WATCH: San Francisco players block Dallas Cowboys kicker Brett Maher during pregame FG attempts
The drama started early in San Francisco. Ahead of kickoff between the Dallas Cowboys and 49ers, reporters caught San Francisco players getting in the way of kicker Brett Maher as he attempted to take some pregame field goal strikes.
Following the incident, Maher met with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones for a “pep talk” of sorts. The Dallas kicker is coming off of one of the worst performances of his career after missing four of five extra-point attempts versus Tampa Bay. The team signed an extra kicker for practice but did not move him to the active roster for game day.
The Athletics‘ Jon Machota got the hubbub on camera:
ESPN reporter Todd Archer also saw the interaction: “A little brouhaha between the Cowboys and Niners as Brett Maher goes through his normal pregame work. A number of SF players would not move and led to some talking back and forth with ST coordinator John Fassel, injured LS Jake McQuade and P Bryan Anger. Got testy.”
According to Archer, Maher hit 14 of 18 field goal attempts during the warmup. He missed from 53, 58, 39 and 54 yards out.
Peters, Hendershot out for Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys meet the San Francisco 49ers on their turf on Sunday night for the divisional round matchup. Mike McCarthy’s squad took just one major injury into the week after the win over Tampa Bay, giving them a relatively healthy roster for game day.
The inactives report reveals that veteran offensive tackle Jason Peters is out for Sunday. Starting safety Jayron Kearse was questionable on Friday, however, he is not on the Cowboys’ inactives list.
A last minute update for Dallas, tight end Peyton Hendershot suffered a hamstring injury on Saturday and is now also out.
OUT – OT Jason Peters, WR Jalen Tolbert, NT Quinton Bohanna, LB Jabril Cox, QB Will Grier, TE Peyton Hendershot, CB Nahshon Wright
Kickoff between the Cowboys and 49ers is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. ET in San Francisco live on Fox. The 49ers are 3.5-point favorites and the over/under is set at 46.5, per Vegas Insider.