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Indianapolis Colts (8-4) at Cincinnati Bengals (8-4), 1 p.m. Sunday, Ch. 7, 12, 700-AM, 1530-AM, 102.7-FM, 104.7-FM
Punters don’t often show up on a team’s injury report, but there was the Cincinnati Bengals’ Kevin Huber on Wednesday, listed as “Did not practice” with a left ankle injury.
But a little rest was all the left-footed Huber needed to be ready to go Sunday in San Diego, where his first punt traveled 75 yards to tie the franchise record set by Kyle Larson in 2005.
Huber, who uncorked three other punts of 56, 53 and 38 yards to finish the day with a 55.5-yard average, also made his way into the record book last year with team records for longest gross average (46.6) and longest net average (42.0).
The Cincinnati native and University of Cincinnati graduate talked about his big day in San Diego and his overall development for this week’s Cincinnati Bengals High Five:
Could you tell that 75-yard punt was going to be a long one when it left your foot?
It actually wasn’t that great of a punt. The direction wasn’t that great. It was right down the hash and it was low. Luckily the returner misjudged it and it carried on a little bit more than he expected. He had to run late and wasn’t able to get to it. Dre (Kirkpatrick) made a great play getting down there. He had to run a long way. To save the ball from the end zone (at the 4-yard line), he did a great job on that. I was happy with the rest of the punts, more so than that one. Overall there were some pretty accurate hits. It’s always nice to play in 75-degree weather and no wind.
Did you kick at all last week leading up to the game?
Yeah, I kicked last week. I kicked a bunch on Thursday. Thursday was actually the best day we had weather wise. It was like 32, 33, but there was no wind and it was sunny out, so it felt warmer than it was. In 75 degree weather, that ball’s going to go farther. It doesn’t feel great kicking a cold ball and your foot’s cold and everything’s cold. But it’s something I’m used to. I guess that one’s of the benefits of growing up here and punting in this weather for a long time. I’ve learned how to deal with it. You just have to have the mindset that you can’t worry about the weather.
Is punting almost like driving a golf ball, where you can’t just let it rip and go for length every time?
I want to have the best punt possible to give the opposing offense the worst field position possible, knowing our defense is that good and will hold them. If that means it’s the end of the half, put the ball out of bounds and if it’s only 40 yards, it’s 40 yards. I don’t want to put the ball in the middle of the field and give them any kind of chance.
Situational punting is a lot bigger focus for me this year. In the past if I had a bad hit, I was like ‘I need to make up for that hit’ instead of just forgetting about it and thinking about the next punt. That’s how sometimes I got in my ruts, where I’d have a bad punt and I’d feel like I had to make up for it. That almost made me steamroll and get worse.
What does it mean to you to be setting all these franchise records?
I’m sure down the road they’ll mean something. Right now it’s just about having the best punt possible. I’m sure down the road, if they don’t get beat for awhile, I’ll look back and say ‘Yeah, that was me that did that.’ But right now I’m not really too worried about that.
Does Sunday’s great performance mean you can be like Andrew Whitworth now and take all Wednesdays off?
I asked Darrin (Simmons, the team’s special teams coordinator) about that. I said ‘Hey, Darrin, I took last Wednesday off, what about the rest of the Wednesdays?’ That was a quick shutdown.
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