It wasn't one week ago that the Vikings pulled the trigger on the roster move we were all expecting them to, releasing veteran kicker Kai Forbath and officially giving rookie Daniel Carlson the starting nod.
From the day that Carlson was drafted, everybody including Forbath, knew that this was the plan. But it helped that Carlson had actually won the job.
Both in the preseason games and then again in the training camp sessions, Carlson was flat out the better kicker. He was more accurate, had a bigger leg and was simply doing all the right things.
So they cut Kai, promote Carlson, and he promptly goes out and misses two field goals in his first game as the starter...wait what?
"The kicking game wasn't very good," Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer said frustrated at his postgame press conference. "I don't have a very good word for [our kicking game] right now. At least not one that I can say on the radio!"
Whoa!
Carlson missed two field goals Friday night versus the Seahawks, both of them from 42 yards and both of them went wide left. Not exactly the kind of performance that you would have liked to see having just given Daniel your bod of confidence.
"I don't know if I'm concerned about him in general," Zimmer continued. "He missed like two kicks all preseason and he missed two tonight."
It was so bad even that after the first missed kick, Zimmer opted to go for a two-point conversion after the team's first touchdown rather than give the extra point to Carlson.
"Just let him know that if he's going to miss them, I'm going to go for two," Zimmer said.
He would later give him a shot, which he converted successfully.
Still, are we concerned? Should we be concerned? There's no going back from the decision that's been made so like Mike Zimmer, let's just chalk it up to a bad night.