New Orleans Saints: Garrett Hartley's Kicking Woes Continue in Win Over Seattle

And you wonder why NFL coaches and players hate kickers?

You need look no further than yesterday's Saints-Seattle game for the reasons why.

In 2007, Olindo Mare made only 10-of-17 field goal attempts after the Saints released John Carney and gave up a draft choice to get him.

This year for Seattle, Mare can't miss. He is 19-of-22 including 4-for-4 in the 40 to 49-yard range and nailed all four attempts in a 34-19 loss to the New Orleans Saints.

Maybe Mare wasn't living right during his short stay in New Orleans.

Garrett Hartley on the other hand may be scheduling a visit with a sports psychologist this week.

Sarah Palin is more accurate shooting skeet in Alaska than Hartley is at 20-something-yard field goal attempts.

After his playoff heroics one year ago, Hartley now looks like a member of "The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight."

In the fourth quarter, Hartley missed a 27-yard field goal wide left. Saints head coach Sean Payton said the snap and hold were clean. It was Hartley's fifth miss wide left this season and it brought back memories of his 29-yard overtime miss against the Atlanta Falcons in September that resulted in a loss.

The Saints have been playing catch-up to those Dirty Birds ever since.

Payton said at the time, "We're going to have a hard time winning a lot of games if we can't convert a third-and-1, if we give up touchdown passes when we're doubling a receiver, if we can't kick a 16-yard field goal, and we turn it over three times."

Payton proceeded to bring back veteran John Carney until Hartley regained the job.

The Saints have a history with flaky kickers.

In the late '70s, they used a No. 1 draft choice on University of Texas kicker/punter phenom Russell Exrleben. He arrived in New Orleans with nickname "Thunderfoot" and departed with the nickname "Blunderfoot."

As for former Saint Scott Fujita, he revealed his true feelings about kickers to Esquire earlier this year.

"Last December when I was with New Orleans, our fat punk kicker, Garrett Hartley, missed a game-winner and we lost for the second week in a row -- that was one of the times you want to grab a guy and tell him to [bug] off," Fujita said. "But Hartley was young, and I didn't want to mess him up for good, so I just bit my lip and said, 'Hey, man, don't worry about it -- it was a team loss,' which of course was a total lie."

These guys battle their brains out for 60 minutes only to have their fates determined by a 160-pound kicker.

WWL Radio's Bobby Hebert wasn't cutting Hartley any slack on his radio show Sunday night: "Atlanta was a game, you could have stolen. And it's not like you're asking (Hartley) to make a 48 or 52-yard kick to win the game. It's like a glorified extra point."

"Going forward, I know the (Saints) organization—Coach Payton, Mickey Loomis—will constantly evaluate Hartley in practice. They test them with different scenarios but you have to get it done on game day," said Hebert.

"Whether you have to turn up the heat or bring in different kickers in here for tryouts, it's not a slam dunk. It's a constant evaluation going forward. They're just not going to keep Hartley in there if he continues to struggle just because he won the job in training camp."

Payton needs to have confidence that Hartley can convert a chip shot or it will come back to bite the Saints in the backside in the playoffs.

Last year is last year.

What have you done for me lately?

Make no mistake; Hartley is on thin ice in humid New Orleans.