Cowboys fall to Bengals

By Elwyn Henderson

    The 5-7 Dallas Cowboys, coming off a 10-day rest following their first home victory of the season on Thanksgiving Day, entertained the 4-8 Cincinnati Bengals on Monday Night Football at AT&T Stadium in Arlington Monday night in a game that ultimately would determine whether Dallas realistically still stood a chance of making the playoffs for the fourth year in a row or whether they were ready to have a fork stuck in them for 2024. The 92,587 fans in attendance did all they could do to encourage the home team.  In the end, it wasn’t enough as the ‘Boys fell 27-20 on a fluke to drop to 5-8 on the year with 3 games remaining and for all practical purposes any hope a garnering a playoff spot was over. 

     Everyone was expecting a close game but the Bengals came into the contest as a 5.5 point favorite to win the game and they won by 7.

     Dallas won the coin toss to begin the contest and they chose to defer to the second half as the game began.

     Brandon Aubrey kicked the ball away and it went out of the end zone. After a touchback the Bengals set up on their 30.  The Dallas defense forced a three-and-out and after a Bengals punt KaVonte Turpin returned the kick from his 20 up to the 40 and Cooper Rush and the Dallas offense began their first offensive possession from that point.

     Rush led the offense down the field like clockwork.  The drive ended with a 12-yard TD pass from Rush to CeeDee Lamb with 8:55 left in the opening quarter.  Aubrey added the PAT and Dallas jumped to an early 7-0 lead.  The drive was 9 plays and 60 yards and took 4:29 off the clock.

     Aubrey’s ensuing kickoff resulted in a touchback and Joe Burrow and his unit set up for their second possession of the game.

     Not to be outdone, Burrow led his team right down the field and into the end zone.  The score came on a 5-yard pass from Burrow to Ja’Mar Chase with 2:45 left in the opening quarter.  Cade York added the extra point and the game was tied 7-7.  The drive was 11 plays, 70 yards and consumed 6:10.

     York’s kickoff following the score went out of the back of the end zone for a touchback and Rush brought his charges back on the field at the 30 hoping to put his team back in front.

     On the second play of the possession Rush hit Lamb on a 43-yard completion down to the Bengals 24 and the Cowboys were in excellent position to get into the end zone for the second time.  That was not in the cards as Rush threw an interception to Geno Stone at the Cincy 4 with 14:52 left in the first half and the promising drive ended in disappointment for Cowboys fans.

     The Bengals moved the ball down to the Dallas 45 but a 4th down pass was incomplete at that point and Dallas went back on offense from that point with 9:51 left in the half.

     The offense stalled at the Cincy 17 and Aubrey came in to kick a 35-yard field goal.  The kick was good and Dallas captured the lead again, 10-7 with 6:23 left in the half.  The drive was 7 plays, 39 yards and took 3:28 off the second quarter clock.

     Aubrey’s kick after the field goal was returned from the goal line out to the 36 by Khalil Herbert and Burrow went back to work.

     Burrow led the team into the end zone with 3:30 left in the half.  The score came on a 19-yard pass from Burrow to Chase Brown.  York’s extra point was good and the Bengals led 14-10.  The drive was 6 plays, 64 yards and took 2:53.

     York’s kickoff resulted in a touchback and Rush and the Dallas offense set up at their 30.  It was a quick three-and-out and Bryan Anger punted the ball back.  The kick was taken at the 33 and returned to the 45 and Burrow hit the field with 1:50 left in the half 55 yards away from adding another TD.

     Burrow moved his charges down to the Dallas 19 and on 4th down York nailed a 37-yard field goal with 30 seconds left in the half to put the visitors up 17-10.  The drive was 7 plays, 36 yards and took 1:20.

     The York kick resulted in a touchback and Rush brought the Dallas offense on the field for one last possession in the half.  It was a quick three-and-out and Anger punted the ball from his 35 with 15 seconds left in the half.  The kick was returned to the 33 but thanks to a penalty on the return the Bengals got the ball on their 7 with 3 seconds left in the half.  Burrow took a knee and the half ended with the Cowboys down by 7 points but they were set to get the second half kickoff.

     York’s kickoff went out of the end zone and Dallas began at their 30 to start off the second half.

     The Cowboys moved down the field and the drive ended when Rush hit Brandin Cooks on a 3-yard TD pass with 10:32 left in the third quarter.  Aubrey’s extra point try was good and the game was tied 10-10.

     The Bengals began their next drive at their 30 and were driving for a go-ahead TD when Malik Hooker intercepted Burrow and he returned the ball to the Dallas 17 with 6:50 left in the third stanza.

     The offense was moving toward the end zone but a personal foul ended up stalling the drive and forcing a 47-yard field goal on the first play of the fourth quarter.  The kick was good and Dallas took the lead back at 20-17 with 14:55 left in the game.  The drive was 18 plays, 54 yards and took 6:55.

     The next Aubrey kickoff was returned up to the Bengals 33 where Burrow and his outfit set up shop. The visitors moved the ball down the field with precision but the Cowboys got it done when it counted, forcing a 3rd down incompletion at the Dallas 11.  York came in and booted a 28-yard field goal with 10:24 left in the game to know the score at 20-20.  The drive was 9 plays, 58 yards and took 4:30 seconds off the clock.

     There was no more scoring until the Bengals scored after recovering a blocked punt that touched a Dallas player and moving into the end zone.  The score came on a 40-yard TD pass from Burrow to Chase with 1:01 left in the game.  York’s PAT was good and the Bengals took a 27-20 lead and the score effectively closed the door on potential a Dallas win.  The drive was 3 plays, 57 yards and took just 52 seconds off the clock.

     Following the kickoff a touchback set the Cowboys up at their 30.  They moved up to the 50, utilizing their timeouts, but the clock expired and the game was over. 

     A very dejected Coach Mike McCarthy met with the team following the crushing loss and was asked how he could reconcile where the team heads from the loss.

     

     “Reconcile? I mean, just do the math. Obviously, we’re not even back to even. We’re still in a hole. So, we need a tremendous amount of help, just being captain obvious here. This one stings; we had to have this one. That’s the way we approached it. The team had probably our best week of practice, you know, just having a whole secondary out there. Friday’s practice, they had numerous interceptions. You know, I felt this week, really for the first time since training camp, we were a complete football team. I thought we were running on all cylinders. We knew we had to play a certain way because of where we are right now. And I thought we did a solid job of trying to play today. We needed some takeaways, and our defense created turnover opportunities. You know, the one giveaway, it was a huge play. We really had a clean play, had a collision there with our primary receiver. That was a big play early. But that’s what this time of year is; December. These games are always clawing and scratching, because everybody’s urgency is at the highest. And we just, we were short. We were one play short today.”

     The Mirror asked quarterback Cooper Rush how hard it would be to overcome the loss due to the manner in which it happened and he responded, 

     “I guess the way it happened was tough, but a loss is a loss. We’re professionals and it’s on to the next week. [We have] a short week again, which is kind of nice. Get right back to it and we have to go beat Carolina.”

 

     Without a doubt the 2024 season is now officially a lost cause for Dallas.  Hopefully, Jerry Jones will realize it’s time to pull the plug on McCarthy and try to rebuild the team.  This group will never win a championship, as has been proven the last 3 seasons leading up to this year.