New Orleans Saints

After feeling 'no kind of pressure,' Saints K Zach Hocker struggles

Published Sep. 21, 2015 2:00 p.m. ET

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For the New Orleans Saints, Sunday just wasn't a good day, for obvious reasons. While they lost the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 26-19, multiple things went wrong. One of those things was unfortunately the kicking game.

Zach Hocker, who started the year out 4-of-4 on field goals, missed a 42-yard kick in the fourth quarter with the team down by 10. From there, the Saints defense stepped up and forced a turnover just one play later. This led to a touchdown, but Hocker's extra point attempt was blocked.

Basically, Hocker had a pretty rough finish to his second game with New Orleans. According to Katherine Terrell of The Times-Picayune, Hocker felt no additional pressure coming into Sunday's game.

"I changed nothing," Hocker told The Times-Picayune. "I felt no kind of pressure going into the game. If anything, I felt tons of confidence. It was just one of those things where that kick just did not fall in my favor and really unfortunate that the extra point got blocked. I don't feel like I changed anything up. I didn't feel a sense of pressure there either. I just let the first one roll off my back and hoped to get the second one. It just got blocked."

Hopefully the young kicker can turn it back around, but obviously Hocker's missed field goal and blocked PAT impacted the game when all was said and done.

(h/t The Times-Picayune)