Cowboys vs Bengals: 5 reasons the home team ended up losing

What would you say were the main reasons the Cowboys lost on Monday?

The Dallas Cowboys couldn’t finish. Despite managing to keep up with a high-powered Cincinnati Bengals offense, the Cowboys couldn’t generate enough scoring to stay ahead and seal the win. The loss is deflating because it likely erased all chances the team would have had at making an improbable postseason berth. However, how they lost Monday feels so excruciating this time. Within a split second, jubilation abruptly turned into dread and despair with the Cowboys.

It’s a shame because Rico Dowdle played a terrific game and looked like a feature runner for the rest of the season and possibly next year. Losses like this usually come down to a handful of plays. Yet, several factors cost the team the win tonight. Here’s where they went wrong.

Special teams blunder

This has to be at the top of the list. Amani Oruwariye’s special teams error instantly placed the Bengals in position to win the game. It’s unfortunate because Nick Vigil’s block on the punt was textbook; block the kick off the punter’s foot as coaches teach, and in the moment, you assumed Dallas would steal the victory.

From Oruwariye’s perspective, he was trying to recover the blocked punt so that Dallas could take possession well within field goal range for Brandon Aubrey and not allow the ball to bounce further upfield after Vigil’s block. To an extent, you can understand why he took that approach. Yet, it burned the team in the end. Oruwariye left the game and went into the locker room with a towel covering his face; the disappointment and feeling of letting his teammates down was tangible.

It hurts all the more when you consider that, for the most part, Dallas played with discipline and didn’t make too many mistakes to beat themselves, such as penalties. Ultimately, Oruwariye’s mistake gave an explosive Bengals offense the break they’ve been looking for and it was the beginning of the end for the Cowboys and likely their playoff aspirations.

No answer for Ja’Marr Chase

Ja’Marr Chase is the best receiver in football right now. He’s an exceptional talent. Dallas finally got all of their best cornerbacks healthy and playing together for the first time this season, and for Chase, it didn’t matter. He ran away from all of them. He tore into the Cowboys’ secondary and made several defenders grasp for air. Chase posted another incredible Monday night performance with 14 catches, 177 yards, and two touchdowns.

Zac Talyor and the Bengals coaching staff unleashed Chase on the Cowboys in various ways, and the diversity of his routes made it hard for Dallas to corral him to minimize the damage. Here’s what the Next Gen Stats looked like regarding his route ran against the Cowboys.

Chase ran for 75 yards after the catch, most of which were gained during his 40-yard game-winning touchdown near the end of the game. Chase’s unique connection with Burrow is nearly impossible to stop, and for Dallas, whenever Burrow needed someone to make a play, it was Chase who he turned to, and there was nothing Dallas could do about it.

Not getting CeeDee Lamb involved enough

In juxtaposition to how Cincinnati uses Ja’Marr Chase, Dallas inexplicably stopped utilizing CeeDee Lamb. It’s puzzling since Lamb started off the evening red hot with three receptions, 29 yards, and a touchdown on the opening drive. He also had a terrific play on a screen that was well-defended by the Bengals, and Lamb turned it into a 44-yard gain, shaking tackles from Germaine Pratt and Trey Hendrickson. Then suddenly, Lamb stopped being part of the equation. Yes, Lamb is managing a shoulder injury, but his toughness is never in question with how much he’ll tolerate to be on the field.

The frustration he sometimes demonstrates seems warranted, and it appears that his vanishing act during games is out of his hands. After being targeted five times in the first quarter, Lamb was targeted zero times in the second, once in the third, and then just once in the fourth. He had six receptions for 93 yards, which feels very underwhelming given the circumstances. Whoever is responsible for this, Mike McCarthy, Rush, or Brian Schottenheimer, it doesn’t matter. As former NFL quarterback Kurt Benkert put it:

The Cowboys staff needs to do better than this, and the Bengals involving Chase as much as they did only illuminates how much work the Cowboys have to do so as not to abandon their most useful offensive commodity.

Pass rush didn’t get home enough

While the Cowboys sacked Joe Burrow twice, it wasn’t enough. The pass rush for Dallas was often a step slow to get to Burrow, and as a result, he was able to extend plays to find his premier playmaker Chase. Micah Parsons’ footsteps were thundering behind Burrow all night, but he couldn’t reach him. In retrospect, Parsons was the only defender who consistently put pressure on Burrow. Parsons had 15 pressures against the Bengals and drew two penalties. However, the defensive line needed more. Osa Odighizuwa managed three quarterback hits, but outside of that, the defensive line didn’t do enough to disrupt Burrow.

By the end of the game, Parsons looked exhausted. He was gassed, and rightfully so. Allowing Burrow to break the pocket as many times as he did ultimately was Dallas’ downfall and permitted too many plays to keep Cincinnati on the field. If lions supposedly hunt in packs, it didn’t happen against the Bengals. They needed more, and Burrow was just out of reach.

Cooper Rush crumbles

Cooper Rush seemed to be in command of the offense early in the game. He was sharp in reads on the opening series, looked confident, and capped off the drive with a fourth-down touchdown pass to CeeDee Lamb. Afterwards, he was inconsistent before flatlining in the fourth quarter. Once the Bengals could get him off his spot, his mechanics and his ball placement suffered. Oftentimes, receivers were open, but Rush couldn’t hit them in stride or fired wide of his target.

His interception in the first half was a result of getting tunnel vision on CeeDee Lamb. If Rush had waited a moment longer, he would have had a chance at Jake Ferguson in the end zone instead of throwing an interception. It’s a downer because the offensive line, though shuffled around, played pretty well. He also had one of Rico Dowdle’s best performances to lessen the burden on him. Unfortunately, it was all for naught.

In the fourth quarter, Rush wilted. He had zero passing yards in the second half until the game’s final drive, and on that series, he was erratic. Again, he missed open receivers and, on his final throw, threw a pass so high that it was unclear who the intended receiver was. Rush completed barely over 50% of his passes and had an abysmal 18.8 QBR—a not-so-good game from the veteran backup.