Cowboys Putting Pressure on Brett Maher After Wild Card Disaster

The Dallas Cowboys' win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night was fairly uneventful. The Cowboys jumped out to an early lead and never looked back, cruising to a 31-14 victory to advance to the Divisional Round.

Surprisingly, the most memorable parts of the game involved Dallas kicker Brett Maher, who brutally missed four of his five extra-point attempts in an embarrasing performance.

Not surprisingly, the Cowboys are considering other options at kicker as they prepare for this weekend's clash with the San Francisco 49ers.

Brett Maher News

According to NFL insider Adam Schefter, Dallas is expected to audition another kicker this week. Schefter believes the move is more for the sake of appearances, however, and to put some pressure on Maher to perform better. Ultimately though, Maher is still likely to be the starting kicker again on Sunday

Based on his track record, Maher deserves the chance to redeem himself. He drilled 94.3% of his extra-point attempts and a career-high 90.6% of his field goals this year, so Monday's performance was simply a bad game. Unfortunately for him, it happened during a nationally televised playoff game in front of millions of people.

The Cowboys enter Sunday's contest as 3.5-point road underdogs against the Niners on FanDuel Sportsbook's NFL odds, so they'll need Maher to be at his best. If he can't get things straightened out at practice this week, his struggles could cost Dallas the game this time around.

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.