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Dan Bailey looking to bounce back from a first -- three misses

FRISCO, Texas – As Dan Bailey thought about every football game he has ever played, from youth leagues to high school, to Oklahoma State, to the Dallas Cowboys, he never remembers a game with three missed kicks.

In last week’s 30-10 win against the New York Giants, Bailey missed field goal attempts of 53 and 50 yards and missed the first extra point of his career.

Bailey missed four games with a groin strain suffered Oct. 22 against the San Francisco 49ers, but he said the misses had nothing to do with his health.

“If I’m not able to go out there and perform to my standards they’re not going to put me out there and I’m not going to be out there,” Bailey said. “If I’m on the field my expectation is to make every kick. That’s always been that way. It’s always going to be that way. As surprised as everybody else is, I guess I’m a little surprised as well, but I’m just going to have to put this one behind me and move on.”

The wind was an issue inside MetLife Stadium. He said he hit the 53-yarder almost perfectly but the right-to-left wind did not bring the ball back inside as much as he thought. On his 50-yarder, he knew in pregame the wind was gusting in that direction from the right hashmark. He said the point-after attempt was just a flat miss.

“I had a great pregame, great week of practice. It’s not like I was not confident going into that game or anything like that,” Bailey said. “It had nothing to do with that. It’s just one of those things, just kind of a perfect storm of factors played into it and a couple of kicks didn’t go in.”

The Cowboys have not lost any faith in Bailey, who lost his title as the NFL’s most accurate kicker in history with the missed field goal attempts. Justin Tucker of the Baltimore Ravens moved into the top spot at 89.9 percent (195 of 217). Bailey is at 89.1 percent (180 of 202).

“He’s as good of a player as we have on our team,” coach Jason Garrett said after the game. “He missed three kicks. None of us has ever seen him miss those kicks. The conditions can be a factor, there is wind there that kickers have to deal with on a day like this, but he’s a great kicker. We’ll give him every chance going forward.”