3 Cowboys most to blame for another playoff disappointment vs 49ers

K Brett Maher, Dallas Cowboys. (Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images)

The Dallas Cowboys flamed out in the playoffs again. These three people are the most responsible for another disappointing exit in San Francisco.

Another January has come to a bitter end for the Dallas Cowboys, who were eliminated from the NFL playoffs after a pathetic 19-12 loss to the San Francisco 49ers. The most frustrating part for Cowboys fans is that this game felt extremely winnable thanks to a tremendous effort from the Dallas defense, which held the 49ers to only 312 yards of offense.

There is plenty of blame to go around in Dallas, which now has gone 27 years between appearances in the NFC Championship Game. Let’s take a look at the three culprits most responsible for the Cowboys’ latest playoff flop.

3. Brett Maher put the Cowboys behind the eight-ball early

The fact that Maher actually was allowed to kick in this game after missing four extra points in Monday’s win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers should raise questions about Jerry Jones’ decision-making process. Things got bad early for Maher, who missed an early extra point after Dallas scored a first-quarter touchdown, leading to the Cowboys chasing that point for the rest of the afternoon.

Maher’s yips also changed the calculus for the Cowboys on fourth down attempts as they were forced to take a more aggressive approach out of concern that Maher wouldn’t be able to convert a kick. To his credit, Maher did convert a pair of field goals in the game, but few would have had any faith in him to make a game-tying extra point if Dallas got into the end zone in the fourth quarter.

This was more of a self-inflicted error by Dallas, which should have cut Maher and brought in a new kicker for this game. The Cowboys have no one to blame but themselves for letting Maher’s ill-timed misses leaving them in a bad spot throughout the game.