Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy put it bluntly during his postgame press conference Monday night.
“This one stings.”
But the most painful part is, this particular bug has bitten Cowboys fans before.
Amani Oruwariye’s mishandling of a blocked punt gave the ball back to the Bengals with under two minutes to play in a tie game. Instead of the offense trying to better navigate for a walk-off winning field goal, the defense ended up allowing Cincinnati to score the deciding touchdown just a few snaps later.
It was a gut-wrenching turn of events for the Cowboys, now 5-8, that left the locker room “really devastated,” according to owner Jerry Jones.
“That mistake we made at the end was very impactful, is all I can say.”
Jones hinted in his traditional tunnel Q&A session that the coaching staff had a block-attempt called on the fateful fourth-down play, but McCarthy explained otherwise.
“We actually had a return called,” McCarthy told media members. “The tackle released, the guard went down. The B-gap was exposed. Nick [Vigil, linebacker] took it, and we were able to get the block.”
It was a fortuitous moment, until the deflected ball went beyond the line of scrimmage. Left alone, it would have been whistled dead. Dallas would have taken over, already within the range of kicker Brandon Aubrey.
Instead, Oruwariye, the cornerback who had just re-joined the active roster a few hours earlier, tried to reel in the bouncing ball. When he was unable to, the ball became live again, and the Bengals recovered for a fresh set of downs without having to advance it past the original line to gain.
McCarthy said Oruwariye was simply taken by surprise when the ball ended up in front of him, and the six-year veteran didn’t hear the Cowboys sideline- all the way across the field and 50 yards away- yelling the “poison” command that signals to leave the ball alone.
“He understands the rule of crossing, once the ball crosses the line,” the coach explained after the 27-20 loss. “His response when he turned, when he heard the crowd: the ball was there, and he reacted to it.”
WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!
THE COWBOYS BLOCKED THE PUNT BUT CINCY GOT THE BALL BACK AFTER A DALLAS PLAYER TOUCHED THE BALL! #CINvsDAL | ABC, ESPN pic.twitter.com/vaMWLRHxIa
— ESPN (@espn) December 10, 2024
“That’s a play that happens not very often,” McCarthy said. “Definitely a tough learning opportunity.”
Cowboys fans, however, were able to immediately recall two other occasions where the same set of circumstances cost them dearly.
The most infamous was Leon Lett’s botched recovery of a blocked field goal versus Miami on Thanksgiving 1993. After the batted kick skittered around on the snow-covered Texas Stadium turf and past the line of scrimmage, Lett tried to pounce on it and slipped. The Dolphins regained possession and kicked a game-winning field goal on the next snap.
More recently, Nahshon Wright muffed a blocked punt after it, too, crossed the line of scrimmage, in a 2021 game against Denver. Down 16-0 at the time, Wright was trying to turn the tide of the game with a return for a touchdown. Instead, the demoralized Cowboys got further manhandled and lost by a 30-16 final.
This felt like déjà vu all over again.
But while the play ultimately decided the outcome of the Week 14 game, Oruwariye’s teammates refuse to let the moment to define him.
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Micah Parsons was visibly distraught in the aftermath of Oruwariye’s flub. Other Cowboys players struggled to explain what had happened. McCarthy and Jones were clearly disappointed. Special teams coordinator John Fassel will undoubtedly be grilled about it the next time he takes the podium.
Several of Oruwariye’s teammates came to his defense, though, even with the heartbreaking loss still raw and fresh.
Longtime Cowboys special teams ace C.J. Goodwin was there for Wright’s gaffe three years ago and even shielded the rookie from reporters afterward. He did the same thing for Oruwariye after Monday night’s loss.
“Y’all think it’s football … but there’s life outside of football,” Goodwin said, per the team website. “When I see my man going through something mentally, I’m not going to have [the media] bringing up the play over and over. We’re not going to do that.”
Cornerback Jourdan Lewis also tried to put the mishap- merely the latest in a series of bad breaks that have defined the Cowboys’ 2024 season- into a larger perspective.
“Big plays happen, and everybody sees it,” Lewis said. “We have to stay with [Oruwariye] 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.”
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Clearly having a need for depth at the position, Dallas made three additional roster moves to lesser fanfare. First, they activated CB Amani Oruwariye’s 21-day practice window. The young veteran was placed on the Reserved/Injured list after he suffered a back injury against San Francisco.
