Brett Maher was the one who had the yips. Here’s how the Cowboys will help their kicker in time to face the 49ers.

FRISCO, Texas — The message was consistent. The tone however was varied.

The Dallas Cowboys No plans Tuesday to leave kicker Brett Maher after becoming the first player in NFL history to miss four extra-point attempts in a league that began recording statistics 91 year ago.

But, Maher expressed the same level of confidence Cowboys brass had in Maher just one day later. 31-14 NFC wild-card victory Over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Was inconsistent.

Jerry Jones, team owner, was cautious about moving too quickly from a player who had scored 49 of 53 extra-point attempts during the regular season. He also missed 29 of 32 field goals.

“But we will take a look at it,” Jones said on Dallas radio station 105.3 The Fan. “It’d be really a big setback to go into the rest of this tournament, the rest of the playoff with shakiness at kicker.”

There was head coach Mike McCarthy, who had said Monday night from the Raymond James Stadium podium that Maher was “disappointed, but we need him.” On Tuesday, McCarthy further reiterated belief in Maher’s process, and the kicker’s ability to rebound after the worst night of his career.

“I think the biggest thing is just to make sure you got a good plan with Brett moving forward,” McCarthy said. “We’re going to forge ahead. So that’s, as of right now, that’s the plan.”

The qualifying phrase, “as of right now,” seemed notable.

John Fassel was the special-teams coordinator and he didn’t hesitate to say that Maher should be the Cowboys kicker in Sunday’s divisional playoff game at the. San Francisco 49ers.

“Hell, yeah,” Fassel said. “If you ask me, absolutely.”

What are the Cowboys going to do? And how do they explain the disastrous performance that assailed the NFL’s third-highest scoring player (137 total points) in the 2022 season?

It was a strange night for kicking

Cowboys believe that a picture is worth a thousand word, and each extra point is worth a story.

Coaches agreed Maher’s concerns Monday night were psychological and situational, rather than physical. The 33-year old is healthy. Tampa received no wind or adverse weather Monday night. And the kicking operation — the hold, the snap — were clean.

On his first miss, Maher “didn’t commit to a full swing,” Fassel said. “Almost like a lazy swing.” The ball sailed so far right it landed not in the net behind the upright but in the stadium stands. The Cowboys had to continue their kick operation with the second of their designated kicking balls, or “K”, a ball Maher had much fewer experience and reps with.

To further distract from the second extra-point attempt, officials apparently flagged the Cowboys’ snapping operation before their second kick, saying they could not use a blade of white-painted grass from the field’s painted line to spot the ball. Whether that contributed to a second wide right extra-point attempt is up for debate, but what isn’t is Maher apparently catching the ball with his toe rather than executing a clean strike.

The Cowboys were forced to settle for the last, most used-in, kicking ball.

“We were down to our third and last ‘K’ ball which hadn’t been doctored up,” Fassel said, explaining the nuances. “You only have a certain amount of time with the ‘K’ balls so you spend most of the time [pregame] on the first one, whatever’s left over on the second and hope to get a [kick] On the third one. The first two went missing in the stands. Down to our last ‘K’ ball and if we had lost that one, we’d have needed to use one of the Buccaneers’.”

Maher made an error in his third attempt. He left the room and shanked.

And by the fourth miss, the chaos was in Maher’s head. Yes, Fassel said, Maher had the “yips” — a psychological phenomenon in sports that the Mayo Clinic defines as when athletes became “so anxious and self-focused — overthinking to the point of distraction — that their ability to execute a skill … is impaired.”

Maher was successful on his fifth attempt.

On Tuesday morning in a meeting with Fassel, the kicker remained “distraught.”

“A perfect storm for bad kicking,” Fassel said. “I believe in a hot hand and I believe in the yips. Absolutely. You’ll wonder sometimes how you get into the yips, and you wonder sometimes how you get back into the hot hand. I think it’s [to] keep stepping up to the line and shooting.”

Fassel explains ‘best medicine’ for Maher

As of Tuesday evening, the Cowboys did not plan to drastically change Maher’s practice week or game day operation, a person with knowledge of the plan confirmed to Yahoo Sports. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly disclose details of the team’s game plan.

Maher was at team headquarters Tuesday and faced the frustrating tape. He also prepared for his usual hash work on Thursday, and situational kicks Friday. The most likely change, if any, was a potential directional switch (winding up from left instead of right for example), but a clean week could eliminate that leaning.

The Cowboys’ next full practice, and thus designated kicking time, was scheduled for Thursday.

Fassel lauded Maher’s process as the best and most distinct routine of kickers he’d worked with in 18 seasons coaching NFL special teams with legs including Sebastian Janikowski and Greg Zuerlein’s. Each one of them got the yips at one point. Afterward, everyone kept on kicking and moved on.

“This week will give him confidence, just getting back out there,” Fassel said. “He’s probably going to be mentally hurting pretty bad until he can kind of sweat and kick again. There’s no medicine like being back on the practice field. I am optimistic. A good, professional man who really gives a damn … leads me to be optimistic about a good rebound. It is what we all desire.

“To be honest with you, as a coach I kind of live for these moments — to play more psychologist than coach, get back in the meeting rooms and find a way to help these guys bounce back.”

Maher won’t have much time to pivot. After a short practice week, the Cowboys will travel to San Francisco Saturday to try to defeat the 49ers and reach the conference championship game.

Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara will present another grass challenge unlike the Cowboys’ home turf. Bay Area winds will likely further test Maher’s mettle.

BetMGM has the 49ers as a 3.5-point favorite. The Cowboys will need every point possible. Maher will be able to deliver, members of the team hope.

“At the end of the day, we all have a job to do,” McCarthy said. “He knows he has to put the ball through the uprights. And he’s been super productive and consistent for us.

“In this business, especially this game, you learn from your experiences when it doesn’t go the way you like as opposed to the success of it. Like our whole football team. [in a Week 18 loss]We were in Washington when we got punched in the jaw. I think we clearly replied.

“I think he definitely has that in him.”

Follow Yahoo Sports’ Jori Epstein on Twitter @JoriEpstein