Falcons’ Elam has a ‘frustrating day’

By KEN SUGIURA

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Jason Elam left it in the bullpen on Sunday.

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Curtis Compton, ccompton@ajc.com Jason Elam’s PAT miss was just his fourth in 648 career attempts.

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After what he said was his best practice week of the preseason and a good pre-game warm-up, the Falcons kicker had one of the worst days of his 17-year career. Seven points went missing.

“I’m really happy for our team and that we got the win but, yeah, that was a very frustrating day,” said Elam, who missed two of his four field-goal tries and an extra-point attempt.

Elam missed wide right from 42 yards on the opening drive of the game, was wide left on a point-after try in the third quarter and then hit the left upright from 38 yards in the fourth quarter. He said he will study game film first thing Monday morning to pinpoint the flaw in his technique.

Elam’s PAT miss was just his fourth in 648 career attempts. Elam, who made a 50-yarder on his last kick of the day, wound up missing as many field goals Sunday as he did all last season. He has never missed more than two field goals in any of his 253 career games.

A three-time Pro Bowler from Brookwood High, Elam was booed after his second field goal miss.

“I wasn’t getting my job done and so I probably would have booed me, too,” Elam said. “I don’t blame [the fans] at all.”

After that kick, which bounced back onto the field after banging into the upright, Elam and holder Michael Koenen stared at goalposts, incredulous.

“That’s exactly what I was thinking: ‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’ ” Elam said. “There’s not much you can say.”