National Football League

Kicking woes doom Lions in loss to Bills

Published Oct. 5, 2014 6:50 p.m. ET

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DETROIT -- Wanted: A place kicker ... and quickly.

Maybe this is the Curse of Hanson. After all, Jason Hanson ended up retiring before last season, partly because the Detroit Lions offered him only the minimum salary for a player of his experience.

For more than two decades, Hanson gave the Lions nothing but total consistency, but now their kicking game is in shambles.

The problems continued Sunday with Alex Henery missing all three of his field-goal attempts, leading to a 17-14 loss to the Buffalo Bills at Ford Field.

Henery had a chance to make up for his first two misses when he attempted a 50-yarder with the game tied and 26 seconds remaining.

He missed again, wide left, giving the Bills the ball at their 40-yard line.

Buffalo gained 20 yards on a pass play to set up Dan Carpenter's 58-yard winning field goal with four seconds left.

Just like that, a three-point win became a three-point loss. A 4-1 record became 3-2.

"Any time you leave points on the table in this league, obviously, it's bound to come back and haunt you," Lions coach Jim Caldwell said. "There's no lead that's safe and if you can't extend it, you're going to have some problems down the stretch.

"It's a performance-based league, plain and simple. You've got to perform. Anyone who doesn't, we take a look and see if we can improve that one way or another. That's our obligation to our fans, our team, our organization. We'll do just that."

One option could be to pursue Matt Prater, who was released recently by Denver. Prater lost his job with the Broncos while serving a suspension for testing positive for alcohol, which was prohibited following his past DUI arrest.

"I'm not going to comment on anything further at this time," Caldwell said when asked about possibly pursuing Prater.

Thirteen days ago, the Lions released rookie Nate Freese, their seventh-round draft pick, and signed Henery, who had spent the last three years with the Philadelphia Eagles before getting cut late in the preseason.

The Lions are now 4 of 12 on field-goal attempts in five games.

Freese missed four of his seven attempts in the first three games, and Henery has missed four of his five attempts the last two weeks.

Henery hit the right upright from 44 yards Sunday in the third quarter. A few minutes later, he missed again from 47 yards on a horrible mishit that landed short and off to the left.

It only got worse at the end when his miss ultimately led to Carpenter's game-winnter.

Look for this revolving door to continue this coming week with the Lions adding a new kicker as early as Monday morning, or at least by midweek, so he's in place for next Sunday's game at Minnesota.

MEGATRON INJURY

Kicker isn't the Lions' only problem.

The health of receiver Calvin Johnson is also a serious concern at this point.

Johnson caught no passes in the first half and wasn't even targeted. He finally made a 7-yard reception early in the second half but reinjured an ankle that has hampered him the last couple weeks.

He didn't return to the game and has a total of three receptions for 19 yards the past two weeks.

Johnson is a decoy at best right now, not the familiar game-breaker.

"I won't be sure if it's a long-term issue, but he did take a pretty good whack on the side of his leg," Caldwell said. "They'll evaluate him further, probably tomorrow."

Running back Reggie Bush also didn't finish the game because of an ankle injury. The Lions were already without Joique Bell (concussion) and Theo Riddick (hamstring), leaving them in the fourth quarter with George Winn as their top running back.

Winn, a Southfield, Mich., native, was promoted from the practice squad earlier in the week and made his NFL debut. He finished with 48 yards on 11 carries.

"We've got a few guys banged up," Caldwell said. "We've got to lick our wounds and get ourselves back in order."

PROTECTION WOES

An offensive line that was so impressive a year ago is getting exposed often these days.

It was particularly bad against the Bills, who sacked quarterback Matthew Stafford six times.

LaAdrian Waddle, who returned to the starting lineup at right tackle after missing three games with a calf injury, was called for three major penalties.

"We just didn't play well enough up front," offensive guard Rob Sims said. "That's just what happened. They got us on a couple of plays that normally we don't get hit on; we had a couple of penalties. That's not like us, as well.

"All of those things together add up to a really bad game."

The bottom line: You wonder how long the quarterback can stay healthy at the rate he's going down and the hits he's taking.

SCARY MOMENT

Buffalo's Ron Brooks, a cornerback, had to be removed on a stretcher after suffering a neck injury during a frightening collision while covering a punt return in the first quarter.

Brooks got upended by Detroit's Jerome Couplin and landed on top of his head. As he was being carted off, he lifted a couple fingers in the air and motioned to his teammates and the crowd.

Brooks was taken to a hospital for further evaluation.