At least according to the team’s owner, Jerry Jones, the coaching staff of the Dallas Cowboys has been “exonerated” for continuing to use kicker Brett Maher despite his historically terrible performance against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Maher’s performance was among the worst in the history of the sport.
Was Jones pleased with Maher’s performance?
Jones expressed his satisfaction with Maher’s performance after the Cowboys’ most recent playoff loss, a 19-12 defeat at the hands of the San Francisco 49ers. Jones said he was pleased with Maher’s ability to recover from missing four extra points against Tampa Bay and make both field goal attempts on Sunday. His one effort to kick a different point was, however, thwarted.
According to Jones, as reported by The Athletic, “their selection for our kicker was exonerated with his field goals, in my perspective,” and Jones added, “and I’m pleased for him.”
Last week, when the Cowboys played the Buccaneers in the wild-card stage, Maher failed to kick the extra point after each of the first four touchdowns scored by the Cowboys. He angled the first two kicks to the right, then the third kick to the left by pulling it to the right. On his fourth attempt, he successfully struck the outside of the upright. In the NFL playoffs history, he was the only kicker ever to miss four extra points during a game. (On Dallas’ sixth touchdown, he successfully converted the different point.)
Despite his lacklustre performance, the Cowboys gave him their unwavering backing throughout the week. During the regular season, Maher had a field goal percentage of 29 out of 32 and an extra point percentage of 50 out of 53.
After the Cowboys beat the Buccaneers, Dak Prescott said, “Money Maher’s biggest fan.” After the game, I urged him, “Hey, let that go; we’ll need it.” I did last week, so this is anticipated. I mean that. Given that person’s profession and tenacity. He will heal, be perfect, and help us win.”
Who has shown their support for Maher?
Mike McCarthy and CeeDee Lamb have both publicly expressed their support for Maher. Despite this, the Cowboys decided to add kicker Tristan Vizcaino to their practice squad in the week leading up to their divisional-round game against the San Francisco 49ers. This provided them with an alternative in case Maher could not play on Sunday night. However, Dallas decided not to promote Vizcaino to the active roster, and Maher will serve as the Cowboys’ kicker from here on out.
He struggles throughout the warmups to prepare for the game. Not to mention that it’s not simply about whether or not he was making his kicks. The 49ers did not take kindly to the fact that Maher was warming up on their side of the field since they temporarily interrupted his warmup before allowing him to kick again later on.
He also struggled to kick. The Athletic said Maher missed at least four kicks during warmups, all to the right.
Jones stepped onto the field during warmups to encourage Maher after he missed two more attempts. This is rare, but Maher made his subsequent three attempts.
After the game, things continued. Maher’s first extra point was blocked after Dalton Schultz scored the game’s first touchdown in the second quarter. Even if the Niners couldn’t catch that kick, it appeared to go wide left.