FRISCO, Texas — Distraught kicker Brett Maher has the yips.
There is no other way to explain missing an NFL playoff record four extra points and five straight over the past two games.
But with a short week before Sunday’s NFC Divisional Playoff game at the San Francisco 49ers, the Dallas Cowboys have little choice but to stick by Maher and hope he can return to the process that saw him fashion the finest season ever by a Cowboys kicker and set a franchise record for points scored (123).
“At the end of the day, we all have a job to do,” McCarthy said. “He knows he has to put the ball through the uprights. And he’s been super productive and consistent for us.
“In this business, especially this game, you learn from your experiences when it doesn’t go the way you like as opposed to the success of it. So, just like our whole football team [in a Week 18 loss], we came out of Washington and got punched in the jaw and I think we clearly responded.
“I think he definitely has that in him.”
Maher certainly had it in him.
He was 50 of 52 on extra-point attempts in the regular season and 29 of 32 on field goals, including seven of 50 or more yards.
But that was before he missed an extra point in a 26-6 loss the Washington Commanders to end the regular season and then missed the his first four attempts in the 31-14 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC wild-card game on Monday.
The Cowboys are concerned but expressing patience.
“But we will take a look at it,” owner Jerry Jones said on Dallas radio station 105.3 The Fan. “It’d be really a big setback to go into the rest of this tournament, the rest of the playoff with shakiness at kicker.”
Said McCarthy: “I think the biggest thing is just to make sure you got a good plan with Brett moving forward. We’re going to forge ahead. So that’s, as of right now, that’s the plan.”
Special Teams coach John Fassel made his position clear when asked about whether the team should stick with Maher.
“Hell yeah, if you ask me,” Fassel said.
But the Cowboys are covering their bases and bringing in some insurance.
They plan to sign kicker Tristan Vizcaino to the practice squad, pending a physical, sources confirmed.
Vizcaino kicked in three games this season for the New England Patriots and Arizona Cardinals. He went 2 for 2 on field goals and was 3 for 3 on extra points.
He played in six games with the Los Angeles Chargers last season and was 10 of 15 on extra points and 6 of 7 on field goals.
Fassel also acknowledged that Maher remained distraught and had the yips.
Vizcaino is being brought in just in case Maher can’t get it together in practice this week.
None of the misses against the Buccaneers were physical and the operations were clean.
Maher “didn’t commit to a full swing,” Fassel said. “Almost like a lazy swing.”
He was distracted on the second miss after the officials removed his marker, a white blade of grass, calling it an artificial impediment.
He simply overcorrected on the third mess.
And he was a mental mess when he shanked the fourth one
“A perfect storm for bad kicking,” Fassel said. “I believe in a hot hand and I believe in the yips. Absolutely. You’ll wonder sometimes how you get into the yips, and you wonder sometimes how you get back into the hot hand. I think it’s [to] keep stepping up to the line and shooting.”
Maher will go back to his regular routine and kick again on Thursday and Friday in practice.
“This week will give him confidence, just getting back out there,” Fassel said. “He’s probably going to be mentally hurting pretty bad until he can kind of sweat and kick again. There’s no medicine like being back on the practice field. I am optimistic. A good, professional man who really gives a damn … leads me to be optimistic about a good rebound. We all want it.”
They badly need it.
The season is on the line Sunday as the Cowboys are 3.5-point underdogs to the 49es and wind will be a factor in Northern California.
Every point will matter in the Cowboys' hopes of reaching the NFC championship game for first time in 27 years.
