The Dallas Cowboys performed a virtually excellent recreation towards the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday, properly, apart from one participant. Brett Maher suffered a complete meltdown on an evening the place he missed a complete of 4 additional factors, going simply 1-for-5 within the Cowboys’ 31-14 win.
The efficiency wasn’t simply dangerous, it was traditionally dangerous. With the 4 misses, Maher grew to become the primary kicker in NFL historical past to overlook 4 additional factors in a recreation. With every miss, it was clear that the Cowboys had been getting increasingly more annoyed with him on the sideline.
By the time he missed his third kick, Dak Prescott was scowling on the sideline whereas Peyton and Eli Manning appeared to be in shock.
Maher appears to have caught a case of the yips. Not solely did he miss his first 4 makes an attempt towards the Buccaneers, however he additionally missed his solely try in Week 18, which introduced his streak of consecutive misses to 5. However, that streak ended within the fourth quarter Monday when Maher lastly made an additional level, which elicited a loud cheer from the group at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.
Despite this struggles, Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy made it sound just like the workforce plans to stay with Maher for his or her divisional spherical playoff recreation towards the 49ers on Sunday.
“We must get him able to go (for San Francisco),” McCarthy mentioned, through NBCDWF. “We want him. He’s been tremendous clutch for us all yr.”
Maher additionally appears to have the help of his teammates.
One particularly supporttve teammate was Dak Prescott.
“I’m Money Maher’s largest fan,” Prescott mentioned following the win. “I talked to him individually after the sport, simply instructed him, ‘Hey let that go, we’ll want it’ I simply performed like s— every week in the past, in order that occurs.”
The Cowboys kicker struggled on additional factors at instances through the common season, but it surely by no means acquired this dangerous. During the 2022 season, he hit 50 of 53 additional factors, which was good for a 94.3% conversion fee that ranked twenty second for any kicker who tried 15 or extra additional factors.
Although he could not hit from quick vary on Monday, Maher has come up clutch a number of instances over the yr and he is had no downside hitting lengthy kicks for the Cowboys. Not solely did he go 9 of 11 from 50 yards or extra in 2022, however he additionally holds the NFL file for many area objectives of 60 yards or extra with 4. It’s the quick stuff that is been troublesome.
Since the additional level was moved to 33 yards again in 2015, some kickers have struggled, however they virtually by no means wrestle like Maher did on Monday evening. As a matter of reality, just one different kicker has even missed three additional factors in any recreation over the previous seven years and that was Matt Gay, who went 2-for-5 whereas taking part in for the Buccaneers in a 35-22 win towards the Falcons in November 2019 (Gay now performs for the Rams).
Besides Gay and Maher, it’s a must to go all the way in which again to 1993 to discover a recreation the place a kicker missed three additional factors (Roger Ruzek did it whereas taking part in for the Eagles), however nobody else has missed 4.
The upside for the Cowboys is that Maher was the one participant who actually struggled throughout Dallas’ 31-14 win. The Cowboys destroyed the Buccaneers thanks largely to a traditionally massive recreation from Dak Prescott, who set a franchise file by totaling 5 touchdowns.
For a full breakdown of the whole lot that occurred within the recreation, be positive to take a look at our takeaways by clicking right here.
