Cowboys injury mojo, beyond-dusty playoff chances among lessons learned in Week 14

This has been a rough season for the Cowboys, who continue to shoot themselves in the foot. Despite being under .500, Dallas miraculously isn’t out of the playoff hunt and a third straight win could’ve catapulted this team into late-season success.

And all that was briefly attainable when linebacker Nick Vigil blocked Ryan Rehkow’s punt with just under two minutes to play. The Cowboys were set to get the ball back on the Bengals’ side of the field with the opportunity to score and win the game. Time was winding down and they sport the kicker with the best boot on the planet.

That wasn’t to be though, as cornerback Amani Oruwariye tried to pick up the loose ball and run with it. Instead of staying away and giving the offense a chance to close out a third consecutive win, Oruwariye never controlled the ball. The Bengals recovered it with a new set of downs and in great position to win, taking just three plays for the game-winning score.

If the misplay looked familiar to Cowboys fans, it might have evoked memories from when defensive tackle Leon Lett tried to recover a blocked kick on Thanksgiving in a snowy 1993 game. However, there’s been a more recent play exactly like this one, and this also happened with McCarthy as the teams’ head coach.

In a 2021 game against the Denver Broncos, the Cowboys blocked a punt they tried to recover and return. Then rookie CB Nahshon Wright fumbled the recovery attempt, which the Broncos finally secured to extend a drive. The Broncos won that game easily, 30-16.

Just three seasons later, McCarthy’s team made the same mistake, and it cost them, again. For all the recent chatter about bringing McCarthy back, these types of issues make it difficult to get behind the idea.