This is not the first time Mike McCarthy has dealt with concerns at kicker.
Brett Maher had a meltdown Monday against the Bucs, missing four of his five extra point attempts while not attempting a field goal. It didn’t end up making a huge difference, as the Cowboys pummeled Tampa 31-14, but with a matchup against the 49ers upcoming, they need Maher to be reliable.
The 33-year-old holds the NFL record for 60-plus-yard field goals made, and he only missed three of his 53 extra point attempts during the regular season.
Dallas badly needs to get him right.
“I think it’s just like anything,” McCarthy said Friday in his weekly appearance on “Shan and RJ.” “You sit down, you talk about it, you lay out a plan for what we want to get done this week. Brett puts in a lot of extra time, he’s one of the guys you’ll see here in off hours, I mean he was here last night. So obviously, make sure he’s getting everything he needs to have a good plan to get ready.”
McCarthy has been here before, recalling when things went sideways with longtime Packers kicker Mason Crosby.
"Definitely. I went through this with Mason Crosby (in 2018)," McCarthy said. "I want to say he missed five kicks in Detroit, so yes I have been through this before.”
That was back in Week 5 of the 2018 season. Crosby hit his lone extra point attempt, but missed on four out of five field goal tries in a 31-23 loss. Whatever course correction Crosby and McCarthy responded with worked, as he went 26-for-26 on extra points and 19-of-21 on field goals the rest of the regular season.
In Maher’s case, all the Cowboys can do is try to prepare him for San Francisco as best they can.
“It’s no different for any position,” McCarthy said. “You’ve got your practice environment, you have your gameday environment. You’re trying to create as much of a game environment, situations as you can on the practice field. But there’s still nothing like a game.”
The Cowboys have backed Maher and seem confident he will rebound, but for insurance signed kicker Tristan Vizcaino to the practice squad this week.
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