Four times Daniel Carlson lined up to attempt the game-winning the game for the Raiders in overtime over the Cowboys. Penalties by both teams kept having him retry it. The fourth time he finally got it away and drilled it to give the Raiders the 36-33 victory.
It’s appropriate that it took four tries for it to count because it took perfection on four previous tries in regulation to get the Raiders in that position in the first place.
The last of those four field goals came from 56 yards out to give the Raiders a 33-30 lead with just under two minutes left. It was also the longest field goal of Carlson’s career. And it was huge because it meant the Cowboys were driving for a field goal to tie it up rather than to win it in regulation.
Carlson’s clutch long field goal late in the game, gave way to his clutch game-winner in overtime. And it gave him a career-high five made field goals.
That kind of day had his teammates feeling pretty confident in their kicker’s abiltities.
“When I seen him talk to AJ [Cole], he looked at AJ and they shook their head like this I said ‘oh yeah, that’s going in’,” said RB Josh Jacobs, who referred to Carlson as “Sniper.”
Pretty awesome especially considering just a few days ago Carlson was sick with food poisoning.
“I had like a little food poisoning on Monday, but besides that I was doing pretty good all week,” said Carlson.
“I told them I’ll find a way to play if I need to. Find some adult diapers or whatever. Get a trash bag on the sideline or whatever.”
Luckily for Carlson it didn’t come to any of that. And lucky for the Raiders that he was at his best because even a missed extra point — as Cowboys’ kicker Greg Zierlein had — and it would have been Dallas players eating turkey legs on the sideline after the game instead of Carlson.
Delicious
@DanielCarlson38 | #RaiderNation pic.twitter.com/pngrhQRQtH
— Las Vegas Raiders (@Raiders) November 26, 2021
“Just hitting the ball pretty good and feeling pretty confident,” Carlson added. “One kick at a time. Wherever the team’s able to set me up, I got to go out there and perform my job and the whole unit all day did a great job, so they helped me out.”