The Dallas Cowboys now have an insurance policy in place.
The Cowboys signed kicker Tristan Vizcaino to their practice squad on Wednesday, just days after Brett Maher missed four straight extra point attempts in their wild-card win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, according to Yahoo Sports’ Jori Epstein.
Unless Maher’s struggles continue in practice this week, the Cowboys likely won’t need Vizcaino for Sunday’s divisional matchup with the San Francisco 49ers. But adding him to the practice squad at least adds an alternate option should they need.
Vizcaino is in his third season in the league after spending time with the 49ers, Chargers, Cardinals and Patriots. He’s gone 15-of-20 on extra point attempts in 10 career games, and made 11-of-12 field goals.
In the Cowboys’ 31-14 win over the Buccaneers, Maher became the first NFL kicker in history to miss four extra point attempts in a single game since it was first tracked nearly 100 years ago.
Maher had a very solid regular season, going 50-of-53 on extra point attempts and 29-of-32 on field goals.
He was “distraught” even still on Tuesday morning after the game, special teams coordinator John Fassel said. Maher, simply put, had the “yips.”
“A perfect storm for bad kicking,” Fassel said. “I believe in a hot hand and I believe in the yips. Absolutely. You’ll wonder sometimes how you get into the yips, and you wonder sometimes how you get back into the hot hand. I think it’s [to] keep stepping up to the line and shooting.”
Brett Maher missed four straight extra point attempts in the Cowboys’ wild-card win over the Buccaneers on Monday. (Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)
..
