Daniel Carlson can’t be allowed to sabotage the Vikings season

With legitimate aspirations to go to the Super Bowl, the Minnesota Vikings can’t allow Daniel Carlson to completely sabotage their season.

After trailing the Green Bay Packers 20-7 going into the fourth quarter, the Minnesota Vikings rallied to tie the game at 29 and go to overtime. After missed field goals each way, Vikings rookie kicker Daniel Carlson had a center-cut 35-yard attempt to win the game as the extra session expired.

Missed field goals are a prominent part of Vikings’ postseason failure lore (see Gary Anderson and Blair Walsh). A rivalry game against the Packers on the road is not quite on that level, but for a team with Super Bowl aspirations missed kicks to cost games will hurt the Vikings in a loaded NFC.

Carlson missed a 48-yard field goal in the second quarter on Sunday. Astute observers may have noticed how he pulled the opening kickoff, despite it being a harmless touchback. That was a precursor to a far wide-right miss on that field goal attempt, as he tried to play a “draw” that never came. But it was no chip-shot either.

Carlson missed a 49-yard field goal earlier in overtime, also wide-right and also obviously no chip-shot. But a 35-yarder is practically an extra point by distance, and an NFL kicker should not miss it.

Even allowing for Carlson being a rookie kicker in a tough road environment and in a pressure situation, the Vikings can’t let a kicker of any experience clearly shrink in big moments with a game on the line. Head coach Mike Zimmer is surely stewing at the idea an “idiot kicker” (h/t to Peyton Manning) has already cost the team a win this season.

General manager Rick Spielman traded up to get Carlson in April’s draft, for some reason. Kai Forbath may have been ripe to be replaced, after missing five extra points last year. But over 23 games with the Vikings (in 2016 and 2017), he made 88.7 percent of his field goals (47-for-53) with three of those misses from 50-plus yards out. For his career, Forbath is a 85.9 percent field goal kicker.

There’s no way to know if Forbath would have been any better than Carlson on Sunday. But replacing a capable veteran kicker with a rookie, and one who is right out of the prior mold that was used with Walsh, has now been proven to be a gross miscalculation. Zimmer is surely already ready to go into Spielman’s office on Monday morning and have tough conversation about the kicker situation.