Jerry Jones on Dallas Cowboys K Brandon Aubrey opening performance: “We got us a kicker”
Owner Jerry Jones was like the majority of the Dallas Cowboys fan base when kicker Brandon Aubrey missed his first extra point in Sunday’s 40-0 victory against the New York Giants.
A year after dealing with the yips from kicker Brett Maher and to see the new kicker miss his first extra point was almost too much and Jones quickly threw his son and vice president Stephen Jones under the bus.
“Well, I thought, ‘There you go, Stephen you don’t know how to pick a kicker’,” Jones said with tongue firmly planted in cheek on his radio show on 105.3 The Fan on Tuesday.
Of course, when Aubrey responded with two field goals and four extra points, the elder Jones was singing a different tune.
“That’s my man. I knew that young guy could shake them off,” Jones said of his post-game reaction. ”We got ourselves a kicker.”
It was only one game and Aubrey still has a long way to go.
But he and the Cowboys couldn’t have asked for a better start and trial by fire in his first game out — even the missed extra point was a welcomed adversity that proved dividends on Sunday and possibly for the rest of the season.
The Cowboys have always believed in Aubrey’s talent. But there was no getting around his inexperience and he is more inexperienced than most. Aubrey played soccer growing up and played soccer in college at Notre Dame. He was drafted in the MLS in 2017 but never hit big.
So he decided to try to be a kicker and played the last two seasons the USFL Spring League.
He looked good in camp and the preseason but nothing could prepare him for the real game and real situations, which occurred on Sunday when the Cowboys got a blocked field goal returned for a touchdown and resulted in the missed extra point.
“It’s always something kind of new and he’s an inexperienced kicker,” special teams coach John Fassel said. “It was a sudden change. So it was a special teams touchdown. And you know, kickers usually aren’t necessarily ready when special teams is on the field. We run out of the field and he gets lined up. Because in preseason, they’re changing the ball over fast. So you had to hustle to get lined up and kick a PAT. And it just a little bit slower Sunday in the regular season. He got lined up. And he was standing up for about 12 seconds before we’re actually ready to snap the ball. So the timing is just off. So it was just another great learning curve for him.”
Fassel said these are things you can’t practice in training camp and the preseason.
“Then we came back and hit a field goal,” Fassel said. “And the very next PAT was when our sudden changed after the interception return for a touchdown. So we had a chance to talk about it after the first one. So really cool moments to learn from unfortunately, it costs us a PAT. However, the best thing that happened was that he missed the PAT and got it out of the way. And he came back and hit four straight PAT, two field goals and eight touch backs on kickoffs. He’s a weapon.”
Again, the Cowboys prepared Aubrey as best they could during training camp. But they couldn’t simulate the sudden change with the blocked field goal. And they couldn’t simulate him kicking on the road in a hostile environment for the first time and they couldn’t simulate inclement weather like the rain and wind they had Sunday night.
It proved to the perfect environment to learn about Aubrey the man as well as the kicker.
“It was awesome,” Fassel said. “Bring a little bit of rain, make it on the road for the game. And have a sudden change. PATs. Got a lot of kicks in the net and lot of kickoffs. I think it was a great start for not just the normal game. He’s a young guy that’s got great talent. I’m really excited we have him. I think he’s going to keep getting better and better and better. And there will be a couple other situations that have come up a lot to work through.
But just witnessing a man’s demeanor. Missed PAT, first kick in the NFL. His poise is okay as ever. No blinking. No ruffled feathers. Great signs in that first game of being able to rebound, but also make some good kicks.”
It was a great way to find out about Aubrey forcing Jerry Jones to proclaim: “We got us a kicker.”
This story was originally published September 12, 2023 at 10:59 AM.
