There was no shortage of strange NFL finishes in Week 14.
Kansas City Chiefs kicker Matthew Wright doinked a 31-yard field goal attempt off of the left goal post, only for the ball to still go through the uprights as time expired to clinch a 19-17 win over the Los Angeles Chargers.
The Giants lost again in devastating fashion, this time when the New Orleans Saints blocked Graham Gano’s 35-yard field goal attempt with 11 seconds left in Big Blue’s 14-11 defeat.
But nothing compared to how the Dallas Cowboys went down on “Monday Night Football.”
Locked in a 20-20 tie with the Cincinnati Bengals, Dallas linebacker Nick Vigil blocked a punt with 2:00 remaining in the fourth quarter at AT&T Stadium.
The deflected ball landed past the line of scrimmage, but instead of letting it go by him, Cowboys cornerback Amani Oruwariye tried to scoop the ball. He touched it but failed to collect it cleanly.
That made it a live ball, which the Bengals recovered in their own territory. Joe Burrow found Ja’Marr Chase for a 40-yard catch-and-run touchdown on the subsequent drive, giving Cincinnati an unlikely 27-20 victory.
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
“When [Oruwariye] turned, when he heard the crowd, the ball was there and he reacted to it,” Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy said. “So, obviously, a big play in the game.”
The loss dropped the Cowboys to 5-8, dealing another blow in a disappointing year in which Dallas was already below .500 when quarterback Dak Prescott suffered a season-ending hamstring injury in Week 9.
Their only home win of the season came on Thanksgiving against the Giants.
Many of the Cowboys’ losses this year have been more straightforward. The Saints beat them, 44-19. The Detroit Lions routed them, 47-9. And the Philadelphia Eagles rolled them, 34-6, in their first game without Prescott.
But Monday marked the latest instance of the Cowboys finding a new and unusual way to lose.
There was the 2015 playoff game in Green Bay, where Dez Bryant’s fourth-down catch in the fourth quarter was controversially overturned. Officials ruled Bryant did not complete the process to the ground, and the Cowboys went on to lose, 26-21. Fans would lament that “Dez Caught It” for years to come.
There was the 2022 playoff loss against the San Francisco 49ers, which ended when Prescott gained 17 yards on a quarterback draw but, with no timeouts left, was unable to run another play before time expired. The Cowboys lost, 23-17.
The following year, the Cowboys’ 19-12 playoff loss to the Niners ended in a similarly head-scratching manner. On the final play, running back Ezekiel Elliott lined up at center in a gadget formation that featured no other offensive linemen. Elliott was instantly driven backward to the ground upon snapping the ball, giving Prescott barely enough time to complete a short pass that went nowhere.
And while Monday’s gaffe happened in a lower-stakes regular season-game, the loss still further worsened the Cowboys’ playoff odds.
“None of us played a perfect game,” Cowboys cornerback Jourdan Lewis said. “You can’t judge anybody by one decision. [Oruwariye] thought he can make a play. Can’t judge him for that.”
