The Dallas Cowboys committed an unthinkable error that opened the door for the Cincinnati Bengals‘ game-winning touchdown on Monday night.
With the scored tied, the Cowboys were primed to get the ball back just after the two-minute warning. Things were looking even better for Dallas after Cowboys linebacker Nick Vigil blocked the punt of Ryan Rehkow’s.
That’s when things took a drastic turn. Cornerback Amani Oruwariye tried to pick up the bouncing ball, but he was unable to corral it. Had no one from the Cowboys touched it, they would have had possession on the Bengals side of the field, with less than two minutes remaining, only needing a field goal. But once the ball knocked off Oruwariye’s hands, it was live. The Bengals recovered…
Three plays later, Cincinnati scored what would be the game-winning touchdown.
“Of course, that locker room is really devastated by the turn of events on the blocked kick,” Jones said via the official team website. “Obviously, we had a block kick called, made to play and then had one in so many odds turn against us.”
The sequence evoked memories of Leon Lett’s similar gaffe during Dallas’ Thanksgiving Day loss to the Dolphins back in 1993. This season, the botched block punt proved very costly, as the Cowboys are now 5-8 and one step closer towards playoff elimination. Conversely, the win kept the Bengals’ faint playoff hopes alive.