All eyes were on Brett Maher at the Dallas Cowboys practice session Thursday.
That’s never a good thing when your placekicker’s performance is the center of attention, but then again, Maher had a historically bad game in Monday night’s playoff victory against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The veteran kicker missed four PAT attempts, the first player to do that since the NFL began keeping that statistic in 1932.
The good news: Yahoo Sports Jori Epstein reports Maher had a perfect practice Thursday, hitting all six of his attempts. That’s great news for a kicker whose Monday performance was so bad he got trolled by a Hall of Fame kicker, and a Dallas TV news anchor laced up his shoes to see how many PAT kicks he could make.
Cowboys players were supportive Thursday when asked about Maher.
“We’ve got trust in him,” running back Ezekiel Elliott said, per Epstein. “We’ve got faith in him. That’s our brother and we’re not going to turn our back on him. Last week we ain’t really need him. But this week we probably will.”
While Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and head coach Mike McCarthy both voiced confidence in Maher, the Cowboys signed kicker Tristan Vizcaino to the team’s practice squad Wednesday.
In case you’re wondering, Vizcaino shanked his first kick Thursday, before finishing 3-of-5 on his attempts.
Maher’s struggles in the playoff win were totally uncharacteristic of his season. He missed only three of 53 PAT attempts, and connected on 29-of-32 field-goal attempts.
About Arthur Weinstein
Arthur spends his free time traveling around the U.S. to sporting events, state and national parks, and in search of great restaurants off the beaten path.