Like a golfer, NFL kickers can sometimes fall into a slump.
The really good ones snap out of it, especially when the pressure is at an all-time high.
That’s what the Dallas Cowboys are hoping for with Greg Zuerlein as the team enters the playoffs this week. The Cowboys (12-5) host the San Francisco 49ers (10-7) at 3:30 p.m. Sunday at AT&T Stadium.
Zuerlein, of course, has struggled with his consistency this season. He has missed an NFL-high six extra point attempts, along with six field goals. Three of the six missed field goals have been from 50 or more yards. His latest PAT miss came in Saturday’s 51-26 win over the Eagles in Philadelphia.
“It’s not ideal. It’s not exactly what you want and it gives you things you need to tighten up,” Zuerlein said after the regular-season finale.
The Cowboys coaching staff don’t appear too alarmed about the prospect of a playoff game coming down the accuracy of the team’s kickers. 49ers kicker Bobbie Gould has missed a PAT and three field goals attempts this season, including making 10 of 13 attempts from 40 yards and beyond.
Cowboys special teams coordinator John Fassel remains confident in Zuerlein, who missed much of his normal routine in training camp after having surgery on his kicking foot in May.
“I love Greg and I believe in Greg and I’m not supporting him just because of my experience over the last 10 years,” Fassel said. “This is a production business and when we stop producing, things change, but I just have full faith in Greg. I do, and if I’m wrong, then I’ll be wrong. But I just really think that I’m going to be right. I guess we’ll see.”
Fassel intimated that Zuerlein is still working on a few things, including one aspect of his kicks that he opted not to share. But Fassel acknowledged that confidence is the biggest hurdle left for Zuerlein.
“At this point I think it is psychological,” he said. “There’s actually something we’re going to do to help him out a little bit that we talked about. But I think the biggest part is just having the confidence that this thing is going right down the middle every time. Kicking is hard. It’s got to go through. If it doesn’t, everybody knows.”
Head coach Mike McCarthy seems content to let his kicker and Fassel try to work out the issues ahead of the playoffs.
“He has a very diligent work schedule that he follows. If anything, you have to watch that he doesn’t do too much, would be the tendency,” he said. “I have great confidence in him. He’ll be ready to go Sunday.”
Fassel, of course, echoes the same confident support for Zuerlein.
“He’s grinded very hard this season and obviously, the pressure, he feels the weight of it,” Fassel said. “He wants to perform for the team. He wants to make kicks to help the team. He feels the pressure and that’s part of my job, too. Is to not put more on him when your job is on the line, when your season is on the line, because I don’t think that helps because I think he knows that.”
Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones pulled no punches when asked about Zuerlein’s struggles during an interview on KRLD/105.3 “The Fan.” Jones said the missed field goals have altered the offensive play-calling.
“It really does, but Zuerlein brings a lot to the table,” Jone said, noting the veteran’s leg strength. “You can rest assured the first thing that you look at [is] if a better alternative would be out there, we would be using it. Everything’s at stake.”
Fassel says he saw Zuerlein snap out of a funk when they both were with the St. Louis Rams in 2015.
“So, I’m not sitting up here having false hope or just making claims out of the blue like, ‘Hey, he’s going to pull himself out of it.’ I’ve seen it. There might come a time where, yeah, he doesn’t get it back. But this time isn’t now.”
To understand how we got here, you first must understand from where Zuerlein battled back from. He had surgery on his kicking leg in May, which slowed his normal progressions throughout the summer when the team met for training camp in California in late July and early August.
“He’s really been trying to find it all season, and he really only started trying to find it when the game was live, Tampa week. That’s when we first got him out. We kicked quite a bit in the preseason, but it was really all swinging, no operation,” Fassel said. “So, that put us behind the 8-ball, and I think I can speak for him. He’s still trying to find it, and he’s been real close, and for a couple of weeks there he was really dialed in.”
Asked whether Zuerlein’s struggles have him nervous going into the playoffs, Fassel said he’s nervous, but not about his kicker. He’s more worried about which players, if any, will be lost to the COVID-19 list.
“If it was a rookie, maybe [I’d be nervous],” he said. “But, you know, I think every kicker has kind of lost it before and they find it again. I think Tiger Woods a lot of times has lost it. It’s like when you’re a golfer, once you get it down, wish you could stay with that forever. But they either kind of lose it or they kind of tweak it.”
