Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were forced to kiss their playoff dreams goodbye after Dak Prescott led the Dallas Cowboys to a 31-14 win in the NFC wild-card game on Monday (January 16) night. It wasn't without a struggle, though.
Dallas Cowboys kicker Brett Maher missed four extra points, the most in any NFL game on record. Now, Cowboys owner, president and general manager Jerry Jones is weighing in.
"I think the first thing you do is talk about how isn't it great to have that as the number one thing we need to correct or the number one thing we need to address. I think that shows everything about not only how we played, but where we are with this team right now. Make no mistake about it, we got to have the same week of preparation," he said in an interview, WFAA reports. After his positive reaction, he went on to get a bit realistic about Maher, who was 50-53 on extra points in the regular season.
"It has everything to do with the — just frankly mentally having it altogether when you step up there. And, so, we’ll read this thing as the week goes along. I don't want to get out over skis and get ahead of it. I thought when he came out at halftime, I watched him warm up out there. He was making all the kicks. I figured that was behind him, but we will take a look at it. We can't (afford) a big setback to go into the rest of this tournament, rest of this playoff with shakiness at kicker," Jones continued.
Will Maher continue as kicker when the Cowboys face the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC divisional round on Sunday? Jones said he wouldn't "rule out" carrying two kickers on the roster, but did say it would be an "imposition" to use a roster spot on a kicker. Jones added that the Cowboys would be open to going for it more on fourth down or two-point conversations due to the "Brett Maher struggles."