Daniel Carlson was called upon four times to boot field goals in Week 6, and he nailed them all. The Las Vegas Raiders’ big boomer was perfect in all his boots—field goals and point after attempts—scoring 13 of the team’s 21 points as the Silver and Black edged the visiting New England Patriots on Sunday.
Was it an aberration or a return to the norm for Daniel Carlson?
Either way, it was a pleasant performance for the 6-foot-5, 28-year-old specialist. After a down primetime performance two weeks ago, Carlson was his usual sniper-self. He hit field goals from 25, 37, 30, and 24 yards out. But when you dig deeper, Carlson cashing in is indicative of something horrid with the Raiders offense—it failed time and again in the red zone. Five offensive drives into the Patriots’ 20-yard line and only one touchdown—pathetic.
Daniel Carlson still delivered for the Raiders, fantasy-wise.
But if you still somehow had Carlson as your fantasy kicker, Yahtzee!
“I mean, I think we have the best kicker in the NFL,” Raiders head honcho Josh McDaniels said during the postgame press conference. “And so, to have that feeling week in and week out at practice and you watch him do his job and you come to the stadium on game day and you know that if you need a big kick or something else, nobody talks about his placement of the ball on the kickoffs or what he does in that regard to try to limit returners and all the rest of it.
“But Daniel is an elite player in his position, and I have tremendous confidence in him regardless of the situation or what has happened in the recent past. We’d give him the ball 100 out of 100 times if it was the game on the line.”
The four attempts in the Week 6 win matched the total number of tries Carlson had in the first four weeks of the season. After missing two against the Packers, Carlson is now 9-of-11 (81.8%) with a long field goal of 47 yards. He’s 9-of-9 on his PAT attempts, and of the Raiders 100 points scored, Carlson owns 36 of them (a smooth 36%).
Punter A.J. Cole III, not outdone by his kicking battery, had a strong performance when called upon. He wasn’t involved as heavily as his kicking mate, largely due to the fact that Las Vegas could move the ball but couldn’t get into the end zone. But when he did come in to punt, Cole made it count.
Case in point…
Case in point: the 46-yard bomb he delivered on 4th and 3 from the Raiders’ 45-yard line was fair caught at the Patriots’ nine-yard line. That pinned New England deep with 2:23 left to play and Las Vegas holding a precarious 19-17 advantage.
That flip of field position, along with the Patriots inability to get out of their own way with mental mistakes (two penalties with an ill-timed dropped pass on a deep ball sandwiched in between), created a 3rd-and-15 from the New England four-yard line. That allowed the Raiders defense to pin its ears back and get after Patriots quarterback Mac Jones. And did they ever?
Defensive tackle Bilal Nichols burst up the middle while pass rusher Maxx Crosby screamed off the edge. Both met at Jones for the sack and safety—21-17 Raiders and ball game.
Those points from the defense allowed Vegas to finally break the 20-point barrier, thanks in large part to Cole’s punt.
Gasp!
Complementary Raiders football?
Cole only had one other punt, a 57-yard rocket, to finish with a healthy 51.5 average per boot.
*Top Photo: Raiders Media Relations
