Milo Remains Perfect on Field Goals

His job was in question coming into this season, but that only served as motivation for Chris Milo.

The Saskatchewan Roughriders kicker has been perfect to start the season, improving to 21-for-21 on field goal attempt with a five-for-five game last week in the Riders' 30-27 win over the Edmonton Eskimos.

“It was good to have the game that I did and just trying to go one-for-one every time, that's the idea,” he said.  “I just want to help the team out, they're putting me in great positions to be successful and the least I could do is reward them with some points.”

The third-year kicker is now on the longest consecutive field goal streak in the CFL, but he said that's the furthest thing from his mind and he's just focused on putting the ball through the uprights each time he's called upon.

“I'm just trying to make one kick at a time, you don't think about those kinds of records, you think about records when you're done playing,” he said.  “I'm just trying to put up points for the team and this last game they needed me, but in a couple other games I might need them.”

Milo struggled last year, going 11-for-17, before being replaced as place kicker by veteran Sandro DeAngelis at the end of July.  Milo said that was a great wake up call and learning experience for him.

“Having Sandro there, I actually liked having him there because he's a savvy old vet and he's been around it and he's one of the best, if not the best, when percentage is concerned,” Milo explained. 

“I learnt a lot of things last year and sometimes you learn a lot more when you're not doing things or when you're struggling and it certainly paid off.”

Milo put a focus on improving his kicking stroke over the offseason and spent time away from the team working with kicking guru Don Sweet and it's paid off so far this year already.

“He told me to just keep calm and just trust in my swing,” Milo said.  “I've been doing it my whole life and the ball doesn't change, the uprights don't change, the field doesn't change, just go out there and do what I do and kick the ball.”

During last Saturday's game, the Riders had four drives that stalled inside Edmonton territory and in a couple of instances, they had third-and-short to get the first down, but instead decided to kick the field goal.  That move shows the level of confidence that head coach Corey Chamblin has in his kicker right now.

“We're not asking him to kick the long ones, we're asking him to kick the range that we know he can do and have a high percentage of it,” Chamblin explained. 

“He also very confident in his kicking abilities right now,” he added.

Calgary Stampeders kicker Rene Paredes just had his record streak of 39 straight field goals without a miss end last Friday against Toronto.  That leaves Milo 18 field goals away from tying the mark.

The Riders return to the practice field on Wednesday as they start getting ready for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the Labour Day Classic coming up on Sunday.