Garrett Hartley's job on the line after New Orleans Saints' OT loss to Atlanta Falcons
 

There's no way to sugarcoat it.

Garrett Hartley's job is officially on the line.
Miss a couple of kicks in a win against the Minnesota Vikings and you get a pat on the back and words of encouragement from teammates and coaches.
Miss a 29-yard game-winner in overtime against your division rivals at home, and well, you're not being patted on the shoulder, you're looking over it.

Garrett Hartley's job on the line after New Orleans Saints' OT loss to Atlanta Falcons | NOLA.com

Hartley is probably still the best option at this point. Still, cannot miss 29 yard chip shots with the game on the line, that will get you unemployed in a heartbeat. I think he is going to survive this week, hopefully he gets it back together again.

Something anthony hargrove said last year after hartley missed the FG VS the Bucs .

"we we all told him, we win as a team and lose as a team, we all made mistakes to lose that game, but truthfully we all thought different, I was thinking if you miss this kick, when we were playing the vikings, Im going to cut your nuts off and put them in a jar"

I love him ( Anthony Hargrove )

Just a few hours after Garrett Hartley's badly missed 29-yard field-goal attempt cost the New Orleans Saints an overtime victory over the NFC South division rival Atlanta Falcons, a league source confirmed that the team will bring in former kicker John Carney for a workout Monday.


New Orleans Saints kicker Garrett Hartley yells at himself after missing an overtime field goal that would have given the aints a 27-24 overtime victory over the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday at the Superdome.
Less than two hours after the game, Peter King, who covers the league for Sports Illustrated and NBC, said Sunday night that the Saints will bring in kickers for workouts. Adam Schefter of ESPN was more specific, saying Carney would get a tryout.

Saints Coach Sean Payton said during his postgame news conference that it wasn't the time to talk about personnel, although he said it was a "fair question."

Hartley has had an up-and-down season, missing two field-goal attempts in the season opener against Minnesota but drilling 37-yard game-winner against the San Francisco 49ers last week.

I think hartley better guard his nuts

if you watch that FG win in SF, qbrees, I think he would have missed it if SF hadn't tipped it

39 or 47 yarder I'd give him slack but 29 in a dome is inexcusable. Another miss like that and he's done.

i love carney - but for cripes sake he's my age - and i do remember the river city relay missed extra point.

what is hartley 1-4 in the dome this year?

I know, I hate that we have to go through this again. Go for the TD

carney retired last year telling me he has'nt been practicing he's coming in to give brain scan on hartly. not to compete.

I'm sorry, I'd rather beat the hell out of Hartley and shape him up than risk with someone else.

What would we do if another kicker misses later on? Go back to Hartley? Stick it through with what you got.

He needs to be fired already

Here's my gripe - I don't buy that this is nerves. I think it has to do with technique.

Can someone tell me why in the world our coaches always line him up on the right hash mark, instead of straight down the middle like 99% of the other kickers in the league do? Is it to get more trajectory? More power? Is his helmet crooked? Did he fall out of a tree when he was young? What is the deal?

I'm not a special teams coach or anything, but the laws of geometry and common sense tell you, that for an object that collides with your foot, that he should line up dead center and that will give you your greatest margin for error. It lessens the kickers pace of aim and approach on the equation.

Hartley missed because he mis-timed it, or over-corrected. He know he has bring the ball a little bit to the left, even on the shortest field goals. Mixing in the distance of the field goals, the amount with which he has to pace the ball to the left varies.

If he was kicking from the middle, he can actually see that he's properly aligned and kicking it straight, because his aim should be as close to 90 degrees as possible, compared with the lines on the field and also the formation of the blockers in front of him.

And to Coach Payton, I also say there is no sense on kicking on first down. Do you know the Ultimate Fighter motto "Never leave the match in the hands of the judges"? I say "Never leave the game in the hands of the kicker". Unless that is your best option for victory.

So I say unless he's able to kick the ball well from the dead center position, we cut ties with him and go with a more conventional kicker.

Trying to get over this. But it's hard.

I'm a firm believer in having two kickers. One for short one for long. Their accuracy will go up because they are focusing on specific ranges. I know it's considered a waste of a spot but the way things are going we need those points just to scrape by every week and it doesn't look like it will change anytime soon especially with the onslaught of injuries.