Kansas City, Mo. ? When Dick Vermeil gets Jason Baker behind closed doors, the wall paint must peel.

In public, for all to hear, some of the words the Kansas City coach has been using to describe his punter include “lousy,” “poor” and “not very good.”

Luckily for Baker — who’s also had good days in his first season with the Chiefs — NFL-quality punters are not on sale this season at any of the local department stores.

“If it becomes a week-in and week-out thing next year, we’ve got to get a new punter,” Vermeil said. “I just don’t know where you get one now. I can’t go to Macy’s.”

Baker was given a game ball earlier in the year. But two weeks ago at Cincinnati, in the Chiefs’ only loss, he slumped. One short punt was returned for a touchdown.

At home last week against Oakland, amid vicious swirling winds that would have bedeviled anybody putting foot to ball, he was even worse.

The Chiefs won, 27-24, on Morten Andersen’s last-second field goal. But as they barrel toward the playoffs and a date, they hope, with the Super Bowl, punting inconsistency is a worry.

“We’ve addressed the problem with our punter,” Vermeil said earlier in the week. “We’re going to stay with him and be patient with him — try to pump him up and get him through the two-week period where he has not performed like an NFL punter.

“I’ve thought it out fairly. I’ve discussed it with the people in management, our personnel people, and our coaches. It’s not like you have the opportunity to go out and sign some guy who was just in the Pro Bowl two years ago.”

One reason Vermeil wants to stay with his punter is what he sees in practice. Day after day, free of game pressure, Baker booms them.

Then he looks good in pregame warmups. Then, of late, he seems to lose leg power under the glare of the spotlight. When the game starts, he loses his touch.

It’s like a golfer whose hands tremble over a 3-foot putt.

“I just think the best thing to do is recognize this guy’s talent and see if we can’t get him to punt his way through it,” Vermeil said. “The big thing is just gaining maturity and punting under pressure.”

Baker’s recent slump has dropped his average to 39.2 yards, nearly the bottom of the charts. In fact, there are only two AFC punters whose average is worse. And one of them is Dan Stryzinski of the New York Jets — whom Vermeil fired at the end of last season.

Vermeil also is encouraged by the poor circumstances in which Baker has had to punt in the last two weeks. But this week’s game in San Diego ought to be played in ideal weather.

“We’ve had two games where I’ve personally struggled with a couple of things,” said Baker, who’s not ready to accept Vermeil’s premise that he suffers under game-day pressure.

Nevertheless, it’s not good to anger the boss.

“The last two weeks the weather hasn’t been conducive for a punter. Maybe this week will be better,” Vermeil said.