ATLANTA (AP) — Younghoe Koo needed a confidence-boosting kick.
Instead, just one week into a new season, it looks as though he'll be fighting some more to keep his job with the Atlanta Falcons.
In a tough opener for both kickers, Koo missed the one that mattered most — a 44-yard field goal attempt that wasn't even close with two seconds remaining, preserving a 23-20 victory for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday.
Koo endured a disappointing 2024 season, which prompted the Falcons to bring in some competition during training camp. The 31-year-old South Korean managed to keep his job, but the guy he fended off, German Lenny Krieg, is still around as a member of the practice squad.
Coach Rahaeem Morris didn't do anything to quell the notion of giving Krieg another shot.
“We've got to make those kicks,” Morris said. “Those are very makeable kicks. We’ve got to lock in and get that done. ”
Koo's attempt to send the game to overtime never had a chance. It faded wide of the right upright, sparking a raucous celebration on the Tampa Bay sideline.
Koo did connect on field goals of 41 and 36 yards, but one of those caught a lucky break by deflecting through off an upright.
It looked all too familiar to his woes a year ago, when Koo missed a career-high nine of his 34 attempts — several of them coming in huge situations that could've given the Falcons another win or two in an 8-9 campaign that left them short of the playoffs for the seventh year in a row.
Koo didn't hang around to address the media after the game. His locker had already been cleared out by the time reporters and camera crews were allowed in.
It was left to his teammates to defend their kicker.
“We still trust him,” said quarterback Michael Penix Jr., who directed a last-minute drive that put the Falcons in position to force OT. “We still believe in him.”
Morris also defended Koo, though he appeared to hedge a bit when asked — point black — if Krieg was back in the mix to handle the kicking duties.
“We gave him a shot to compete the whole offseason,” the coach shot back. “It's always highly competitive throughout the week. We don't make those decisions off whiplash-type of decisions. You always go back and try to figure out what happened.”
Tampa Bay kicker Chase McLaughlin also had a tough day, though it was a bit easier to take on the winning side.
He was wide left from 44 yards out in the third quarter with the game tied at 10. Then, after Tampa Bay grabbed a 23-20 lead on Baker Mayfield's 25-yard touchdown pass to rookie Emeka Egbuka with 59 seconds remaining in regulation, McLaughlin clanked the extra point off the upright.
That gave the Falcons a chance to keep the game going with a field goal, clearly ticking off coach Todd Bowles, even though it worked out in the end for the defending NFC South champions.
“I’m not going to cuss here at the podium," Bowles growled. "But I was pissed, to say the least.”
In the meantime, it figures to an interesting week of practice for Koo and the Falcons heading into next week's game at Minnesota.
“We've got a lot of confidence for what he's done for us in the past,” Morris said. “If that stuff doesn't happen, we've got to make those changes and those corrections. But you've got to have confidence in your guys, and we always will.”
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http://accesswdun.com/article/2025/9/1301278