick it on third down. What hash mark do you want (the ball on)?"
Talk about bad timing. The Texans had clawed and scratched their way from 17 points down to force overtime on an amazing Matt Schaub-to-Andre Johnson touchdown pass.
Like I said, there will come a time when the whole thing is knee-slapping funny. For now, it was a lesson learned.
"I know one thing," Marciano said, "I wasn't going to go tell the head coach."
"Hopefully," Marciano said, "he has to have another shoe out there with him (on game days)."
"(Snell) should be a track star," [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] said. "He was flying. There was a little adrenaline."
Now,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], in his first big moment for his new team, he'd suffered the ultimate wardrobe malfunction.
"You can't print my reaction," Marciano said.
[link widoczny dla zalogowanych] had the same thing happen in warmups once before while playing for the Cardinals. His shoe flew apart, and he kicked his snapper, Nathan Hodel, in the back of the head.
"I should have made the first kick," [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] said. "We shouldn't have been in that situation. Bernard Pollard got a nice thank-you from me for blocking their field goal and giving me the opportunity. I told him a starter on defense doesn't always go as hard as he does on special teams."
"That was going to be an option if the shoe wasn't out there," [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] said. "I would have given it a shot. It would have been better than having (the busted) shoe on."
[link widoczny dla zalogowanych]: "I blew my shoe out."
"I was warming up into the net, and my shoe sole started to pull away from the leather," [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] said. "I hit one more ball, and my toe was almost shooting out the side of the shoe."
Snell later joked that if he'd been unable to find the shoe, he would have kept running right out of the stadium and back to Houston.
Marciano: "Come again?"
How about those apples, Joe?

We take you now to the sidelines at FedEx Field last Sunday afternoon. Listen in on a chat between Texans special teams coach Joe Marciano and kicker[link widoczny dla zalogowanych].
Cough. Choke. Gulp.
He didn't say if Pollard laughed, but there will come a time when we'll all be laughing about the day that was and the kick that almost wasn't.
As Joel Dreessen's 28-yard reception was being reviewed, [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] sent assistant equipment man Chris Snell sprinting for the locker room to retrieve a backup shoe.
Snell found the shoe and hustled back to the sideline, and [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] got it on in time to kick a 35-yarder for a 30-27 overtime victory.
This is when the Texans benefited from instant replay, and who says karma isn't turning around? The Texans have been bitten by instant replay enough times that it was time they caught a break from it.
There are a few different ways to kick game-winning field goals, but barefoot isn't [link widoczny dla zalogowanych]' favorite.