Cowboys fans were left stunned on Monday night watching kicker Brett Maher miss four consecutive extra point attempts against the Buccaneers. Maher had missed his only extra point attempt in the regular season finale against the Commanders, meaning he failed on five straight kicks of 33 yards.
While extra points have become more challenging than they were in the era of 19-yard kicks, they are still considered to be relatively automatic. Missing even two in a row can be alarming, much more so when you miss more than double that.
There was a lot of social media discussion about the “yips” in regards to Brett Maher, but there was an equally interesting potential explanation that arose from Maher’s struggles.
Does Brett Maher have trouble kicking on natural grass?
Turf vs. grass has caused a lot of debate in regards to injuries, and there was even some discussion about how fast the Cowboys play on grass leading up to their Wild Card game, but there hasn’t been much discussion about it in terms of kicking. That’s mainly because it doesn’t appear to be an issue for NFL kickers.
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In 2022, NFL kickers made 85.9% of their field goals, and 95.6% of their extra points when kicking on turf. Both numbers went down when tracking kicks on grass, but it was a negligible difference. Field goal efficiency on grass dropped to 84.5%, and extra point efficiency dipped slightly more to 93.1%. While it does appear turf makes for more efficient kickers, the numbers are so small that they don’t warrant much of a debate.
Brett Maher’s numbers, however, are significantly different. For his career, Maher makes 81.8% of his field goals on turf, which is the surface he plays the majority of his games on. When Maher kicks on grass, his field goal percentage drops considerably to 73.7%. Extra points go from 96.2% on turf to 83.3% on grass.
Part of these struggles may be related to outdoor elements outside of the grass, such as wind and rain. Maher plays his home games at AT&T Stadium, which is rarely impacted by the elements (save for the occasional glaring sunlight).
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But Maher’s numbers don’t show much of a drop when he’s kicking on turf indoors vs. turf outdoors. The difference between his kicking efficiency on outdoor turf to natural grass is strikingly similar to the difference in his efficiency on indoor turf to natural grass.
A lot of what goes into the kicking game is psychological. We’ve seen several prominent cases of kickers being psychologically shaken by their poor performances, and unable to recover.
Maybe Maher was in fact dealing with the yips on Monday. Or maybe he simply had an off night, and he’ll return next week to his borderline Pro Bowl form that he displayed all season. But it’s hard to ignore the differences in Maher’s effectiveness on grass vs. turf.
And yes, for those of you wondering aloud, the San Francisco 49ers – Dallas’ divisional round playoff opponent this weekend – plays its home game on natural grass.