Packers Crank Pressure Up on Carlson

There’s no replicating the real pressure of a game-winning kick, but the Packers did their best to challenge Anders Carlson on Thursday.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – On the final day of Green Bay Packers training camp, coach Matt LaFleur put together a bunch of late-game scenarios.

The last one: 1 second on the clock, ball on the defense’s 32-yard line, field goal to win.

So, Anders Carlson and the rest of the unit lined up for a 50-yard field goal. This wasn’t just any other 50-yard field goal. Carlson was circled tightly by the rest of the team. They were yelling. They were singing. They were squirting water at him.

“I had water dripping off my helmet,” Carlson said.

Carlson’s first try was wide right.

The players wanted Carlson to give it another shot. This time, not long after the ball had left Carlson’s foot, everyone celebrated. A moment later, the kick split the uprights.

“I think it heightens the moment. You get some more energy,” Carlson said. “It’s fun for me just being out there in front of the guys. They’re messing around, having fun with the water and everything but, for me, it’s a time to lock in and try to execute a real game rep. I try to simulate everything but when you get a little more energy, it feels more like Sundays and Saturdays.”

With mixed results, Carlson attempted a lot of kicks on Saturdays. Many of those were attempted in front of 70,000-plus fans in the SEC pressure-cooker. All those screaming fans become just “white noise,” Carlson said. So, while the real-life pressure of a must-win kick wasn’t there on Thursday, the distraction was much more intense.

Headed into Saturday’s preseason finale against the Seahawks, this was special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia’s final chance to make life as difficult as possible for his talented but inconsistent kicker.

Anders Carlson (Photo by Benny Sieu/USA Today Sports Images)

After making all three attempts in his first period, Carlson’s second set of kicks was supposed to start with a 45-yarder. Just before the ball was snapped, Bisaccia called a timeout. After the reset, Carlson made the kick. After plunking the left upright from 47, Carlson lined up for a 48-yarder. Instead, a phantom false-start penalty was called, which moved the kick back to 53 yards. He made that one, too.

“It’s good stuff to put you in a real game situation,” Carlson said. “Situations like that are going to happen in a game.”

After making just 2-of-6 attempts on Tuesday, Carlson rebounded to make 6-of-8 on Thursday. On the practice field, Carlson made 55-of-80 field-goal attempts. That’s a horrendous 68.8 percent. No kicker in the NFL with more than a dozen attempts did worse. Now, that comes with a couple caveats.

- Carlson didn’t attempt a kick of shorter than the extra point distance of 33 yards. During his final season with the Packers, Mason Crosby in 2022 made all 10 attempts from inside of 30 yards. Obviously, chip-shot field goals are a way to bolster the success rate.

- The practice field is for practice. When it’s mattered, Carlson went 9-of-10 on Family Night, 4-of-6 at Cincinnati in the first preseason game (the misses were back-to-back extra points) and 3-of-3 in the second preseason game against New England. That’s 16-of-19, or 84.2 percent.

“You might be working on something,” Carlson said about practice. “Whether it’s personally or operational, we try to get better every day. That doesn’t mean you’re always focused on the results. When we’re in Lambeau, I focus on the results. I want to bring my ‘A’ game.”

Carlson will wrap up the preseason against the Seahawks. Then, two weeks later, Carlson figures to be on the field for the Week 1 showdown at the rival Bears.

“Definitely some growth to go but I think I’m where I need to be mentally and physically,” he said. “I think I can perform when I need to. I think practice, I need to clean up a little bit sometimes, but I like where I’m at.”

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