FRISCO, Texas -- The Dallas Cowboys appeared to be on their way to a win over the Cincinnati Bengals on "Monday Night Football" until a special teams disaster struck.
Dallas' Marist Liufau sacked Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow on third-and-19 to run the clock down to the two-minute warning, which had Dallas primed to get the ball back with three timeouts and the chance to line up a game-winning field goal attempt for All-Pro Brandon Aubrey.
Then, chaos ensued. Cowboys linebacker Nick Vigil blocked the Bengals punt -- even though the official scorebook labeled the kick as simply a 13-yard punt -- so Dallas cornerback Amani Oruwariye pursued after the bouncing football in attempt to give his offense advantageous field position. Instead, he muffed the recovery, which made it a live ball, and the Bengals recovered to retain possession.
Three plays later, Cincinnati receiver Ja'Marr Chase found the end zone with a 40-yard, go-ahead touchdown after breaking Dallas cornerback Da'Ron Bland's ankles. Final score: Bengals 27, Cowboys 20.
The defeat didn't mathematically eliminate Dallas from the postseason, but their playoff hopes are essentially dead after the chaotic loss in Week 14. CBS SportsLine simulation models now have the Cowboys with a mere 0.3% chance to reach the postseason. That's why team owner and general manager Jerry Jones found coach Mike McCarthy and special teams coordinator John "Bones" Fassel in the locker room postgame to get an immediate answer on how his squad bungled its slim postseason chances on a muff of a blocked punt.
"It's not the first time it's happened, but it's probably not normal," Fassel said Tuesday when asked about talking to Jones in the locker room immediately after a game. "I understand why it would happen when it happens in the last two minutes of the game in a critical situation. Everybody is still wondering kind of what happened, what the call was. So it was just a pretty normal conversation from my perspective and his about kind of what happened. The play call was a very basic, elementary call."
McCarthy confirmed the interaction with a short answer.
"That's the general manager. You answer his questions," McCarthy said Tuesday. "Yes. Absolutely [there was a conversation]."
So what was the the "very basic, elementary" play call? Fassel explained the schematics he relayed to Jones and why he thought it wasn't a risky move at the end of the game.
"Hold up the right side, force the punt on the backside by the punt-side gunner and try to bring it to where you're holding everybody up. It wasn't anything necessarily unique about it except the fact that we busted their protection, and we shot where the bust was. We blocked it. The deflection didn't go our favor," Fassel said. "I don't know what else to say. Nick Vigil's technique was perfection where he just shot the B gap, and the way he attacked the ball off the punter's foot, stayed to the same side of the punter so there was no roughing. The risk element in the play call, I thought it was very low."
McCarthy backed Fassel's process despite the tough luck result.
"When it goes right, you push the envelope a little bit, you can be rewarded," McCarthy said. "Sometimes when you push it, it doesn't go your way. So that's the beauty of a football game. It's fair. It's very fair to be criticized about it. We're playing to win. We're not playing to tie the game. We're not playing to just sneak in there and hope they screw up."
How did Oruwariye, a six-year veteran, make a critical misjudgment in his attempt to field the football in that moment? Here's how it all unfolded from Fassel's perspective.
"This is football reality. I'm a blocker and I'm running with the gunner as fast as I can. Then the crowd roars and I turn back to see what happened, and I don't hear anybody. I'm talking from a football player's perspective if I'm putting myself in Oruwariye's shoes, I'm hearing nothing except the crowd roaring, so I'm not hearing any peter calls [signaling do not touch the football]. The ball got on him so fast, there weren't enough bodies around to get a poison or peter call," Fassel said.
"[Returner Kavonte] Turpin was behind him, but the time Turpin started making the call, [Oruwariye] had already turned his back and looked at the football. Marist saw it happened because he was right where the punt block happened. There were a couple other guys that, the ball deflected, and everybody is trying to find where the ball is. By the time they find where the ball is, it's hit the ground, and it's bouncing off one of our guys."
Fassel spoke with Oruwariye in the locker room after the game and again Tuesday morning, and his message to him was simple: he didn't let the team down. The 17-year NFL special teams coordinator fell on the sword for both Oruwariye and Juanyeh Thomas. Thomas returned a Washington Commanders onside kick for a touchdown, a decision that gave Washington the football back down one possession, 34-26, instead allowing the Cowboys to end the game with a kneel down. Dallas was able to hold on for a road win in that case in Week 12.
"You can attribute them [the mistakes] to me if you want," Fassel said. "I think I attribute it to sometimes special teams is the wild, wild west. There's very unique situations that have happened over the last couple of weeks. ... Any mistakes you can attribute to me whether it's AO turning around and fielding a blocked punt. Or Junayeh doing an incredible job of fielding a middle dribble on hands team. I understand the criticism, but we're talking about blocked punts and kick returns for touchdowns. I get it, it comes with the territory. Moms, don't let your kids grow up to be special teams coaches. Coach quarterbacks."
Fassel is also the special teams coordinator that has returner KaVonte Turpin in line for his second Pro Bowl selection in three seasons. Turpin leads the NFL in yards per kickoff return (36.3) and is the only player this season with both a punt and kickoff return touchdown. Fassel also helped develop Aubrey into a historic, long range kicker.
Sometimes special teams is the wild, wild west, and that wilderness on Monday night likely extinguished the flame that was Dallas' 2024 playoff dreams in a truly snakebitten season.