Vinatieri still getting his kicks

His 52-yarder sinks old team

INDIANAPOLIS - As the years have gone by - Adam Vinatieri has not been a Patriot since the 2005 season - there has developed a general feeling that the best kicker the Patriots ever had isn't quite what he used to be, especially as the length of attempted field goals increases.

Not all share that opinion.

"He's longer than he used to be," stated Hunter Smith, his holder for the Colts.

Smith's point was proven dramatically when Vinatieri boomed a 52-yarder in the fourth quarter that provided the Colts with the winning points in an 18-15 victory over the Patriots last night.

Vinatieri, of course, had two Super-Bowl winning kicks for the Patriots. But after the 2005 season, he signed with the Colts as a free agent and the Patriots moved on with Stephen Gostkowski. Vinatieri continued his magical postseason career, making three field goals as the Colts beat the Bears in the Super Bowl following the 2006 season.

Still, he's been in the league for 13 years and there does exist a school of thought that he doesn't have the range he once had. In fact, he hadn't made a field goal of 50 yards or longer in the regular season since 2002.

"Really?" said Vinatieri, sounding surprised. "Well, it's nice to know I still have some lead left in the pencil."

With the game tied, 15-15, the Colts moved from their 18-yard line to the Patriots' 37, but then faced a fourth-and-7 from the 34. It was either play the position game with a short punt or let Vinatieri try a 52-yarder. But the Patriots had put together four time-consuming drives.

There was no hesitation on the sideline, according to Vinatieri and Smith.

"There's a right time and a wrong time to try ones that long and this was clearly the right time," said Vinatieri. "Both Steven and I were hitting them from 55 yards out during warmups. We were booming the ball out there."

"I hit it pretty well; it definitely left my foot feeling pretty good."

In fact, it cleared the goal post easily.

"Truth be told, it would have been good from 15 yards further," said Smith, who also noted that the snap and hold went perfectly.

There may be some future 50-plus-yarders in Vinatieri's future because the new Lucas Oil Stadium seems to be kicker friendly. Besides Vinatieri's field goal, the Patriots' Chris Hanson had a 64-yard punt and Smith averaged 54.3 yards from three punts.

The roof was open in the stadium last night but the 244-feet wide and 88-feet tall window was closed on the North end of the stadium. The window was at Vinatieri's back when he kicked the winning field goal. He didn't think the window had any effect on the kick.

The Patriots never said that Vinatieri's best days were behind him when he left for Indianapolis and Vinatieri expresses no outward bitterness toward his old team.

"We just needed a victory," he said. "We need to get back on the winning side. We had two straight losses and we needed to find a way to get a win. You couldn't call it a must win but it sure was important."

The Colts are now 4-4 and the Patriots are 5-3. Both teams are used to being playoff locks but they might have to make the playoffs as a wild card this season. That's especially true of the Colts, who trail undefeated Tennessee by four games in the AFC South.

"Even without Tom [Brady] out there, they still have a great team," said Vinatieri of the Patriots. "[Matt] Cassel manages the team very well."

Joe Sullivan can be reached at jtsullivan@globe.com.