The Dallas Cowboys had been capable of advance to the Divisional Spherical within the NFL playoffs after beating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night time.
With their win, the NFC East division managed to get three of its 4 groups (the opposite two being the Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants) within the aforementioned spherical, with the remaining one being the San Francisco 49ers.
Nevertheless, they didn’t do it with out some scares courtesy of their very own kicker.
Brett Maher grew to become the primary kicker in common season or postseason historical past to overlook 4 additional factors in a single sport.
The stat has been tracked for particular person gamers since 1932, per Elias Sports activities Bureau.
That’s historical past, though maybe not the sort he was making an attempt to make.
What he did will be translated to all sports activities, and baseball – most particularly MLB – is in fact considered one of them.
“Watching Dallas #Cowboys kicker Brett Maher miss 4 extra-points actually resurrects painful reminiscences of #STLCards pitcher Rick Ankiel’s sudden incapability to throw strikes within the 2000 postseason. Ankiel was later transformed to a profitable outfielder,” MLB insider Bob Nightengale tweeted.
Watching Dallas #Cowboys kicker Brett Maher miss 4 extra-points actually resurrects painful reminiscences of #STLCards pitcher Rick Ankiel’s sudden incapability to throw strikes within the 2000 postseason. Ankiel was later transformed to a profitable outfielder.
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) January 17, 2023
In that 2000 postseason with the St. Louis Cardinals, Ankiel issued an unbelievable 11 walks in simply 4 frames.
He simply couldn’t discover the strike zone.
Very similar to how Chuck Knoblauch had some persistent points throwing the ball from second to first base, or Jarrod Saltalamacchia couldn’t efficiently or cleanly throw the ball again to the pitcher, skilled sports activities are full of these quirks.
Probably the most surprising factor is that Ankiel had a terrific common season, with a 3.50 ERA in 175 innings in the course of the steroids period.
He did have a management challenge, but it surely was delicate: undoubtedly not as unhealthy because it regarded within the postseason.
He then was transformed right into a hitter and had a number of good years.
Maher’s efficiency final night time could possibly be the equal of Ankiel’s struggles to search out the plate.
