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The Detroit Lions' kicking competition continued on Thursday with the team in full pads. Unlike the first two times we got word on how David Akers and Havard Rugland did, neither kicker was perfect on his field goals on Thursday. Actually, there were a few misses, and one kick was blocked.
Akers, according to Mike Mady, went 3-for-4 on his field goal attempts. He actually made a kick from 50 yards out, but he missed one from 47 yards.
Rugland only went 2-for-4 on Thursday. One of his kicks, according to Justin Rogers, was blocked, and another one was "low and wide" from 50 yards out.
Considering the sample size is so small and this is merely practice, there's not really much that can be taken away from what happened on Thursday. Akers and Rugland have performed pretty well so far in training camp, so a missed kick here or there isn't really going to change the competition for the starting kicker job.
As we've been saying all along, the first true test, especially for Rugland, will be when the preseason begins and field goals are attempted in live games. It'll be a different experience than lining up and kicking field goals in practice. If missed kicks start to pile up in preseason games, then it may be time to jump to some conclusions.