GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Minnesota Vikings rookie kicker Daniel Carlson attributed missing a game-winning field goal as time expired in overtime to a lack of confidence after he missed two kicks earlier in Minnesota's 29-29 tie Sunday with the Packers.
In total, Carlson went 0-for-3 on field goals in Week 2, starting with a missed 48-yard try in the second quarter that would have brought the Vikings within four points of the Packers. Both of Carlson's kicks in overtime -- from distances of 49 and 35 yards -- sailed wide right.
"It feels terrible. Obviously, I let my team down," Carlson said. "That last one was probably more just confidence after missing twice early. That's frustrating. That shorter one I should never miss like that."
On Minnesota's final drive of the game, the Vikings faced first-and-10 from Green Bay's 30-yard line with 1 minute, 17 seconds to play. Latavius Murray picked up 13 yards on back-to-back rushes, and coach Mike Zimmer allowed some time to come off the clock before he called a timeout with 4 seconds remaining to allow Carlson to attempt a 35-yard field goal. Green Bay then used its second timeout in an effort to ice Carlson.
Zimmer could have called another play to take a shot at the end zone, but decided to put Carlson back out there to attempt the game winner despite his having missed two previous field goals.
"You know what, guys are supposed to do their jobs," Zimmer said. "Maybe we should've thrown a ball into the end zone a couple of times at the end, but I believed that the guy was going to make the kick. He said to put it in the middle of the field and I put it dead smack in the middle, and in practice every day, he drills them. So that's the disappointing thing for me. We come out here and we do that. We almost had a punt blocked last week and we didn't and we got one this week. We're going to be cranking on special teams good now."
Zimmer said he did not address Carlson individually after the game and did not have an answer on whether the Vikings will be looking for another kicker.
"It's too early," Zimmer said. "[General manager] Rick [Spielman] and I will sit down tomorrow and we'll talk about it. My job is to evaluate everything that happened today whether it was the running game, the defense or the passing game or the kicking game. We're going to evaluate all of it."
Minnesota traded up into the fifth round of the draft to select Carlson with the 167th pick in April. The rookie competed with Kai Forbath during the spring offseason program and throughout the first two weeks of training camp. The kicking competition effectively ended Aug. 20 when Minnesota released Forbath after two seasons.
Four days later, Carlson missed two field goals during the Vikings' preseason victory over the Seahawks. In that game, Zimmer opted to go for a two-point conversion early in the second quarter to send a message to Carlson after he missed from 42 yards out.
"Just let him (Carlson) know that if he's going to miss them (field goals), I'm going to go for two," Zimmer said in August.
The former Auburn standout said he couldn't remember a time where he's missed three field goals in a game, later noting that his mechanics might have played a role in the error of his delivery. As far as his job security, Carlson said he hopes he'll have opportunities in the future to prove that he can correct his mistakes and come through for his team when the game is on the line.
"Obviously this is my first time in this situation so I don't know," Carlson said. "It is what it is. I sure hope not. I want to be able to prove to my teammates and these guys here that I can help them. We have a long season ahead and hopefully lots of big wins and big kicks hopefully in my future."
Many of Carlson's teammates voiced support for the rookie postgame. Quarterback Kirk Cousins recalled his own NFL ups and downs when relaying advice to the young kicker.
"I don't know anything about the psyche of kicking," Cousins said. "I just said, 'Tough times don't last, tough people do.' It's an old adage. I've said it to myself so many times. This league's going to test you and you're going to have mistakes, you're going to have failures. We all know that. None of us are immune to it. You just have to come back. You have to choose to be a tough person, look yourself in the mirror when you get up in the morning and say, 'Doggone it, I'm going to come back to work ready to go.' That's all you can do ."