Cowboys Country

Panic vs. Patience: Cowboys Again Out-Kicking Their Coverage

Cowboys' kicking woes, Rangers' hollow Hall of Fame, Mavs' bare cupboard and Happy Halloween(?), all in this week's DFW sports notebook.

Richie Whitt

Whether you’re at the end of your coffee, your day, your week or even your rope, welcome to Whitt’s End …

*Given the benefit of hindsight, maybe newer isn’t necessarily better. With perspective now and patience then, perhaps you should’ve hung on to those old baseball cards, that low-maintenance starter house and – who knows – even the first wife. 

Right, Jerry Jones?

Dan Bailey is 34 and has been out of the NFL since being cut by the Minnesota Vikings in March 2021. I’d take him right now as the Dallas Cowboys kicker, sight unseen.

Why? Because he’s the best kicker in franchise history. Because the Cowboys gave up on him prematurely. And, mainly, because their current kicking situation is so out of ideas that we’re back to Brett Maher.

I’ll never understand why Jones doesn’t still employ Steve Hoffman. In the 1990s Hoffman was the Cowboys’ kicking coach. His job, first and foremost, was to find low-budget, high-quality kickers . Undrafted free agents-turned-Super-Bowl-champs Lin Elliott and Chris Boniol, and successful kickers Richie Cunningham and Billy Cundiff were all Hoffman discoveries.

While Hoffman is still in the league as an advisor with the Atlanta Falcons, the Cowboys’ kicking is a mess.

To save $3 million, they cut Bailey in 2018 though at the time he was the most accurate kicker in NFL history. While he went on to three solid seasons in Minnesota – twice being named NFC Special Teams Player of the Week – Dallas suffered through the inconsistencies of his successor: Canadian Football League journeyman Maher.

During his first stint in Dallas he made two of the longest field goals in league history (62 and 63 yards), but was wildly inaccurate between 30-49 yards (62 percent).

In his wake the Cowboys spent big bucks on Greg Zuerlein. Yikes.

He made five 50+-yard field goals and countless pressure kicks, but also missed nine extra points in two seasons. In Dallas’ five regular-season losses last season, he missed four field goals and two PATs.

Jerry and coach Mike McCarthy kinda wanted him back, but at a deeply discounted rate. Alas, Zuerlein now kicks for the New York Jets and the Cowboys are left cutting rookie Jonathan Garibay, hanging on to Lirim Hajrullahu and bringing back Maher.

Bottom line: The Texas Rangers cut ties with Pudge Rodriguez and Nelson Cruz way too soon. The Dallas Mavericks sure could use a player like one they once had: Jae Crowder. And, yes, the Cowboys should have held on the best kicker in franchise history.

Though they have never won a playoff game on a final-play field goal, the Cowboys have lost a couple in the waning seconds including Super Bowl V (Jim O'Brien's 32-yard field goal for the Colts), a 2006 Wild Card game (Tony Romo's botched hold in Seattle) and a 2016 Divisional Round heartbreaker to the Packers (Mason Crosby's 51-yarder as time expired).

The Cowboys’ last crucial kick that won them anything close to a playoff game? Eddie Murray's 41-yard field goal in overtime at The Meadowlands in the 1993 regular-season finale that beat the Giants and set them up with home-field advantage throughout the playoffs en route to a second consecutive Super Bowl victory.

What I do know is that kicking cannot be undervalued, evidenced by six of the NFL’s final seven playoff games last season being decided by three points or less (the other by six points in overtime).

In their 62 previous seasons, 34 players have attempted a field goal for Cowboys. Bailey is still the best:

10. Mike Clark 1968-73 - Dallas' last straight-on kicker made three extra points and a rare 9-yard field goal in Super Bowl VI.

9. Toni Fritsch 1971-75 - Austrian soccer-style kicker made team's 6th-most field goals, but only 20 of 59 from 30+ yards.

8. Richie Cunningham 1997-99 - Fourth-most field goals in team history (75), 80-percent accuracy and 95 of 95 on extra points.

7. Efren Herrera 1974-77 - Mexican-born kicker made only 67 percent of his career kicks, but converted field goals of 35 and 43 yards in Super Bowl XII.

6. Nick Folk 2007-09 - Made 79 percent of field goals, holds franchise record for most extra points without a miss (131).

5. Brett Maher 2018-19 - At increased extra-point distance made 68 of 69 and nailed 10 of 15 field goals from 50+ yards.

4. Rafael Septien 1978-86 - Made 112 more extra points than any other Cowboys kicker, and second-most field goals with 162.

3. Chris Boniol 1994-96 - Third in made field goals, including two in Super Bowl XXX and a team-record seven against Packers in 1996.

2. Eddie Murray 1993,'99 - Never missed an extra point and his clutch 41-yard field goal in overtime against Giants set up Dallas' Super Bowl XXVIII run.

1. Dan Bailey 2011-17 - Missed only two of 278 extra points, and is franchise all-time leader in made field goals (186), 50+-yard field goals (27) and longest field-goal streak (30).

*Good Mavs news: Luka Doncic, amazingly still just 23, is the best player to build an NBA team around. 

*Bad Mavs news: Other than rookie Jaden Hardy and maybe Josh Green, Dallas is void of young pieces that could help him by the time he reaches his prime.

*No offense to Chuck Morgan and John Blake, who are both nice, knowledgeable men that have been incredibly informative and entertaining when it comes to Rangers baseball over the last four decades. But you’re telling me the public address announcer (Morgan) and the communications director (Blake) are in the Rangers Hall of Fame while the manager that led the team to consecutive World Series (Ron Washington) isn’t? 

Preposterous. 

Blake gets inducted this weekend in Arlington. Wash inexplicably keeps waiting.

*C’mon, Kroger! What, you can’t make money off Labor Day “decorations” so you’re already shoving Halloween pumpkins down our throat? Boo! (Get it?) Boo.

*When he got snippy with the media in Oxnard and claimed “I have choices” in (sorta) defending McCarthy’s coaching security, I got a déjà vu from Jerry. As in 1993, when he kicked the door open for Jimmy Johnson’s departure by claiming “I think there are 500 people who could have coached this team to the Super Bowl. I really believe that.”

*Hot.

*Not.

*Even when wearing those goofy Guardian Pads that remind me of “The Great Gazoo” from The Flintstones, NFL players at training camp can hit, be hit and, yup, get feisty. 

Cowboys’ running back Ezekiel Elliott took an unnecessary shot from a Denver Broncos’ linebacker this week and it was game on.

We've got blanket coverage of it all with Fish in Denver with the team.

*No one wants to attend their own funeral. (Or do they?) But we have this horrible habit as humans of not appreciating how great someone is until they’re dead. The NBA this week retired No. 6 in honor of Bill Russell. Not to be disrespectful, but I’m skeptical that Russell suddenly became “better” after his death. 

A fitting tribute to a player and a man of his stature would be to retire his number while he was alive to see it. 

For what it’s worth, the best No. 6 in Mavs’ history is … easy … Tyson Chandler.

*On the Rangers’ 2022 tombstone: Bullpen, 20-28 with 18 blown saves.

*Thanks to all who have followed/are following my mentoring of Ja, my lil’ bro through Dallas’ Big Brothers Big Sisters program. An anonymous donor even recently reached out to help, offering money to help us buy him a new pair of Jordan kicks for his birthday and in time for back-to-school for his junior year in high school. It indeed takes a village.

*This Weekend? Friday let’s play some outdoor tennis before heading indoor for some Happy Hour(s). Saturday let’s watch Cowboys-Broncos. Sunday let’s check out our old friend White Rock Lake, by foot and then on bike. As always, don’t be a stranger.

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Richie Whitt
RICHIE WHITT

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