The Cowboys got trounced by 17 points. Field goals were not the difference. But having to repeatedly settle for three-point tries instead of putting the ball in the end zone assuredly put Dallas in a hole that they never climbed out of.
Missing three of those tries may have also put kicker Greg Zuerlein in a hole with his teammates and coaching staff.
“The issue,” as head coach Mike McCarthy explained in his postgame press conference, “we’re kicking field goals- or attempting to kick field goals- and they were scoring touchdowns.”
Yikes.
With one pointed zinger, McCarthy managed to trash his anemic offense, insult his porous defense, and put his $2.5-million-dollar kicker on notice.
Zuerlein, a nine-year veteran with a career make percentage of over 82%, found himself in a serious slump in Baltimore on Tuesday night. Despite entering the game having connected on eight straight field goals, the 2017 Pro Bowler missed from 40, 53, and 52 yards against the Ravens on Tuesday.
It marked the first time Zuerlein has missed multiple field goals in a game since 2016, and it was the first time he’s missed three in a game since his rookie season.
The Ravens’ Justin Tucker also had a miss on the night. According to him, it’s become a not-uncommon problem in his home stadium in recent years.
Justin Tucker has said a few times that M&T Bank Stadium is the hardest place to kick in the league ever since they put in the new scoreboard.
It changed the wind patterns and now it swirls more instead of being a static directional wind. Makes it tough on kickers.
— Brett Kollmann (@BrettKollmann) December 9, 2020
The December air was chilly, with a noticeable wind coming in off the Inner Harbor. But Zuerlein couldn’t blame his performance on the weather or the stadium.
“I wouldn’t say it was anything, at all,” the kicker said, per the Cowboys team website. “I think the conditions were fine, even if there was wind. I’m good enough to make the kicks, I just didn’t do it.”
Kickers are often held at somewhat of a distance from the rest of the team, viewed as a separate entity. Even though they work hand in hand, so to speak, with the offense, every-down players are often hesitant to comment on the specialist’s job.
But Zuerlein’s teammates couldn’t help but notice the misses that left them empty-handed after three of their ten drives during the game.
“They’re definitely crucial,” wide receiver Michael Gallup said afterward of the missed kicks, “but we’re always thinking six and seven. We’re always thinking those touchdown plays. We’re not trying to settle for a field goal. It’s great to get field goals, but we want touchdowns. We want to score big.”
Scoring big has been a rare occurrence for Dallas in 2020. The team ranks in the bottom ten leaguewide in total scoring, averaging just over 22 points per game. They’ve averaged just 15 per game over their past seven outings; the only time they topped 20 in that span resulted in their lone win since mid-October.
Zuerlein may have blown his opportunities Tuesday, but the offense as a whole isn’t doing their job, either.
They had chances in Baltimore. The Cowboys ran 23 more plays than the Ravens, had ten more first downs, nearly matched them in total yardage, won the time of possession battle, and had the ball inside Ravens territory on all but two of their offensive drives.
“We’re getting good field position, we’re getting the ball on their side of the 50,” running back Ezekiel Elliott told the media after the game. “We’ve got to go score touchdowns. That’s kind of been the story this year.”
“We had the ball forever,” Gallup agreed. “We were moving the ball. We were running it, we were throwing it, we just didn’t get paydirt. That’s the biggest thing.”
“We kept getting stalled, kind of, right before the red zone,” noted quarterback Andy Dalton. “We made it tougher on the kicks. We’ve got to find a way to convert first downs on those situations, keep drives alive, and get down there and score touchdowns.”
Zuerlein’s last two misses- from 53 and 52- perhaps shouldn’t have come as a shock. The normally-dependable kicker nicknamed “Greg the Leg” has converted just one of his six attempts from beyond 50 yards this season.
Kickers, on the whole, though, are improving dramatically from long-range. Field goals of 50-plus yards were once a true novelty in the NFL. In 1960, for example, just five were made across the entire league that season. Through the first 13 weeks of this season, 88 of them have been made at a rate of nearly two out of every three attempts.
Once considered a highlight-reel sniper shot, a 50-plus-yard field goal is now a 65.6% proposition.
But it’s Zuerlein’s first miss from Tuesday night that will really stick in the craw of Cowboys fans. After an eleven-play drive put them in the red zone, Dallas lined up for a 35-yard field goal. Zuerlein had a 91.7% career make percentage from 30 to 39 yards. He connected.
But a terrible bit of pre-snap clock management brought a delay of game penalty. The Cowboys were moved back five yards to try again. Zuerlein’s make percentage from 40 to 49 yards was just 79.7%, but he’d been perfect from that range on the year up to that moment.
The ensuing kick sailed wide right. And with it seemed to go much of the Cowboys’ momentum.
“We missed the field goal,” McCarthy said. “Those are the kind of mistakes you can’t make in a game like this. We needed points there. We had some opportunities for points that did not come out. At the end of the day, we’re kicking field goal attempts, and they score touchdowns.”
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