The Dallas Cowboys had an excellent performance against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, clicking on both offense and defense to cruise to a dominant 31-14 victory. However, the major struggles of kicker Brett Maher on Monday night certainly raised some questions about their kicking situation moving forward, which were answered on Tuesday.
Maher broke an unfortunate NFL record with four missed extra points in Monday’s game, leading to some major criticisms coming from both his teammates and Cowboys fans at home.
Dak Prescott has seen enough of the missed extra points. “Go for f**ckin’ two!” pic.twitter.com/yuPH7FN8NE
— Jon Machota (@jonmachota) January 17, 2023
Despite these criticisms, it seems like the team will stick with Maher through his struggles for their upcoming game against the San Francisco 49ers in the Divisional round.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones discussed Maher’s struggles after the game on Monday night, saying that they are sticking with Maher because he has “done enough good ones” throughout this season.
“No. No. We won’t,” said Jones on if replacing Maher was a possibility. “He’s done enough good ones.”
"Will you look at some kickers this week?"- Reporter
"No. No. We won't. He's done enough good ones."- Jerry Jones on Cowboys kicker Brett Maher pic.twitter.com/pqqHby6IuD
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 17, 2023
Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy echoed those sentiments with a simple vote of confidence for Maher on Tuesday.
“We’re going to forge ahead,” said McCarthy on Maher via Jon Machota of The Athletic.
It doesn’t sound like the Cowboys are going to be making any changes. Brett Maher will remain Dallas’ kicker after missing four extra points last night.
Mike McCarthy: “We’re going to forge ahead.”
— Jon Machota (@jonmachota) January 17, 2023
McCarthy added that it is important to put this poor performance behind him and prepare for their upcoming game.
“I think the biggest thing is just to make sure you got a good plan with Brett moving forward. Just make sure he’s ready,” said McCarthy via Todd Archer of ESPN.
Monday’s performance from Maher was certainly an anomaly, making 80.9 percent of his field goal attempts in the regular season while only missing one extra point on the year.
Maher returning for the Cowboys this weekend could certainly give some pause to McCarthy on how often he will decide to attempt field goals in what projects to be a much closer game against San Francisco.
[ESPN.com, Jon Machota on Twitter]
