Jerry Jones Addresses Brett Maher’s Future With Cowboys After Historically Awful Night

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Every single player who participates in an NFL game feels a ton of pressure whenever they trot out onto the gridiron. However, most fans of the sport likely know kickers have to grapple with a fairly unique brand of stress given the nature of their job.

It would be foolish to minimize the physical skills you need to possess to routinely split the uprights on football’s biggest stage, but if you want to make it as a kicker in the league, you need to be equally adept when it comes to your ability to grapple with the psychological toll that has played a role in the downfall of countless people at that position.

It’s hard to think of a single game that’s summed up that reality like Monday night’s wild card showdown between the Cowboys and the Buccaneers. Dallas kicker Brett Maher headed into the playoffs in the wake of a solid regular season where he converted around 90% of the field goals he attempted in addition to making 50 of his 53 PAT tries, but it didn’t take long for things to fall apart.

When Maher missed the first extra point he attempted after the Cowboys opened up the scoring with a touchdown, it was easy to write it off as a fluke. However, we were treated to a new level of intrigue after he also failed to convert his second and (much to the chagrin of Dak Prescott) third attempt, as he tied the dubious NFL record for the most PATs missed in a game before the end of the first half.

Unfortunately, he was unable to avoid befalling that same fate yet again and surpassed the previous mark early in the third quarter (although he was eventually able to take advantage of his fourth shot at redemption).

There were plenty of people who speculated the Cowboys might start hunting for a new kicker to replace Maher ahead of their showdown with the 49ers. However, it didn’t take long for Jerry Jones to come to his defense, as he made it clear Dallas will be sticking with him when they head to San Francisco.

However, we’ll have to wait and see if that will actually be the case Maher isn’t able to cure his crippling case of the yips by the time Sunday rolls around.