The Cowboys kicker’s job may be in jeopardy after yet another missed field goal- and additional errors- in Thursday night’s loss to Chicago.
A long list of things went wrong for the Cowboys in Chicago on Thursday night. Among the most maddening for many fans watching the game was the performance of Brett Maher. The second-year kicker missed a 42-yard field goal try in the second quarter that would have tied the score. Later, Maher cost the Cowboys valuable field position when a kickoff dribbled out of bounds. And in the waning moments, his onside kick try- the team’s last-ditch chance at a miracle comeback- never even had a chance.
As poor a showing as he had in the team’s loss, it might be Maher’s casual attitude to all of it afterward that infuriates Cowboys fans the most.
When asked about a possible injury or mechanics issues causing the preponderance of misses this season, Maher nonchalantly told reporters, “I feel fine.”
When pressed to come up with a reason, then, for blowing so many kicks, he answered with a shrug.
“I feel fine,” he repeated.
But he’s not kicking fine. He’s just 20-of-30 for field goal attempts this season, a dreadful 66 percent. Last season, he finished 29-of-36, or 80 percent. Yes, he has connected on several from extremely long range; he’s the only kicker ever with three field goals of 60-plus yards. But he’s just 1-of-5 this year on tries between 40 and 49 yards. Those are the misses that are costing the Cowboys games, wasting decent drives, flipping field position, causing the team to gradually fall behind by multiple scores, and forcing the offense to switch to catch-up mode too often and for too long.
That’s precisely what his 42-yard miss did against the Bears.
“Obviously, you have to make the kick,” coach Jason Garrett said from the podium Thursday night. “We’ve had that instance the last couple weeks where you drive the ball, you get yourself in a position to where you’re going to be competitive in the game, and we’re not able to cash in on the drive with a field goal.
“In regards to the ball that was kicked out of bounds,” Garrett continued, “we were trying to kick the ball away from 84 [Bears return specialist Cordarrelle Patterson]. He’s a big-time player, and [Brett] missed it a little bit left and it squirted out of bounds. Obviously, not what we wanted on that situation.”
The penalty gave the Bears fifteen extra yards of field position just moments after Dallas had reduced the deficit to 10 points and started to gain momentum. Working on a suddenly shorter field, Chicago promptly drove 60 yards in three plays and put the ball in the end zone to increase their lead to 17. Momentum, squelched.
A very late field goal from 31 yards out (on first down) brought the Cowboys to within seven points and left enough time on the clock for an onside kick attempt and a Hail Mary if they could recover.
The ensuing kick was so weak that media members had to ask Garrett during his press conference if it was an actual onside attempt.
“Yeah, it was,” Garrett replied. “He was going to try to bang it against the guy on the front line.”
It actually looked like Maher was trying to recover the kick himself, something that was done to perfection by Colts punter Pat McAfee back in 2014. Coincidentally enough, the play just made the rounds again on Twitter a couple weeks ago.
Whatever the intent, Maher’s onside try was scooped up immediately by Chicago. And the story of Maher’s game can be summarized by more missed opportunities.
The 30-year-old missed both of his field goal tries on Thanksgiving versus Buffalo. He missed one the week prior in New England. Week 14’s miss- his fourth in the last three outings- was his tenth on the year. No other kicker over the last four seasons missed ten field goals in a single year, and Dallas still has three more games to go in 2019.
When asked after the Chicago game to rate his confidence level, Maher seemed to shake off the question like it was an absurd thing to ask.
“Feel good.”
But the team may not feel as good. Garrett has always driven the “he’s made a lot of big kicks for us in the past” train. But after working out a trio of possible replacement kickers following the Bills loss, the coach allowed for the possibility of shopping once again after Maher’s latest miss.
“Obviously, we have to do a close evaluation of it,” Garrett said Friday morning during a phone call with 105.3 The Fan. “And Brett would be the first one to tell you that he’s got to make those kicks. Unfortunately, he didn’t do that for us. You know, we brought three kickers in earlier in the week; we decided to give Brett an opportunity this week. It didn’t work out. So we have to take a real hard, close look at that and determine what we want to do moving forward.”
For Maher’s part, he says he doesn’t think about the notion that his job may be in jeopardy.
“I can’t,” the Nebraska alum told reporters. “I felt like I did a good job staying in my lane this week. Felt like I hit every ball pretty well tonight, and I’ll put my head on the pillow tonight feeling good about what I did this week and moving forward.”
Maher may feel good about it. But the fans do not feel good about it. And with postseason play still very much on the table, the team may no longer be able to afford to pretend they feel good about it, either.
