When the Panthers last visited the Superdome, they were a part of history — and not the type you want to be involved with. Seconds after running back Jonathan Stewart scored on a five-yard run, the Saints became the first time to turn a blocked extra point into two points.
10 months later, Carolina's trip to New Orleans featured another forgettable extra point.
After a one-yard Stewart score with 9:38 left, the Panthers appeared to have rallied all the way back from a 21-0 deficit. But instead of a 31-all tie, Graham Gano's kick sailed wide right.
"I hit it really, really well, but just straight from the right hash," he said. "That was my worst play of the day. Every other play I had was really, really good. It just came at an awful time. I can't do that. I've got to make them."
The Panthers' offense picked up Gano later in the fourth, tying the game at 38 with a short score by quarterback Cam Newton and a two-point conversion to wideout Devin Funchess.
Still, the miss continued a troubling trend for Gano, who's struggled in important spots this season.
It started in Denver when the seven-year veteran missed what would have likely been a 50-yard season-opening game-winner. Two weeks later, he hit the post on a 54-yard attempt that would have given the Panthers a 13-2 lead over Minnesota. Then, his 43-yarder just before the half went wide left Monday night against the Bucs.
"I'm confident in him," Ron Rivera said this week.
But when asked Sunday if he's concerned about his kicker, Carolina's coach said:
"Well, we'll see. You've got to look at what's happened not just now but what's happened over the period of time. There are some things that we're going to look at and evaluate (over the bye week), obviously, and we'll see what happens."
Since the start of 2014, Gano's made just four of his past 10 attempts from 50-plus yards while he's 63-of-72 on shorter attempts. But extra points have become an issue after the league pushed the kick back to the 15-yard line ahead of the 2015 season. Before that, Gano missed just one of his 97 extra points with the Panthers. Since then, he's 70-of-75.
On Sunday, Gano made his only field goal attempt, a 42-yarder in the second quarter which brought his season total to 9-of-12. And he was 4-of-4 on extra points — before he went wide right.
"I feel like I have been having a good year overall," Gano said. "There's some I wish I could have back at inopportune times, for sure. I don't have any excuses for it, I just have to make them."
Getting harder to argue for the man.
“Having a good year overall” except for the missed kick that cost us a game and missed XP that could have cost us another one.
And the missed fg in tampa bay and we lost that game by 3 points
Any other reasonable team would have cut him (and Ted Ginn Jr) by now. But not Carolina!
Cut Ted Ginn? Why? He never even receives the ball this year, instead they force the ball to KB and Olsen all the time. Predictable. They should start using Ginn mmore.
He’s probably referencing the drops, I assume.
“I feel like I have been having a good year overall,” Gano said. “There’s some I wish I could have back at inopportune times, for sure. I don’t have any excuses for it, I just have to make them.”
Can you say “delusional”.
Gano is a great guy, but I have watched him miss at critical times in the past couple of seasons and it is frustrating to say the least. He isn’t ‘clutch’ and his misses this year have been detrimental. Kickers are cheap, so find another one. Also, drop Ginn and get a return guy that can RUN up the field instead of starting slow and eventually exiting the sideline. Might as well drop another receiver (Brown?) as the Panthers have too many and don’t know what to do with them.
If there’s one position in the NFL that I have close to zero tolerance for failure, it’s the PK. Maybe that’s wrong but it is what is (and always has been). Gano is dead to me.