The San Francisco 49ers ugly loss to the Denver Broncos was filled with a variety of cringe-worthy moments. One of the more random of these moments was Phil Dawson missing a pair of field goals. He missed a 55-yard field goal in the first quarter, and then a 44-yard field goal in the second quarter. The Denver Broncos had a pair of successful field goals, but it is worth noting that one was 22 yards, and one was 26 yards.
Naturally, this meant that the first player availability of the week would result in media talking with Dawson about his performance. Here are the stories that were published following the Q&A
Cohn transcript
Matt Barrows
Chris Biderman
Eric Branch
Matt Maiocco
Dawson reportedly was looking good in his pre-game work, but then according to Dawson, the wind took a bit of a turn around 1 p.m. He acknowledged it will take time getting used to the changes, but with one more preseason game, and a couple weeks of practices, he has some time to get ready when the 49ers hold their regular season home opener Week 2 against the Chicago Bears.
Dawson will be conducting more practices at 1 p.m. to better acclimate himself to wind patterns at the time when the 49ers are most frequently playing at the stadium. While a lot of this is physical, I imagine that kickers deal with a lot of the mental side as well. There are important mental attributes to every position, but given how infrequently a kicker is out there kicking field goals, it is easy for the last miss to stick in your head. The 49ers will be back at home this weekend against the San Diego Chargers, so hopefully Dawson is able to get back and take care of business.