SANTA CLARA — The Green Bay Packers didn’t play the “What If” game after their divisional round loss in Levi’s Stadium, but they have plenty of regrets. No one in their quickly vacated visitor’s locker room will lose more sleep than placekicker Anders Carlson.
Carlson, the rookie out of Auburn, missed a 41-yard chip shot that would have put the Packers up by a touchdown with 6:21 left. Instead, he hooked it left of the upright, setting up the first signature comeback drive of Brock Purdy’s career in the 49ers’ 24-21 win.
On San Francisco’s game-winning drive, Purdy went 6-for-7 for 47 yards and a key scramble for nine more. It was only possible after Carlson’s shank.
“Defense got a stop at the end, their field goal kicker missed,” Purdy said postgame. “It’s like, we had what we wanted right in front of us.”
Carlson’s miss didn’t give the win to the 49ers, but it gave them momentum and a better chance to win in regulation. Both the 49ers and Packers played the divisional round with rookie kickers, but the Green Bay kicker’s long offseason is starting now.
“You’ve just got to be resilient,” Packers head coach Matt LaFleur said of Carlson. “I think a lot of young kickers in this game go through some growing pains. Unfortunately, it will get magnified because of the magnitude of this game, and the spot that it happened. That’s just part of it. You’ve got to be tough-minded, you’ve got to be resilient, you’ve got to be willing to work and find ways to get better.”
No game comes down to one play, and Carlson’s miss certainly wasn’t the only factor that sent the Packers packing (even if he’d made it, the Niners could have forced overtime). Green Bay had three first-quarter trips to the red zone and only came away with two field goals. Overall, the Packers drove within San Francisco’s 25-yard line six times and finished with only 21 points.
Carlson’s miss was crucial, though. The snap and hold were good, but the kick from the left hash hooked.
The brutal miss capped a tough season for the rookie. He missed at least one field goal in 10 of Green Bay’s last 12 games. He converted four of his nine attempts from between 40 and 49 yards overall.
On the Fox broadcast, Tom Rinaldi reported that this week LaFleur “basically said ‘When (Carlson) goes out there, I just pray.’”
“I think if we had the answer, we would’ve fixed it,” LaFleur said postgame of Carlson’s struggles. “Certainly just got to work on the consistency. We’ve seen him do it, we know he’s capable. But you’ve got to be consistent in order to last in this league.”
Carlson finished the regular season 24th out of 33 qualified kickers in field goal percentage (81.8%). Jake Moody, San Francisco’s rookie, has had his fair share of issues, too. He ranked only slightly higher at 20th.
San Francisco selected Moody in the third round, three rounds earlier than Green Bay took Carlson. He also looked shaky at first in the Santa Clara rain.
Moody’s first attempt against the Packers was blocked at the line of scrimmage. It looked like it was fading low and left anyway. Coach Kyle Shanahan had trusted him with a long field goal at the end of the half instead of being more aggressive with his clock management, and it backfired.
But Moody later rewarded Shanahan’s faith in him.
Pulling the Niners to a 21-17 deficit, Moody canned a 52-yarder to open the fourth quarter when the offense stalled. Shanahan revealed postgame that the team may have gone for it on fourth down had they been closer, but chose to try the kick on fourth-and-9.
Moody’s career long is 57 yards. He had missed an extra point and a 38-yarder in the regular-season finale. The one that got swatted earlier was from 48.
Still, Moody bounced back when the 49ers were thrust into a fourth-and-long.
“It was in his range,” Shanahan said. “He made it. That helps me a lot. Really appreciate him doing that, because that’s why we were able to win there at the end.”
In a game with burgeoning star quarterback Jordan Love and Aaron Jones on one side and the 49ers’ nine Pro Bowlers on the other, the kickers, in many ways, decided the outcome. If the history of the NFL postseason means anything, it won’t be the last time that’s the case, either.