Gramatica Goes From Automatica To Erratica Katherine Smith, The Tampa Tribune, published 29 November 2004 Jon Gruden once likened Martin Gramatica to Giants slugger Barry Bonds. ``He's going to hit it through the uprights,'' Gruden said at one time. Gruden stopped using such comparisons a long time ago. What began as a major struggle for consistency last year has turned into a full-fledged slump this season as Gramatica missed three field-goal attempts in the Bucs' 21-14 loss to Carolina on Sunday. Gramatica has missed eight kicks this season, which is approaching last year's career- high 10 misses. He declined to comment after the game. ``There's certain things in the game of football that should be second nature and they're not happening for us,'' Joe Jurevicius said. ``And quite frankly, it's screwing up our season.'' So far this season, four of Gramatica's eight misses have been in the 40- to 49-yard range and three in the 30- to 39-yard range. His 26-yard miss Sunday was the first of less than 30 yards since the 2002 season. Gramatica has not made a field goal of longer then 22 yards since the Oct. 10 game at New Orleans. Carolina punter Todd Sauerbrun, one of Gramatica's most vocal critics, took pleasure in the Bucs kicker's suffering. ``He might even be lucky to have a job tomorrow,`` Sauerbrun said. ``I don't feel bad for him. I'm not going to get into this Gramatica thing, [but] I'm glad he missed as many as he did.`` As for Gramatica's future with the team, special teams coach Richard Bisaccia said the next step is to review the game tape as a staff and ``fix our mistakes. We've been here before, unfortunately,'' Bisaccia said. ``So we'll look at it tomorrow, fix our problems and meet as a staff and go from there.'' Two years ago in Charlotte, Gramatica kicked four field goals to give the Bucs a 12-9 victory. Sunday, his three misses cost them the game. Gramatica pulled his first try left. Carolina defensive end Julius Peppers blocked the 26- yard attempt, which came out low. Gramatica had a chance to put the Bucs ahead 17-14 with a 37-yard field goal and 1:48 remaining in the game. Following a shaky snap, it was wide left also. ``We were talking on the sidelines,'' Carolina quarterback Jake Delhomme said. ``We assumed they were going to make it.'' That used to be a good assumption with Gramatica. Before last season, when he had a career-worst 61.5 success rate, Gramatica converted at least 79 percent of his field goals and had a career-best 84.4 percent his rookie season. Following the 2000 season, when he missed only six kicks and made five field goals of 50 or more yards, Gramatica earned his only Pro Bowl selection. ``It's no different to me than a quarterback,'' Bisaccia said. ``When he gets a chance to touch the ball, at those times he's got to make plays, be successful. He's extremely criticized and he gets a lot of glory, too. ``Well, when you score 128 points and [have] five field goals over 50 yards, and on and on and on, [Martin] got a lot of glory for that. Right now we're in a little bit of a slump and he's paying his penance for that, too.'' Some of Gramatica's teammates still have faith he can return to his ``Automatica'' form. ``If you've played long enough in this league, you're going to have times when you go through bad spells,'' Brian Griese said. ``He's proven he can kick in this league. All he needs to do is prove it to himself again before he tries to prove to me or anybody else on this team or to any of you guys. If he doesn't prove it to himself, he's not going to get back to where he was.''