Dave Birkett

Detroit Free Press

When the Baltimore Ravens were driving for the game-winning field goal last year in a Monday night game against the Detroit Lions, then-Ravens offensive coordinator Jim Caldwell knew he needed to get just across midfield to give his kicker a chance.

On third-and-10 at the Lions' 45, Caldwell called a shotgun dive that gained 2 yards, and without hesitation Ravens coach John Harbaugh sent Justin Tucker onto the field.

Tucker drained a 61-yard kick, and Baltimore celebrated a win.

Now the Lions coach, Caldwell hasn't had the same luxury with his team's offensive play calling this year.

Nate Freese missed all four of his kicks from beyond 40 yards before he was cut last month, and Alex Henery went 0-for-3 in Sunday's 17-14 loss to the Buffalo Bills.

With the Lions at their own 33 and in position for the potential game-tying field goal with 35 seconds left Sunday, they called a bubble screen to Golden Tate with an eye on a safe but big play.

Put simply, they didn't want the game to come down to Henery's foot, at least not from 50 yards away.

The Bills stopped Tate for a 1-yard gain after tipping the pass at the line of scrimmage, and Henery, who was cut by the Lions on Monday, missed his kick wide and to the left.

Buffalo completed a 20-yard pass on the next play from scrimmage and won on Dan Carpenter's 58-yard field goal.

Caldwell said Monday he's fortunate to have been surrounded by pretty good kickers most of his NFL career. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers had Martin Gramatica when Caldwell first got to the league. Mike Vanderjagt manned the position for the Indianapolis Colts when Caldwell got there and later Adam Vinatieri. And for the last two years in Baltimore, Tucker had the job.

"So the thing is," Caldwell said Monday, "there's somebody out there for us that'll do the job for us. We just got to see if we can track him down quickly."

The Lions are bringing veterans Matt Prater, Jay Feely and Connor Barth in for a winner-take-all workout Tuesday as they try to bring some stability to their NFL-worst kicking game.

Freese and Henery combined to make just 4 of 12 kicks in the Lions' first five games, and they missed 8 of 9 attempts from beyond 40 yards.

"We got to find a performer, that's basically what we have to get done in that area," Caldwell said. "We've got to get a guy who's consistent under pressure and be able to put us points on the board. In this league there's going to be close games, guys in that position's going to decide a number of games and we've got to make certain we get the right guy for us."

In Prater, Feely and Barth, the Lions are auditioning three players with a wealth of NFL experience, a sharp contrast to the group of kickers they've trotted out so far.

Feely, a former Michigan kicker, has played 13 NFL seasons for five teams. He was released by the Arizona Cardinals at the end of the preseason, and tweeted Sunday that he was waiting for the Lions to give him a call.

Prater, who was released by the Denver Broncos last week, was reinstated Monday from a four-game suspension for violating the league's substance-abuse policy.

Prater made 25 of 26 field goals for the Broncos last year and set an NFL record with a 64-yard kick. He originally signed with the Lions as an undrafted free agent in 2006.

Barth last kicked in a regular-season game in 2012, when he made 28 of 33 field goals for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He missed last year with a torn Achilles tendon and was cut in August.

Freese, the team's seventh-round pick out of Boston College, edged Giorgio Tavecchio for the job in training camp, while Henery played just three years for the Philadelphia Eagles before being released in August.

Tavecchio, who was more consistent than Freese in camp, has never kicked in a regular-season game and the Lions did not call him back for Tuesday's workout or the one they held last month.

Caldwell couldn't pinpoint why the Lions (3-2) have struggled to identify kickers recently — they were unhappy with veteran David Akers after they low-balled Jason Hanson into retirement last year — and he wouldn't speculate Monday how their season would be different without their kicking problems.

"I'm not a real big guy when it comes to what ifs and theoretical sort of thought process," Caldwell said. "I'm not one that delves into a lot of philosophical platitudes. I deal with the facts. We are where we are. And it oftentimes, we could have made even the games that we lost a little bit different games if we'd executed in other areas better. But the fact of the matter is we're not going to make any excuses for where we are and we just got to get better, and we just got to win. That's the key and we haven't done that."

Highlights from Jim Caldwell's news conference

On whether the season would look different if kicking problems didn't exist: "You know what? I'm not a real big guy when it comes to what ifs and theoretical sort of thought process. I'm not one that delves in a lot of philosophical platitudes. I deal with the facts. We are where we are and often times we could have made even the games that we lost a little bit different games if we executed in other areas better."

On why Matthew Stafford hasn't been able to stretch the field effectively in the team's two losses: "You can focus in on those two losses. I would like to focus in on this last game.… I think he's been pretty good in those three wins, and I think there's more wins to come. I think he'll do what he has to do, but like I said, that's the thing about the quarterback position, they get too much credit when we win, they get too much blame when we lose. It's not all his fault and it's a team game and I expect some of the other guys to pick up the pace as well."

On Bills cornerback Stephon Gilmore's comments criticizing Stafford: "I tend not to want to comment on some comment that someone makes in that regard. All you have to do is kind of look at the Jets game and I think you could probably figure out fairly well the response for yourself."

On whether Stafford and Reggie Bush haven't been on the same page in the passing game: "I think there was probably a number of different things that probably weren't just right in tune the way we'd like them. That's what I think you saw, just in terms of our inefficiency in those areas in terms of putting points on the board."

On why the Lions had a hard time matching the tempo of the Bills' defensive line: "You're talking about twists and things of that nature. That's how defenses devise them. They're devised not to come at the same time so that they force you to try and get you on different levels. That's what it's about."

On the trust level with tight end Eric Ebron: "We feel good about Eric. We think he's making good progress. It may not show up in the numbers, targets and things of that nature that one would like to see but, nevertheless, I think you're going to see him continue to get better."

Contact Dave Birkett: dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.