Greg Zuerlein takes the blame for Cowboys loss to Tampa Bay

Thursday night marked the return of regular season NFL football. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers narrowly defeated the Dallas Cowboys 31-29. Cowboys kicker Greg Zuerlein missed two field goals and an extra point in the game. Zuerlein knew after his forgettable performance that the Cowboys would have won the game if he made the kicks he was supposed to.

Zuerlein struggled in a narrow Cowboys loss

The Cowboys were able to match two early Tampa Bay touchdowns with long drives of their own. Following the Buccaneers’ first touchdown, the Cowboys drove down the field and tied the game at 7-7 on the next possession. The Buccaneers later went up 14-7, and the Cowboys again drove deep into Buccaneers territory. Zuerlein set up to attempt a 31-yard field goal that would have made it a 14-10 game. Instead, Zuerlein shanked the kick, pulling it left of the uprights and leaving the Cowboys down seven points.

On the first play of the ensuing Tampa Bay possession, Dallas recovered a fumble and quickly found their way to the endzone. With just an extra point needed to tie the game, Zuerlein missed his second consecutive kick, hitting the left upright. Zuerlein also attempted a 60-yard field goal at the end of the first half, but he came up just short. He went on to make three field goals in the game, but his three misses on the night proved costly in what ultimately ended as a two-point game.

Zuerlein: “If I did my job, we win that game’

Following the game, Zuerlein knew just how costly his missed kicks proved to be. He did not make any excuses for himself, instead blaming himself for the Cowboys season opening loss in Tampa Bay.

“No excuses,” Zuerlein said via Around The NFL’s Kevin Patra. “If I’m out there, I should make the kicks. No excuses… I know we played well enough to win. If I did my job, we win that game. I feel bad for the guys in there that played their ass off, and I didn’t hold up my end of the deal. If the team that’s that good, returning every player after a Super Bowl victory, and we’re right there, I just have to do my job.”

The 31-yard field goal miss was especially disappointing for a kicker of Zuerlein’s caliber.

“Obviously, missing such an easy kick, you don’t even practice that,” Zuerlein said. “It’s automatic. You miss something like that and you analyze it for two minutes, figure out what you did wrong. You have to move on.”

Zuerlein is now in the 10^th season of his NFL career. He has made 238 of his 291 field goal attempts and 299 of his 309 extra points. Zuerlein made 34 of 41 field goals last season in his first year with the Cowboys.