Peyton Manning Lost It After Brett Maher Missed His Third Straight Extra Point For Dallas

The Dallas Cowboys had a nearly perfect first half against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. After a slow start for both teams, Dak Prescott and company got cooking, scoring three touchdowns on consecutive drives — including a pair of 90-plus yard drives — while the defense picked Tom Brady off in the end zone on the Bucs only red zone visit.

Those two phases of the game were about as good as it gets in a half of football, but kicker Brett Maher’s performance left a lot to be desired as he missed all three of his extra point attempts. The first two were nearly identical, as he just blew both kicks wide right.

On the third miss, an overcorrection to hooking it wide left, the reaction of Peyton and Eli on the Manningcast was hysterical.

Peyton, who cannot accept failures of execution even when not emotionally invested, looks visibly ill and says “you’ve got to be kidding me” and yelling “why are we kicking it” while walking off camera, as Eli just can’t believe what he’s watching. Those two responses were pretty much the reaction of everyone else, and it felt very probable that Dallas would not look to kick again in the game if they could help it — and very well could be making a kicker change ahead of the Divisional round if they finish off this win.

Maher’s three missed extra points made some NFL history, as he became the first player to miss three in a playoff game, and will likely hold the record for most consecutive misses in the playoffs for a very, very long time.

For now, it looks like Maher’s missteps will be covered up by excellent play from the offense and defense, but you can be assured that any Bucs comeback to get within a possession in the second half will shift the spotlight squarely onto Dallas’ kicker.