Nobody wants to be Brett Maher right now.
The Dallas Cowboys kicker put on a disastrous performance in last Monday’s playoff win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, missing a record four consecutive extra-point attempts. Despite Maher’s brutal struggles, the Cowboys elected to not elevate practice squad kicker (and former New England Patriot) Tristan Vizcaino for Sunday’s divisional-round matchup against the 49ers in San Francisco.
But the vote of confidence might not have worked.
It all started when 49ers players appeared to play mind games with Maher during warmups at Levi’s Stadium. The veteran kicker then struggled mightily, as documented by The Athletic’s Tim Kawakami.
According to Kawakami, Maher missed four of six kicks toward the open end of the stadium before going roughly 50% while kicking toward the closed end. He then went back to the open end and missed two more — prompting an on-field visit from Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.
Check out this wild timeline of events:
No pressure or anything.
That said, Kawakami reported that Maher made his next three warmup kicks, so perhaps Jones’ pep talk did the trick.
