Cowboys Kicker Brett Maher Reveals Thoughts on ‘Second Time Around’
Knocking one stiff from 60 yards is impressive enough once. Having to do it back-to-back on the road is downright unfair.
That’s the situation Dallas Cowboys kicker Brett Maher faced at the end of the first half, as he drilled an apparent 60-yard field goal before the play was whistled dead. Officials went back to review CeeDee Lamb’s sideline catch that set up the long kick.
The ball, though, was snapped and Mahar slipped one through the upright only to have to repeat the process. The second try, after the Lamb catch was held up, was even truer than the first.
“There was a lot of emotion,” Maher said. “I didn’t hear a whistle or anything during the kick, before the kick or anything like that. So the emotions were already kind of out there after I made the first one. To be able to back down and (get) myself to where I needed to be, I’m very happy with how I handled it.”
Maher handled everything perfectly, as did the Cowboys in a 40-3 thrashing of the Minnesota Vikings. The 33-year-old kicker (his birthday is Monday) hit all of his four field-goal tries and four extra-point attempts.
The other field goals came from 27, 53 and 50 yards. The first kick got the Cowboys (7-3) on the board first and the second extended the lead to 13-3. But it was the 60-yarder that gave Dallas a major boost of momentum – as well as a 23-3 advantage over the NFC North leaders – going into halftime.
The replay review didn’t upset his routine.
“It was really just getting myself back mentally to where I needed to be,” Maher said. “I didn’t hit a super clean ball on the first one. So to still be able to make that, it was more about getting myself back mentally into the zone that I felt like I needed to be in to give myself a good chance on the second one.”
Mahar is on his third stint with the Cowboys after winning the kicking job in training camp. He’s making this stay count, setting a franchise record with seven field goals this season of at least 50 yards.
“To be able to have an impact on the game is what we’re here to do,” he said. “I do feel like we’re in a good rhythm with our whole operation, so hopefully we can keep that going forward.”
You can follow Art Garcia on Twitter @ArtGarcia92
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