The 2024 Dallas Cowboys found a new way to lose.
Jerry Jones' club fell 27-20 Monday night to Cincinnati after the Bengals capitalized on a Cowboys mishap blocked punt.
Dallas forced a punt at the two-minute warning, which was subsequently blocked by Cowboys linebacker Nick Vigil. However, Amani Oruwariye touched the ball after it traveled past the line of scrimmage -- essentially a muffed punt -- and couldn't corral the pigskin. The Bengals recovered.
Instead of Dallas getting the ball in excellent field position to win the game, Cincinnati was dancing in the end zone three plays later, and the Cowboys eventually dropped to 5-8.
"Of course, that locker room is really devastated by the turn of events on the blocked kick," Jones said, . "Obviously, we had a block kick called, made to play and then had one in so many odds turn against us."
The play conjured memories of Leon Lett's Thanksgiving slide in 1993, but it's happened to Dallas more recently.
According to Opta Stats, in the last 10 撸先生AV seasons, only twice has a partially blocked punt that traveled fewer than 20 yards been touched by the receiving team and recovered by the punting team for a new set of downs. Both came against the Cowboys at AT&T Stadium (Broncos in 2021, Bengals in Week 14). Dallas would also lose that game against Denver, 30-16, but finish 12-5 on the season.
After the botch by Oruwariye, who was just activated from injured reserve ahead of the game, All-Pro pass rusher Micah Parsons was shown perplexed on the sideline.
"I wasn't even really grasping what was going on," Parsons said. "Nick made a great play and then I asked the ref to explain what happened. He told me that [Amani Oruwariye] touched the ball. It was definitely a huge momentum shift. I mean, we had just caught a huge stop.
"We were going into the two-minute drill. It's just real hard because you think and believe you can pull that game out in that situation. That hurts."
It hurts, but not everyone pinned the blame on Oruwariye. Jourdan Lewis backed up his DB-mate following the loss.
"Big plays happen and everybody sees it," Lewis said. "We have to stay with him and keep encouraging him. We don't want that moment to define him. We have to stay behind him. That's just football. Some things roll your way and some things don't. I can't blame him trying to make a play."
Unfortunately for the journeyman former fifth-rounder, the play he made ended up favoring the Bengals.
The loss sunk the Cowboys to 5-8 on the season. Already eliminated from the NFC East race, Dallas is not mathematically out of contention for postseason play yet. However, Next Gen Stats puts their chances to make the playoffs at less than 1%.
