When struggling Vikings kicker Blair Walsh was told a half-dozen candidates would be brought in to compete for his job, he got irritated.

Special-teams coordinator Mike Priefer considered that a good thing.

The Vikings brought six kickers to Winter Park on Tuesday to audition. In the end, the team decided not to replace Walsh — for now — despite his missed extra point, blocked field-goal attempt and botched kickoff in last Sunday’s 22-16 overtime loss to Detroit.

“I knew how he would react because I’ve known him now for five-plus years,” Priefer said Thursday. “It kind of lit a fire under him. (Walsh) got ticked off in a good way, I think, because he’s a competitive young man. … If he didn’t react that way, I would be really worried and then we probably would be looking for another guy. … If he’s going to feel sorry for himself, then he’s not the guy we want.”

Kickers the Vikings brought in this week were veterans Kai Forbath, Randy Bullock, Zach Hocker and Travis Coons, and rookies Marshall Koehn and Aldrick Rosas. Priefer said the workout “went very well,” but he does not anticipate Walsh being replaced this season.

“I’m a glass-half-full guy, so going forward I’m thinking that Blair is going to be the guy the rest of the season,” Priefer said. “We have our list together if he has an injury or if we want to bring in a guy to compete with him next year. … At the end of the day, Blair is our kicker. He needs to perform like we know he can perform.”

The five-year veteran has faced plenty of scrutiny since missing a 27-yard field goal in the final seconds of a 10-9 playoff loss to Seattle in January. This season, Walsh is 12 of 16 on field-goal attempts and 13 of 16 on extra points.

Priefer doesn’t believe the miss against the Seahawks haunts Walsh, but with his current struggles, “a lot of it is probably mental,” he said. Against the Lions, Walsh clanged a third-quarter extra-point attempt off the right upright, and his 46-yard field-goal attempt in the fourth quarter was blocked.

Priefer seemed especially unhappy with Walsh’s kickoff into the end zone for a touchback with 23 seconds left in regulation after a roughing-the-kicker penalty moved the ball to the 50. The plan was for Walsh to drop the ball between the 5- and 10-yard line to help run some time off the clock.

“We’ve done it many times in games, any time we kick from the 50, or almost any time,” Priefer said. “We want to give our coverage an opportunity to pin them inside the 20. But not only that, with 23 seconds left and they have no timeouts left, we waste five or six seconds (by doing that and), I think, the ball game is over. So, to me, that was a huge mistake.”

After Walsh was roughed on the successful extra point that put Minnesota up 16-13 before that kickoff, Priefer said he “spent at least 35, 40 seconds with him to make sure he was OK.” Following the touchback, the Lions completed two passes to set up their 58-yard field goal that tied the score 16-16 on the final play of regulation.

Despite Walsh’s troubles, Priefer said, “He’s our guy.” Vikings coach Mike Zimmer feels the same way.

“When the three-technique (defensive tackle) messes up, no one sees it,” Zimmer said. “When the kicker messes up, everyone sees it. That’s the big thing. The guy’s missed three extra points. I can probably get 10 guys that screwed up three points this year. … We all make mistakes. I think (Walsh is) a very talented guy.”