On September 26th, I posted the following:

4. Kicker Short Leash Competition
#1 - following his miss on Sunday, Doug Brien, fired by the Jets last year after missing in the playoffs, is on a very short leash at Chicago. Expect him to be given the order of the size 10 in short order if his kicking does not improve.
#2 - Jose Cortez of the Cowboys cannot be too high in Bill Parcells' estimation right now. He missed a short field goal on Sunday, and has never looked like a good long-range kicker. Watch for the Cowboys to audition kickers soon, or possibly bring back Billy Cundiff after week 6 if Cortez still looks shaky. They cannot bring Cundiff in until then because the Cowboys had to pay him an injury settlement when they cut him in pre-season because he had an injured hip flexor.

Well, both Doug Brien and Jose Cortez are now gone from the Bears and the Cowboys...Brien was cut a couple of weeks ago, and Cortez was cut today after missing a 29-yarder in Sunday's game against the Seahawks. A 29 yard field goal should be about as close to 100% as you can get for an NFL kicker if the ball is properly snapped and spotted. Nothing wrong with the snap or the spot, but poor Jose drilled it wide of the upright. So...he sadly joins the ranks of the unemployed kickers. The only surprise was the Cowboys signing a rookie to take his place instead of bringing back Billy Cundiff.
No doubt there will be many people blaming Cortez for the loss to the Seahawks, since if the Cowboys had the extra 3 points on the board, they would have been able to go to overtime instead of losing. This is a convenient scapegoating argument that overlooks the painful fact that the Cowboys would not have needed those 3 points if Drew Bledsoe hadn't thrown a horrible interception which not only gave them a crucial turnover, but also allowed the Seahawks into field goal range. That interception looked painfully obvious on the TV, with the intended receiver in double coverage, and one of the Seahawks defenders clearly reading Bledsoe's pass from the moment the ball left his hand.