dalas cowboy kicker Brett “The Triple Threat” Maher was barely automatic in the PAT during last Monday’s Wild Card Round win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It was the Cowboys’ first playoff win since 1992, but Maher certainly didn’t help. He won 1-5 in PAT attempts, with no points added to goals on the field. It was a horrible performance, even Peyton Manning, who faced a “goof” of himself in the past, had to apologize to understand the incompetence he had just witnessed.
Wrong history
Maher has never had such a bad game before. In fact, no one has. In the history of the NFL, no player has ever missed four or more PATs. Damn, only two people ever went 1/4 and only 6 people ever went 2/5. Let Maher experience that Terrible performance However, in the knockout stages… that’s hard to recover from. It was such an embarrassing performance that Dallas, despite claiming that they want to stick with Maher before looking for external options, still feel the need to signed striker Tristan Vizcaino to their training team…for precautions of course.
Maher is certainly having a very short window of time to get into Sunday’s game against the San Francisco 49ers. In fact, some sportsbooks already offer a player support about whether Maher missed the PAT in this game. The odds? +325 if available, meaning a $100 bet will pay $425 if Maher misses a kick. Given how terrible he was less than a week ago, many bettors could consider this a certainty. Betting. However, I am here to warn you about this line. This is definitely a trap.
Other Strikers live in disgrace
In the history of the NFL, there have only been nine starting players, including Maher, miss three or more PATs in a match. Only two people failed the PAT next week — Rick Danmeier (1980) and Max Zendejas (1986) — and only Bob Thomas (1985) miss a goal in their next game. Even so, Thomas won 5 to 5 for PAT and 3 to 4 for goals on the field. I’d say he earned that miss. Despite that, in total, after a week where they missed three or more extra points, the starting players hit a 20 to 22 (90.91%) ratio for the PAT and 15 to 16 for the tables. won on the field (93.75%). Maher had a bad game, but that usually means he’ll have a good one right after.
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Extra, extra
Now, to be fair, the extra point was made more difficult in 2015, after moving the PAT back from the 2-yard line to the 15. And only one kicker has ever missed three or more PATs in a single game from that distance — Matt Gay in 2019. He went 2-for-2 on PATs and 2-for-2 on field goals the following week, but that’s not a big enough sample size to make a judgment. So, let’s move to field goals. I understand that field goals are tougher than extra points in general, and on average, they tend to be longer than 32 yards (the expected distance of a PAT since 2015), but that just goes to show that if kickers who miss a bunch of field goals in a single game can bounce back the next week, then Maher should be expected to do the same since PATs are easier, right?
Since 2015, there have been 19 instances where a kicker has missed three or more field goals in a single game. Surprisingly, only Greg “The Leg” Zuerlein and Mason Crosby have had more than one of these games. In seven of those instances, the kicker didn’t play another game that year (either it was the end of the season, the kicker went on IR for the remainder of the year, or they were cut), so let’s eliminate those. Of the remaining 12 instances, the following week those kickers went a combined 33-for-36 (91.67 percent) on extra points and 20-for-25 (80 percent) on field goals. Yes, both of those figures are below league average, but
- At least they’re very close to average, meaning the kickers are returning to normalcy; and
- The percentages are thrown off by 2015 Kyle Brindza, who won 2 to 3 for PAT and 1 to 3 for on-field goals just a week after winning 0-to-1 on PAT and 1 to 4 for goals on the field. He was cut a week later. He’s only played four games in his entire career. He is not a proven veteran striker like Maher or anyone else on this list is/was.
Without Brindza, the percentage rises to 93.94% for PAT and 86.36%. The latter is one full percentage point higher than the one tournament average in 2022.
Can Maher miss another kick this weekend? Sure. But if that happens, I’m willing to bet it will be stopped by the 49ers’ special team unit rather than another missed opportunity from Maher’s feet. Maher is a professional who has almost certainly encountered yips before. He’s gotten over them already, and he’s going to get over them now. I still believe the Niners will win, but not because Maher will miss a series of kicks. I doubt he will miss any.
