Kicked around
Rick Stroud, The St.Petersburg Times, published 29 November 2004

First, they wondered if he had lost his confidence. Then they worried he might be responsible for losing games. Soon, we should know whether Martin Gramatica will lose his job. That's the only decision the Bucs have to make after Sunday's 21-14 loss to the Panthers.

Gramatica missed three field goals, including hooking a 37-yarder wide left that would have given the Bucs the lead against Carolina with 1:48 left. But given new life, the Panthers, with no timeouts, needed only five plays to make the Bucs pay. Jake Delhomme led a five-play, 73-yard drive and hit Keary Colbert for a 40-yard touchdown with 20 seconds remaining in a deja vu 21-14 victory. The loss came a year and 19 days after Delhomme, trailing 24-20 with 2:36 left and no timeouts, led Carolina 78 yards in 1:35, capped by a 5-yard touchdown to Steve Smith with 1:06 left for a 27-24 win.

Jon Gruden stopped short of saying if his kicker, who has made just two of his past nine field goals, would be given the boot. "I think it's obvious we struggled, to say the least, there," Gruden said. "And it's easy to point fingers. I'm not going to do that. I'm never going to address how I truly feel sometimes publicly. I don't trust enough people out there; no offense to anyone. But Martin Gramatica is a guy I consider a great talent. Just pick up a media guide. He's won a tremendous amount of games for this franchise. I'm not going to talk about it anymore."

Neither did Gramatica. After the game, he dressed quickly and was one of the first players to leave the locker room. He declined comment. "Not today," Gramatica said.

But there might not be any tomorrows for the player nicknamed "Automatica." A Pro Bowl kicker in 2000, Gramatica is in a slump. He has made 11 of 19 field goals this season and 4 of 11 from 30 or more yards. Sunday, Gramatica hooked his first attempt, a 39-yarder during the first quarter, wide left. His second try, a 26-yarder during the second quarter, was low and blocked by defensive end Julius Peppers.

Finally, after the Bucs tied it at 14 during the fourth quarter, Gramatica lined up for a 37-yarder with 1:53 left after the Panthers took their last timeout. Punter Josh Bidwell did not cleanly catch a high snap from Dave Moore, but he managed to get the ball down in time and turn the laces away from Gramatica before the kick sailed wide left. "He might even be lucky to have a job tomorrow," said Panthers punter Todd Sauerbrun, a longtime antagonist of Gramatica.

Bucs players and coaches were a little more diplomatic, but it's clear they have no confidence in Gramatica. "It didn't necessarily come down to that. But it did. You know?" Simeon Rice said. "Realistically speaking, it did come down to one field goal."

The reasons for sticking with Gramatica are obvious. Before the 2003 season, he made 80 percent of his field goals. He set a team record for field goals (32) and points (128) in 2002 while helping the Bucs to the Super Bowl XXXVII title. Gramatica also signed a seven-year contract worth about $12-million in January 2002, a deal that included a $1.7-million signing bonus. A year later, the team restructured his deal, paying $1.17-million of his salary as a signing bonus.

Releasing him would accelerate his signing bonus and leave the Bucs with about $2-million of dead money on the salary cap for next season. But current and former teammates have long said Gramatica lacks the mental toughness found in most Pro Bowl players. Gramatica's handprints weren't the only ones found on the loss Sunday.

Michael Pittman lost two fumbles, including one at the Panthers 11. And Brian Griese was intercepted by defensive end Julius Peppers, who outraced the quarterback 46 yards for a touchdown to break a 7-7 tie in the third quarter. But Pittman and Griese did enough to atone for their mistakes. Playing with a strained hip flexor, Griese passed for 347 yards and two touchdowns. Both scoring tosses were to Pittman, who finished with a career-high 134 yards on eight catches. "We didn't make enough plays," Griese said. "You can't come on the road and turn the ball over three times, miss three field goals and expect to win."

But for some reason, whenever the Panthers face execution, Gramatica represents the call from the governor just before midnight. In the Bucs' home opener last season, the Panthers blocked two Gramatica field goals and an extra point that would have won it. The Panthers won 12-9 in overtime. "I remember the Carolina games last year. We battled back," Gruden said. "We battled back against Carolina at Raymond James. We battled back time and time again. We battled back a lot. We battled back against Atlanta. I'm tired of battling back."

The first Carolina game sent Gramatica into a spiral. He made just 61.5 percent of his field goals in 2003 and just 6 of 10 during this preseason. Gramatica began the season connecting on 9 of 10 field goals. But he went cold just as quickly, missing a 41-yarder in a win at New Orleans and field goals of 35 and 48 yards in a 28-21 loss at St. Louis. He made a pair of 22-yard field goals in a win against the Bears, then missed a 46-yarder and an extra point versus Kansas City.

Gruden did not use Gramatica for a 45-yard field goal that would have tied the score at Atlanta two weeks ago. Instead, he gambled on fourth and 1 at the Falcons 28, and Pittman was stuffed for a 2-yard loss. Three plays later, Alge Crumpler caught a 49-yard touchdown from Michael Vick, and the Bucs fell 24-14. Sunday, the Bucs faced third and 6 from the Panthers 18. Tampa Bay was 10-of-16 on third downs, and only two conversions came on rushing plays.

But with the Panthers aligned to blitz, Griese audibled to a handoff to Pittman, who lost a yard, putting the game on the toe of Gramatica. "I don't want him scrambling around against a blitz, if you know what I mean, and risk a sack and a fumble," Gruden said. "Carolina is very good at that if you've seen nine turnovers in the last two weeks. You've got a chance to take the lead, kick the ball and make them go the length of the field. And our defense has played extremely well. I'm not going to second-guess that. I know plenty of (the media) will, but that's the way it is. We ran a run and didn't get the first down. They used their last timeout, and I believe we centered the ball for a field goal that we consider we should make. And obviously, it backfired. But you've got to call a game. You've got to coach a game with the assumption that your players, your team, your coaches, are all in it together and we're all going to execute when it's our time."

Now time is running out on the Bucs (4-7) and this season. And they refuse to kick the kicker when he's down. "Guys are upset and disappointed because we were in a position to win the game," Pittman said. "Everybody swore Gramatica was going to make it. I don't know what happened. I don't know if it was a bad snap, a bad kick. I don't know. But we didn't win. We didn't make the kick."