Tag: Greg Zuerlein

WATCH: Zuerlein makes game-winning 56-yard FG to get first win of 2021

The Cowboys got the final drive of the game with the score tied. Greg Zuerlein was given a 56-yard FG attempt and he drilled it for the win.

With 5:42 left in the game, the Chargers were celebrating a Jared Cook touchdown before an illegal shift penalty called it back. Linebacker Micah Parsons made a sack on third down and Los Angeles was forced to kick a field goal, which was made to knot the game at 17.

After the kick, quarterback Dak Prescott and the offense were set up at their own 13 with 3:45 left to close the game out with a game-winning score. After a scary third-down where running back Ezekiel Elliott made the catch to convert, the Cowboys began to chew the clock and only made it to the Los Angeles 38 thanks to some interesting clock management, giving kicker Greg Zuerlein a 56-yard kick to win it.

Zuerlein called game and the Cowboys escape from SoFi Stadium with a win to move to 1-1.

Stock Up, Stock Down: Cowboys played top-heavy in loss to the Buccaneers

While the Dallas Cowboys got inspired performances from several players there were a few showings that didn’t go so well in Week 1. From @StarConscience

Few people gave the Dallas Cowboys a chance to be competitive against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 1. However, they pushed the defending Super Bowl champions to the limit in a nail-biting two-point loss that came down to the final seconds.

Even if the Cowboys had won the game it was the season opener so there wouldn’t be a reason to overreact about the results. Nonetheless, the Cowboys had some impressive performances and others that left a lot to be desired. Of the players with movable stocks, the stars came through. Here are a few of the players who improved their stock in Week 1 and the ones who need to go back to the drawing board.

Cowboys re-sign K Lirim Hajrullahu to practice squad after Zuerlein’s Week 1 misses

Jerry Jones, Mike McCarthy, and John Fassel say they’re confident in Zuerlein. But they’ve brought Lirim Hajrullahu back just the same. | From @ToddBrock24f7

The Cowboys’ decision-makers maintain that they have confidence in kicker Greg Zuerlein. But that doesn’t mean they won’t hedge their bets, too.

The team is reportedly re-signing Lirim Hajrullahu to the practice squad after Zuerlein went 3-for-5 in Week 1 field goals, including a missed PAT in the 31-29 loss to Tampa Bay.

Hajrullahu had filled in for the Cowboys during the preseason as Zuerlein rehabbed from back surgery. The former CFL All-Star booted two extra points in the team’s third preseason game versus Houston and got no field goal chances. He was cut after less than a week with the club, once Zuerlein was finally ready to resume his duties.

On Monday, special teams coordinator John Fassel told reporters that missing all but the final two weeks of camp was not a factor in Zuerlein’s misses Thursday night, even though his first missed field goal- on his first attempt of the season- was from a distance that’s shorter than an extra-point try.

And Zuerlein didn’t just barely miss the mark. The 31-yard kick wasn’t even close.

He went on to hit the upright minutes later on a point-after-touchdown try.

 

“Obviously, you’d like to see him make those kicks,” head coach Mike McCarthy said after the game. “You get in a game like that, you need all the points you can get.”

Zuerlein also missed a 60-yard-attempt as the first half came to a close.

The veteran himself refused to attribute the misses to rust but took blame for the loss, saying, “If I do my job, we win that game.”

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones wasn’t quite as harsh the next day in discussing the two-point margin of defeat.

“The loss isn’t to be blamed on the kicker. But still, if we had had some execution on [some] of those kicks, it might have made a big difference here,” he told 105.3 The Fan.

But he admitted that Zuerlein’s absence from the team’s summer work is worth noting and may leave the team at less than full strength in that department.

“I felt like we really paid the price of not having our kicker in training camp,” he explained. “I look back and when you don’t have a kicker that’s real active in training camp, you may be kidding yourself in early ball games, ‘Is he really ready to go?'”

Jones, Fassel, and McCarthy have all outwardly expressed confidence that Zuerlein is their man.

But Monday’s move to bring Hajrullahu back into the fold may suggest that the kicker they call “Greg the Leg” is on somewhat shaky footing.

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Winners and Losers: Connor McGovern shows he’s ready, Cowboys’ McCarthy blows opportunity

The Cowboys certainly outperformed expectations on Thursday night, but the coaching staff did have a couple blunders which cost them. | From @NoHuddle

The Dallas Cowboys are winless in 2021. They lost last year’s season finale. They lost four preseason games. Now they’ve lost on the NFL’s opening night. That’s six losses in a row for a team that prides itself on a history of winning. The team that took the field on Thursday night, however, is much different than the previous iterations.

To be clear, moral victories do not count in the NFL. They do not get a club closer to the playoffs. If there ever was one, though, it took place when Cowboys fell 31-29 to the defending Super Bowl Champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The team didn’t come out smelling like roses in the end, and in fact, some aspects reeked. But the team also has the ultimate de-odorizer.

Zuerlein takes blame for Cowboys’ loss: ‘If I do my job, we win that game’

The Cowboys’ veteran kicker refused to let rust be an excuse after going just 3-of-5 in field goal tries and missing a PAT in the loss. | From @ToddBrock24f7

The Cowboys poured their guts out on the turf in Tampa and came within two points of beating the defending world champions. After such a loss, it’s hard for players to not scrutinize every move they made over the course of the contest, looking for something else they could have done that might have been the difference.

Greg Zuerlein didn’t have to look long. The kicker, entering his tenth year in the league, left a total of seven points on the field in a rough night where he went just 3-of-5 on field goal attempts and also missed a point after touchdown.

“I know we played well enough to win. If I do my job, we win that game,” Zuerlein said outside the visitors’ locker room after the 31-29 season-opening loss. “I feel bad for the guys in there that played their ass off, and I didn’t hold up my end of the deal. A team that’s that good, returning every player from the Super Bowl victory, and we’re right there. I just have to do my job.”

Particularly concerning to the 2017 All-Pro was his first miss, a seemingly easy 31-yarder that sailed very wide left.

“Obviously, missing something [that’s] such an easy kick- you don’t even really practice them; it’s just automatic,” he explained. “When you miss something like that, you analyze it for about two minutes, figure out what you did wrong, and then you’ve got to move on. It does you no good dwelling on it.”

Two minutes of analysis is all Zuerlein had. The defense regained possession on the Bucs’ next play, recovering a fumble and setting up Dak Prescott and Co. with a short field and an eventual touchdown five snaps later. But Zuerlein then banged the extra-point attempt off the left upright.

The 33-year-old said that during a game, he may make small adjustments to his mechanics based on what he thinks he did wrong on an earlier miss, but there’s a danger in overthinking or trying to change too much all at once.

“I think the approach is always the same, whether you make it or miss it,” Zuerlein said. “You don’t just throw things straight out the window. You figure out what you did wrong, and you can make a slight tweak. But you’re not going to wholesale change everything. You’ve just got to keep swinging.”

Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy subscribed to the same theory, sending Zuerlein out to boot a 35-yard field goal on the team’s next series, and then to try a 60-yarder just before halftime. McCarthy admitted that he wanted to provide a confidence boost to his kicker who’s coming off spring back surgery and missed most of training camp.

“Obviously, you’d like to see him make those kicks,” McCarthy said in his postgame press conference. “Frankly, it’s part of the reason I went for the 60-yarder. I have great faith and confidence in him. We need him; he made a clutch, clutch kick there at the end to give us the lead before the two-minute drive of Tampa. You get in a game like that, you need all the points you can get.”

True, Zuerlein had better rhythm after the intermission, sinking field goals from 21 and 48 yards, the latter giving Dallas the lead with under 84 seconds to play.

But that was more than enough time for Tom Brady to work with, and he drove Tampa Bay to inside the Cowboys’ 20. Zuerlein’s earlier missed kicks had left just a slim margin; they ended up allowing Buccaneers kicker Ryan Succop to win the game with a 36-yard field goal of his own.

Zuerlein had not missed a field goal attempt of under 40 yards since 2019 and had missed just two from that range in the last five years. And while his physical rehab this summer kept him out of all but one preseason game (and forced the team to try both a punter and a CFL All-Star at kicker during camp), the man they call “Greg the Leg” wouldn’t chalk up his Week 1 misses to rust.

“No excuses. If I’m out there, I should make the kicks.”

Whether or not Zuerlein should, in fact, be the one out there is sure to be a question asked a lot this week in Cowboys Nation.

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Good, Bad and Ugly: Red-zone work, special teams do Cowboys in

The return of Dak Prescott highlights the good, while the special teams flop as the Dallas Cowboys lose to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. | From @BenGrimaldi

The Dallas Cowboys lost a heartbreaker on opening night in the NFL, 31-29, to the Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Cowboys entered the contest as huge underdogs, with most betting lines favoring the Buccaneers by a healthy two-score margin. The teams traded results through the first part of the game. Dallas forced a punt, Tampa forced a punt. Tampa scored a touchdown, Dallas scored a touchdown. In a game where the Cowboys held the lead for less than one minute, Dallas was not overwhelmed nor overmatched.

It’s frustrating to know a missed offensive pass interference call might have kept the Cowboys from being 1-0 and took away some of the luster from Dak Prescott’s triumphant return, but there are several reasons to feel good about the 2021 Cowboys. Here’s the good, the bad and the ugly from a nail biter in Tampa.

WATCH: CB Diggs makes tip drill INT, K Zuerlein finally makes FG for short-lived lead

CB Trevon Diggs got in on the takeaway party with an interception on a tip drill and K Greg Zuerlein cashed in on the play with a field goal

If one takeaway for the Dallas defense wasn’t enough, cornerback Trevon Diggs joined the party after a tipped pass for Tampa Bay found its way to him. Diggs had some struggles in his rookie season, but spent a lot of time in practice matching up on wide receiver Amari Cooper and he’s making his presence felt early.

This was the second straight takeaway for the Cowboys in as many defensive possessions and the offense was forced to a three-and-out after starting at the Buccaneers 21 yard line. K Greg Zuerlein stepped in after the quick stop by the Tampa Bay defense and made the 35-yard field goal to give Dallas a 16-14 lead. Zuerlein has missed a 31-yarder and a PAT early in this game and will need to tighten up as this game and the season progresses.

Unfortunately the defense couldn’t hold a third-straight time as Tom Brady found Antonio Brown for a big bomb down the right sideline against Anthony Brown, giving Tampa a 21-16 lead going into the half.

Peg Leg with a Kick Stand: Greg Zuerlein gives Cowboys shot at points from the far side

Zuerlein had a solid first season in Dallas. Coming off an injury and limited practice time, he’ll have to get back to form quickly in 2021. | From @CDBurnett7

Ever since the Dan Bailey era, the Cowboys have been trying to capture perfection in a new kicker. Special teams coordinator John Fassel is now notorious for bringing in familiar faces and Greg Zuerlein was the very first one who came over with him from Los Angeles.

Zuerlein was an All-Pro kicker in 2017 and is known for his range, being donned the nickname “Greg the Leg” during his career. In his first season in Dallas, Zuerlein missed just one field goal under 50 yards in 32 attempts. After a shaky 2019 season with the Rams where he made only 72.7% of his field-goal attempts, Zuerlein showed consistency and even heroics with the infamous onside kick and a game-winning field goal against the Falcons.

The Nebraska native has been sidelined during the preseason with a back issue but was able to get some game time in the preseason finale. Entering the second of his three-year deal with Dallas, a similar season to 2020 will be a success for the Cowboys kicking unit.

The Good, the bad and the ugly from Cowboys last preseason game of 2021

The Cowboys closed out their preseason schedule with a whimper. Take a look at the major takeaways from the performance against the Jaguars. | From @NoHuddle

The Dallas Cowboys’ interminably long preseason has mercifully come to a close. The visiting Jacksonville Jaguars played their first-string units against the Cowboys’ backups, jumping out to a 14-0 lead before winning the exhibition by a final score of 34-14.

The Cowboys now hold the ignominious distinction of being the only team to lose four preseason games in 2021. To be fair, they were one of only two teams to play that many, and it’s also important to remember that these game results don’t matter in the slightest, but it’s a tough look nonetheless for a head coach trying to establish winning as the norm.

Today’s good, bad and ugly is mostly about the latter two than it is the former. But as always, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Greg Zuerlein taken off PUP list, could kick in Cowboys’ preseason finale

The Cowboys’ All-Pro kicker passed his physical and will begin practicing Wednesday with an eye toward being ready for Sunday’s game. | From @ToddBrock24f7

The Cowboys have an active kicker on the roster once again. Veteran Greg Zuerlein has passed his physical and been taken off the Physically Unable to Perform List, just a day after the release of temporary leg Lirim Hajrullahu.

Offseason back surgery had kept Zuerlein from his normal duties for all of training camp, but the team had expressed confidence that he would, in fact, be ready for the regular season.

The 2017 All-Pro is free to begin practicing with the team again, though he had been slowly ramping up his work on his own. Now it appears that he’ll be handling kicking duties for the Cowboys’ preseason finale versus Jacksonville.

“He’s going to kick,” coach Mike McCarthy said of Zuerlein’s practice status for Wednesday. “We’re going to work back through his regimen, hopefully so he can kick Sunday.”

The team was not required to make a roster move in order to bring Zuerlein off PUP; he counted toward the training camp roster during his rehab.

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