{"id":604518,"date":"2025-12-16T05:57:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T05:57:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/604518\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T05:57:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T05:57:19","slug":"how-things-went-wrong-for-brandon-aubrey-cowboys-on-what-shouldve-been-a-career-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/604518\/","title":{"rendered":"How things went wrong for Brandon Aubrey, Cowboys on what should\u2019ve been a career night"},"content":{"rendered":"

ARLINGTON \u2014 First, the positives of Brandon Aubrey\u2019s Sunday night performance against the Vikings.<\/p>\n

He made four field goals, which wasn\u2019t unusual for him. And he made a bit of Cowboys history; the good kind, successfully pulling off the franchise\u2019s first fake field goal in 24 years.<\/p>\n

The negatives? He had misses from 51 of 59 yards. If it was any other NFL kicker, no big deal. But this is Aubrey we\u2019re talking about, so any miss from any distance is a shock to the system. <\/p>\n

His 59-yard miss occurred with the Cowboys trailing 24-23 with 12:24 left in the game, though that didn\u2019t cost the Cowboys a win in what wound up being an eight-point defeat.<\/a><\/p>\n

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Besides, had Dallas converted better than its paltry 2-of-12 showing on third downs and done more to stop the Vikings defensively, Aubrey\u2019s night wouldn\u2019t have been so eventful.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, you want to make all your kicks,\u201d he said. \u201cYou want to be perfect. I haven\u2019t been perfect any year of my career yet, so that\u2019s still something to strive for. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think being put out there for 50-plus-yard field goals repetitively is a pretty awesome experience, something I\u2019m thankful for . . . I\u2019ve just got to make some corrections and come back stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aubrey said he struck the 51-yard attempt well, but it veered just right of target. The 59-yarder came off his toe.<\/p>\n

\u201cPretty easy fixes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

How rare were those misses? Aubrey is now 31-of-35 on field goals this season, including 9-of-13 on attempts of 50 or more yards.<\/p>\n

But until Sunday night, he\u2019d only missed one attempt at home this season, on Nov. 3 against Arizona. That miss was from what would have been an NFL record-tying 68 yards on the last play of the first half, so in a way that shouldn\u2019t count. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you play the game long enough, you\u2019re gonna have some days like this,\u201d he said. \u201cThis feels different, being at home; first time for me it\u2019s happened at home. But I\u2019ve had days like this every year — one, specifically, every year, so I\u2019ll bounce back like those years and do the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The misses, and especially the Cowboys\u2019 defeat<\/a>, put a damper on what most other nights would have been a career highlight for Aubrey.<\/p>\n

On the Cowboys\u2019 first possession, he got his first NFL carry<\/a> \u2014 and converted a first down.<\/p>\n

It happened when the Cowboys lined up for a 47-yard field goal. Holder Bryan Anger flipped the ball over his head to Aubrey, who ran around right end for six yards.<\/p>\n

It was the first fake field goal executed by the Cowboys since Dec. 23, 2001, at Arizona.<\/p>\n

Seven plays later the Cowboys took a 7-0 lead.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"Dallas<\/p>\n

\u201cWe practice it every week, but I was still surprised to hear it called on game day,\u201d Aubrey said of the fake. \u201cSo was I was just excited to get a chance to go play football \u2014 which a lot of kickers don\u2019t get to do. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s a little more exciting and getting to the flow of the game, and honestly, feels significantly less pressure just reading the field and making a play. So it was nice to have a normal play.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rest of Aubrey\u2019s night? Good by NFL standards; subpar by Aubrey\u2019s lofty credentials.<\/p>\n

Lump of Skol: See photos as Vikings gift Dak Prescott, Cowboys with a loss<\/p>\n

\"FansView Gallery<\/p>\n

Find more Cowboys coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARLINGTON \u2014 First, the positives of Brandon Aubrey\u2019s Sunday night performance against the Vikings. He made four field…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":604519,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2066],"tags":[14373,6203,2009,230,229,257,2461,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-604518","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-cowboys","8":"tag-att-stadium","9":"tag-brandon-aubrey","10":"tag-brief","11":"tag-cowboys","12":"tag-dallas","13":"tag-dallas-cowboys","14":"tag-dallascowboys","15":"tag-football","16":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115727711953352964","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}