New Orleans Saints kicking woes contribute to Tennessee Titans victory
The New Orleans Saints lost a game it probably shouldn't have because of kicking woes.
Their opponents on Sunday, the Tennessee Titans, can relate to that. Tennessee went through two seasons of kicking issues, but have found Randy Bullock as a reliable placekicker.
Saints kicker Brian Johnson has made all eight of his field goal tries this season in place of the injured Will Lutz. But his two missed extra points on Sunday were critical for New Orleans in its 23-21 loss to the Titans.
Instead of kicking a game-winning extra point late, Johnson's earlier misses forced the Saints to try a two-point conversion just to tie the game.
"He missed them left," Saints coach Sean Payton said, simply, about what happened on Johnson's kicks.
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New Orleans scored the first touchdown of the game with a TreQuan Smith touchdown catch early in the second quarter, but Johnson missed the extra point. And in the third quarter, a Mark Ingram touchdown run was capped by another Johnson missed extra point. At that point, the Saints trailed 20-12.
Johnson, to his credit, did convert on a 20-yard field goal to cut Tennessee's lead to 23-15 in the fourth quarter. But the two points he didn't convert ended up looming very large late Sunday afternoon at Nissan Stadium.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: New Orleans Saints kicking woes contribute to Tennessee Titans victory
