Buehler wins and aims to keep Cowboys' FG job

Sep 9, 2010 - 7:57 AM By JAIME ARON AP Pro Football Writer

IRVING, Texas (AP) -- David Buehler's first milestone in his conversion from the Dallas Cowboys' kickoff specialist to all-around kicker was regularly making field goals under the simulated pressure of practice.

Still, it was just practice.

Then Buehler showed he could make field goals in games, nailing 10 of 11 attempts in the preseason, including a 51-yarder and a game-winner as time expired.

Still, it was just preseason.

Starting Sunday night in Washington, there will be no disclaimers. The job is his.

The new challenge is to keep it.

"I've got to stay composed," he said. "I can't get too anxious or too hyped up. ... I know what to expect on Sundays. It does help going through what I've already been through. I know what to expect playing on this field. I'm resorting back to what I know, just getting back in my routine."

Buehler certainly has the leg to be an NFL kicker, booming 29 touchbacks last season, tops in the league and the most since the franchise started keeping track of that in 1991. It also justified the Cowboys spending a fifth-round draft pick on someone fitting such a narrow role.

As a rookie last year, Buehler was told to concentrate strictly on kickoffs. Although he'd also kicked field goals at Southern California, Dallas was content to stick with Nick Folk. Then Folk got off track and Dallas was stuck. Buehler was too rusty.

Asking him to kick with precision and accuracy late in the season was like asking a golfer who's been doing nothing but long-drive competitions to take over putting and chipping, or expecting a home run derby champion to lay down a bunt. It requires a totally different kind of swing, totally different thought process.

This offseason, the Cowboys told Buehler to refine his field goal technique and got him some help: Chris Boniol, the kicker on their 1995 Super Bowl championship club who runs a kicking camp and has made a training video.

Buehler needed a lot of work because he'd never been a field-goal specialist. Kickoffs were his main thing even in college. That's what got him on the squad at USC. Further proof of him being a nontraditional kicker: he also practiced at safety and fullback.

Still built thick and strong like a fullback, Buehler was intent on becoming a well-rounded kicker.

He followed Boniol's advice about standing more upright, watching the holder's spot instead of the flight of the snap and eliminating a jab step at the start of his approach. He embraced the simple theory that the less he moves, the less chance there is of something going wrong.

"He's been through all these situations," Buehler said of Boniol. "I'm trying to be a sponge, pick everything up and pick his brain."

He'll get to keep picking, too. Boniol's consulting contract has been extended into the season. It's cheaper than carrying another kicker and it doesn't cost the Cowboys a roster spot. Besides, there's likely to be a time when his expertise is needed.

That's just the way it is with kickers.

Folk made the Pro Bowl as a rookie in 2007 and was easily as good in '08. After offseason hip surgery last year, he missed 10 field goal attempts in 14 games, yet insisted he was healthy. He had an excruciating streak of six straight games with a miss; Dallas went 3-3 during that span. The Cowboys stuck with him so long because he was young and had a great track record, and because they had no alternative. They finally gave up once the playoffs were in sight.

Buehler, who last year challenged a defensive back to a foot race in training camp - and won - has now spent a year in the NFL and seen a struggling kicker up close. He's learned from someone else's mistakes and become serious about his job. Just to be clear, he's still loosey-goosey - like joking about taking on former UFC champion Chuck Liddell the day he visited training camp. But his body of work this preseason shows he can be an NFL kicker, or at least deserves a shot.

"I have confidence in all my teammates that they are going to go out there and do their jobs, so I want them to do the same, I want them to have confidence in me," Buehler said. "I wanted to win this job surely, and that's what I think I did.

"I'm still here, so something worked."