Less than 12 hours after dismissing the idea that the Cowboys would look to explore other options at kicker following Brett Maher’s historically poor performance in Monday night’s win against the Buccaneers, Dallas owner Jerry Jones changed his tune and said that the club would evaluate the position this upcoming week.
Speaking on 105.3 The Fan Tuesday morning after his team’s 31–14 victory in the wild-card round, Jones again addressed Maher’s standing on the roster, after the veteran kicker missed a NFL playoff record four PATs in the Cowboys win. While the Dallas owner sounded pleased that discussion about the kicker was one of the biggest storylines coming out the game, he made clear that the team would look at Maher’s performance throughout the upcoming week of practice.
“This is a classic case of looking at what he’s done for this team and done on the field all year, not just last night,” Jones began, per Mark Lane. “And, so, but kicking is a technical thing. It has everything to with the—just frankly mentally have it all together when you step up there.
“And, so, we’ll read thing 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, 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 be really a big setback to get into the rest of this tournament, rest of this playoff with shakiness at kicker.”
Jones’s comments come on the heels of him shooting down a question about whether or not he would explore other options at kicker following Maher’s outing after the game on Monday night. Jones cited the 33-year-old’s past performance as the reason for his comments, saying “he’s done enough good ones.”
Maher did make 50 of his 53 PATs (94.3%) during the regular season, in addition to 29-of-32 field goals (90.6%). He also made his fifth and final extra point on Monday night, appearing to shake off his case of the yips from earlier in the game.
Though Maher’s struggles were one of the few problems for the Cowboys on Monday, the NFC East club will need a much better performance from its kicker this upcoming weekend against the 49ers. Dallas will head out to San Francisco for a Sunday matchup with a chance to advance out of the divisional round for the first time since 1995.
