Arizona’s Rackers takes aim at kicking record

TEMPE, Ariz. – Neil Rackers is a perfectionist.

“I think I get that from my father,” he said. “If you’re going to do it, you might as well do it right. That’s what I was told.”

The Arizona Cardinals’ kicker is one shy of the NFL mark for most field goals in a season but believes it’s a record he should already have broken. After all, he’s missed twice – in 40 attempts.

“The manner in which I missed the two kicks is kind of depressing,” he said after Thursday’s practice.

Rackers made his first 31 field goals this season before missing a 43-yarder against Jacksonville on Nov. 27. He sat out one game with a torn left calf, then came back to make six in a row before his 54-yard attempt went awry Sunday against Philadelphia.

The first he failed to drive hard enough through a stiff wind, the other he failed to aim for the right upright as he should have.

“If I do those two things, I make them both,” he said.

Instead, Rackers enters Sunday’s season finale at Indianapolis needing one field goal to tie the record and two to break it. The odds would seem to be on his side. He has kicked at least two field goals in 13 of the 14 games in which he’s played this season.

The record of 39 was set by Olindo Mare of the Miami Dolphins in 1999 and tied by Jeff Wilkins of the St. Louis Rams in 2003. Mare missed seven and Wilkins three in their record seasons.

Rackers insists he is not thinking about breaking the mark.

“If we score seven touchdowns and win the ball game, I’ll be ecstatic,” he said. “That’s seven PATs.”

Arizona’s inability to score touchdowns has been a major factor in Rackers’ run at the record.

“We have more first downs than most teams,” Arizona coach Dennis Green said. “We have moved the ball to a certain extent. We have not scored touchdowns to a certain extent.”

When the drives have stalled, the three points have been nearly automatic.

Rackers is 6 for 6 from 50 yards and beyond, 12 for 13 from 40 to 49 yards and 20 for 20 from 20 to 39 yards. The performance earned Rackers a Pro Bowl berth and a four-year contract extension.

“I think he’s going to kick that way every year,” Green said. “I mean, he has a strong leg. He has a very good mental approach to the game. Hopefully, we’ll be a lot better team and he’ll have a lot fewer opportunities, but I think he’ll be successful when he kicks.”

Rackers gives much of the credit to holder Scott Player and long snapper Nathan Hodel. Hodel was Rackers’ snapper in college at Illinois, too.

Player said Hodel “puts the ball laces in the front I’d say 99 percent of the time. I just have to put the ball on the ground. He makes my job pretty easy. … Nathan will play as long as he wants to play. He’s that good.”

Green’s only criticism of Rackers is that the kicker tries to mix it up too much on kickoffs, going after the ball carrier rather than playing it safe to live to kick another day.

“I don’t think you can change that. That’s part of his personality type,” Green said. “He’s kind of a fun-loving guy. He takes affront if someone is trying to take it to the house on him. He just has to be careful with that because the more you get in there, the more you become kind of a target for one of those big guys.”

Any interview with Rackers inevitably goes back to the subject of Cincinnati, the team that dumped him after the 2003 campaign. That experience makes success all the sweeter, he said.

“Obviously when things go horribly wrong at the beginning of your career, it’s nice to know first of all that you’re able to fix it and second of all than an organization gave you the opportunity to fix it,” Rackers said.

So if he doesn’t get one or two more field goals on Sunday, Rackers said it won’t bother him.

“Nope,” Rackers said. “I’d have no regrets about this year, other than the two I just told you about – the 54-yarder and the 43-yarder.”