The Dallas Cowboys won on Sunday. They did so by the skin of their teeth. It took almost all four quarters for the Cowboys to declare victory against the Indianapolis Colts, and for a little while near the end it looked like they were going to lose.
Dallas was trailing 23-20 but wound up scoring a touchdown to give them their final lead, but it is important to note that they missed a field goal prior to their last drive that would have made matters simpler.
It was a 50-yard attempt from Brandon Aubrey, his 24th from 50+ since the beginning of last season. The miss officially means that he now has double-digit misses of that variety.
Aubrey’s miss gave the Colts the ball at the Dallas 40-yard line which meant that they did not have to travel all too far for the field goal that successfully gave them their 23-20 lead. That is the inherent risk with attempts from that far, and while it was once Aubrey’s specialty, it is now a higher-proposition risk than it used to be.
It should be noted that eight of these field goals have been from 60+ which certainly changes the calculus and more importantly the evaluation. Half of the 60+ attempts are a part of the overall misses from Aubrey so there is still a legitimate value involved of misses between 50 and 59 yards which is pretty standard (relatively speaking) for today’s NFL kickers.
The Cowboys gave Aubrey an extension this past offseason that officially made him the highest-paid kicker in the NFL. Without getting too interested in another person’s finances, the reality of that deal is that it means Aubrey has to be more reliable, especially at something that was regarded to be his forte.
