NFL

Giants kicker Tynes says he isn’t in slump

NOT AGAIN: Lawrence Tynes (9) walks off the field after missing a field goal Sunday in Atlanta, his third miss in as many games. (Getty Images)

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Lawrence Tynes is not in a slump.

That’s the thought-process of the Giants’ kicker, who, after a torrid start to the season, has missed a field goal in each of the past three games, including what appeared to be a chip-shot 30-yarder last week inside the kicker-friendly Georgia Dome.

“I think I made like 18 out of 19 at pregame,’’ Tynes said yesterday. “If you’re in a slump you’re probably not kicking real well at all during the week or at practice, so I feel like we are doing that. I just feel like maybe our game tempo is a little off. I think we’ve fixed that earlier this week, and [yesterday] at practice we did some team stuff, so you just got to be positive moving forward. You can’t really dwell on the past.’’

The kicking operation — snap, hold, kick — has not been as crisp as it was when Tynes was in a groove, hitting 29 of his 32 field goal tries. He still leads the NFL with 33 made field goals.

“We thought his timing wasn’t very good the other day on the one that we missed, but it’s the time of the year we can’t afford any misses,’’ coach Tom Coughlin said.

Tynes’ miss came with the Giants trailing 7-0 in an eventual 34-0 loss to the Falcons. A timing issue indicates the operation with Zak DeOssie snapping and Steve Weatherford holding was not smooth.

“I’m not going to sit here and point fingers,’’ Tynes said. “I missed the kick. We got a little sloppy with what we’re doing, so it [is] kind of the peaks and valleys of a season. We had 13 good games and the last two have not been up to par to what we expect out of ourselves and us as a unit. It stinks that we missed, and we just got to move on.’’

Tynes, a nine-year veteran, said he believes one of his strengths is his ability to shake off a bad kick and move on, which he will attempt to do Sunday in Baltimore.

“I’ve done that very, very well in my career,’’ he said. “I think I’ve missed two kicks three times in my career and I’ve played over 120 games, so you just got to look at it for what it is and kind of just move on. I think I do a good job of that. You get [ticked] off a little bit, but you just got to move on.’’