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Home > Blogs > Cincinnati Bengals > Archives > 2009 > October > 07
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
St. Louis in the spotlight for Bengals
At least the Bengals aren’t scratching and clawing for, say, a quarterback.
But there are concerns with long snapper Brad St. Louis. Enough that the Bengals on Tuesday brought in former Arizona long snapper Nathan Hodel for a look.
St. Louis, who has played 142 games with the Bengals, has raised some jitters after making four bad snaps in the first four games, including two in the overtime win against Cleveland on Sunday.
One way to look at it is if long snapper is the team’s biggest concern, then other things are going right. At the same time, long snapper is actually an extremely key position in pro games often decided late by just a few points.
St. Louis, to his credit, patiently answered questions about the snaps against the Browns after the game on Sunday. From the story:
Just the opposite, he was a picture of calm, practically unemotional in his responses.
St. Louis said about all a long snapper can do is to keep his thoughts positive and keep in rhythm by making a lot of practice snaps.
“You want that opportunity (to be a part of the game-winning field goal),” St. Louis said.
If we wanted to be jerks about it, we could send St. Louis a primer on long snapping, which includes instructions about practicing by throwing a ball with both hands and holding it with the dominant hand, laces out.
One of the really interesting aspects of sports is the response to adversity it forces upon the participants. St. Louis has probably faced the most adversity of any player on the team, but the Bengals seem to be keeping him in the long snapper spot, so he’ll likely have more chances against the Ravens on Sunday.
We all know the snaps will be scrutinized.
