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Daniel Carlson's Miss in Paris Gives Kellen Moore and the Saints a New Reason to Wince
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- Daniel Carlson's Miss in Paris Gives Kellen Moore and the Saints a New Reason to Wince
Paris handed the New Orleans Saints a crowd of 78,488 at Stade de France and a defense that kept Pittsburgh out of the end zone on all but one drive. It also handed them another Daniel Carlson miss from beyond 50 yards, this one with the Saints down 16-10 early in the fourth quarter.
Carlson's 52-yard try went wide right, and New Orleans never scored again. The Steelers took over with 5:52 left, ran 11 plays and never gave the ball back in a 16-10 loss that dropped the Saints to 2-5.
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Daniel Carlson's long misses are piling up
New Orleans Saints kicker Daniel Carlson in Paris.
Carlson is 8-of-12 on field goals this season, per Pro Football Reference , and all four misses have come from 50 yards or longer. He's 3-of-7 from that range. One miss came in the 31-30 overtime loss at Detroit in Week 1. Another was a 55-yarder in last week's win over the Giants , on a day he also hit from 51 and 58. He has missed two extra points, too.
None of this is entirely new. The Raiders let Carlson go in March after a career-low 81.5% field goal rate in 2025, and the Saints signed the two-time All-Pro on Aug. 24, then waived Charlie Smyth and Tanner Brown to keep him . "Daniel's a really talented kicker," Moore said at the time .
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Sunday's miss stung more because of what surrounded it. The drive started well before a 5-yard loss by Alvin Kamara on second-and-5 and a false start by Asim Richards pushed it back. Chris Boswell, meanwhile, made all three of his attempts for Pittsburgh, from 28, 47 and 39 yards.
A Saints pass rush that got 1.5 sacks each from Chase Young and Carl Granderson held the Steelers to 1-of-4 in the red zone. Tyler Shough threw for 278 yards. Payton Wilson's interception at the Pittsburgh 11 and Patrick Queen's third-down sack after the miss closed off the Saints' other chances, according to the ESPN box score .
Kellen Moore puts the kicking game under review
New Orleans Saints head coach Kellen Moore.
Moore didn't dodge the question afterward. "I think it's fair to say we've got to evaluate that," he said of the kicking game, via Jeff Nowak .
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He framed the bigger picture the same way. "We really gotta really dig in and solve this thing," Moore said, adding that the Saints will evaluate the season as a whole and won't jump into anything, including staff changes, per Tina Howell .
The only kicker already in the building is Smyth, who finished 2025 as the starter and signed to the practice squad after final cuts. General manager Mickey Loomis preached patience with the roster before the trip, and the bye week gives the front office time to decide whether that patience extends to the kicker.
For a 2-5 team that ran for 18 yards in Paris, the next long kick has to count.
This story was originally published by Athlon on Oct 25, 2026, where it first appeared in the NFL section. Add Athlon as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
