'Stings': Gaffe hurts Cowboys' playoff hopes

ARLINGTON, Texas -- A season that was already painful in many ways took a twisting turn into more anguish for the Dallas Cowboys with their 27-20 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals on Monday.

Now 5-8 with four games to play, the Cowboys' chances to make the playoffs for the fourth straight season were slim before kickoff and even slimmer after.

"Just do the math," coach Mike McCarthy said. "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."

And the Cowboys were in a position to win their third straight game to at least pull themselves closer to the postseason discussion when linebacker Nick Vigil deflected a Bengals punt after the two-minute warning.

Yet instead of steering clear of the ball, cornerback Amani Oruwariye muffed a scoop attempt and the Bengals recovered, giving Cincinnati the opportunity to score the go-ahead touchdown three plays later on a 40-yard Joe Burrow-to-Ja'Marr Chase completion.

"AO was in a vice situation," McCarthy said, "and then he heard the roar of the crowd and when he turned -- he understands the rule once the ball crosses the line -- his response was when he turned, when he heard the crowd, the ball was there and he reacted to it. So obviously a big play in the game."

In the locker room after the game, several teammates shielded Oruwariye from the media. He was activated off injured reserve Monday after working through a back injury. He helped clinch the Cowboys' Week 4 win against the New York Giants with an interception of a Hail Mary attempt.

"We can't judge him," cornerback Jourdan Lewis said. "None of us played a perfect game. You can't judge anybody by one decision. He thought he can make a play. Can't judge him for that."

Owner and general manager Jerry Jones did not blame Oruwariye but wondered whether the Cowboys would have been better off just returning the punt and would have had a chance to win the game with a longer offensive drive. Had Oruwariye not touched the ball, the Cowboys would have had the ball inside Cincinnati territory.

"I'm sure that there's low odds of the ball bouncing into one of our players after we touch the ball on a block," Jones said. "There's low odds, but I don't know if those odds are more positive than if we'd have taken the kick and gotten the ball and got within field goal range and kicked the ball."

In 2021, former cornerback Nahshon Wright suffered a similar fate as Oruwariye in a loss to the Denver Broncos. More famously, in 1993, Leon Lett touched a deflected field goal attempt, slipping in icy conditions at Texas Stadium to give the Miami Dolphins another chance to win the Thanksgiving Day game.

Those Cowboys went on to win their second straight Super Bowl with Jimmy Johnson as coach. These Cowboys have four regular-season games left that could be followed by an offseason of change from coaches to players.

McCarthy and the entire coaching staff do not have contracts for 2025. Nearly 20 players are set to be unrestricted free agents.

"I don't weigh those things as far as tough or the degree of making them," Jones said. "I always in my role make those decisions, they all have a lot of gravity to them. Any of those kinds of decisions regarding coach coaching, staff players, all of those things, I don't want to call them tough. They're just very serious, impactful decisions."

Expectedly so, the locker room was quiet after the game. McCarthy said the preparation going into the game was the best it had been all season. The Cowboys' defense limited the Bengals' high-powered offense as best it could, even after losing linebacker DeMarvion Overshown to a serious knee injury.

The offense put up 183 rushing yards, led by Rico Dowdle's second straight 100-yard game, and felt confident it could deliver in the final moments.

But then the chance was gone.

"I'm hurt. I won't wish this on anybody," edge rusher Micah Parsons said. "Man, can't put that in words, to be honest. ... Between the [injured] players, some of these situations, it's just, I don't want to say snowballing, but I feel like we're paying a due that's not fair.

"I don't know if it's bad luck, karma."