Cincinnati Bengals vs Dallas Cowboys Match Player Stats (Dec 9, 2024)
A blocked punt and a botched recovery in the final two minutes gave the Bengals a dramatic victory on Monday Night Football. The Cincinnati Bengals defeated the Dallas Cowboys 27-20 on December 9, 2024, at AT&T Stadium. Joe Burrow threw for 369 yards and three touchdowns, and Ja’Marr Chase caught 14 passes for 177 yards and two scores. The attendance of 92,587 marked the second-largest crowd in Bengals history.
Table of Contents
Game Leaders
| Category | Cincinnati | Dallas |
|---|---|---|
| Passing Yards | Joe Burrow: 369 | Cooper Rush: 183 |
| Rushing Yards | Chase Brown: 58 | Rico Dowdle: 131 |
| Receiving Yards | Ja’Marr Chase: 177 | CeeDee Lamb: 93 |
| Tackles | Akeem Davis-Gaither: 9 | Eric Kendricks: 12 |
| Sacks | Trey Hendrickson: 1.0 | Marist Liufau: 1.5 |
Week 14 Stakes on Monday Night Football
Both teams entered this Week 14 prime time matchup with playoff hopes on the line. Cincinnati stood at 4-8, needing to win every remaining game for any postseason chance. Dallas entered at 5-7 after two consecutive wins, still in the NFC wild card hunt.
The Cowboys played without guard Zack Martin, who landed on injured reserve before kickoff. Center Cooper Beebe was ruled out at halftime with a concussion. Linebacker DeMarvion Overshown suffered a serious knee injury in the fourth quarter and did not return.
Scoring Summary
Cooper Rush threw an 11-yard touchdown to CeeDee Lamb at 8:55 of the opening quarter, giving Dallas a 7-0 lead. Joe Burrow answered with a 5-yard scoring pass to Ja’Marr Chase at 2:45, tying the game.
Brandon Aubrey’s 35-yard field goal at 6:23 of the second quarter made it 10-7 Dallas. Burrow found Chase Brown for a 19-yard touchdown at 3:30, giving Cincinnati a 14-10 lead. Cade York added a 37-yard field goal with 30 seconds left in the half for a 17-10 Bengals advantage.
Cooper Rush connected with Brandin Cooks for a 3-yard touchdown at 10:32 of the third quarter, tying it at 17.
Aubrey’s 47-yard field goal at 14:55 of the fourth quarter made it 20-17 Dallas. York tied it at 20 with a 29-yard kick at 10:24. After the blocked punt sequence, Burrow threw to Chase for the game-winning 40-yard touchdown with 1:01 remaining.
Quarterback Performance
Joe Burrow delivered his fourth consecutive game with at least three touchdown passes and 300 yards, becoming the sixth quarterback in NFL history to achieve this feat. He joined Steve Young, Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers, and Patrick Mahomes in that exclusive club.
Passing Statistics
| QB | Comp/Att | Yards | TD | INT | Sacks | QBR | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joe Burrow (CIN) | 33/44 | 369 | 3 | 1 | 2-10 | 70.2 | 112.8 |
| Cooper Rush (DAL) | 16/31 | 183 | 2 | 1 | 3-17 | 20.8 | 77.8 |
Burrow completed 75 percent of his passes and spread the ball to eight receivers. His 8.4 yards per attempt attacked Dallas’s secondary effectively. Rush averaged 5.9 yards per attempt under constant pressure from Cincinnati’s pass rush. His record dropped to 1-4 in games where he has committed a turnover, compared to 6-0 when he protects the football.
Chase’s Record Night
Ja’Marr Chase turned in a historic performance with 14 receptions for 177 yards and two touchdowns. His 14 catches tied for the second-most in any game in Bengals franchise history.
Top Receivers
| Player | Team | Rec | Yards | Avg | TD | Long | Targets |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ja’Marr Chase | CIN | 14 | 177 | 12.6 | 2 | 40 | 18 |
| CeeDee Lamb | DAL | 6 | 93 | 15.5 | 1 | 43 | 7 |
| Chase Brown | CIN | 6 | 65 | 10.8 | 1 | 19 | 8 |
| Andrei Iosivas | CIN | 4 | 41 | 10.3 | 0 | 23 | 5 |
| Jake Ferguson | DAL | 3 | 32 | 10.7 | 0 | 20 | 6 |
| Mike Gesicki | CIN | 3 | 24 | 8.0 | 0 | 13 | 3 |
| Tee Higgins | CIN | 2 | 23 | 11.5 | 0 | 13 | 5 |
Chase drew 18 targets, the most he had seen all season.
Chase set an NFL record with his third game of the season with at least 10 receptions, 175 yards, and two touchdowns. No other player has accomplished this feat three times in one season.
In his 58th regular season game, he surpassed 5,000 career receiving yards on his game-winning touchdown. This tied Michael Thomas as the fifth-fastest player in league history to reach that milestone.
The performance pushed his season totals to 93 catches, 1,319 yards, and 15 touchdowns, all leading the NFL. Only Chase has recorded 80 or more catches, 1,000 or more receiving yards, and seven or more receiving touchdowns in each of his first four seasons.
According to Pro Football Reference’s advanced metrics, Chase’s 9.1 air yards per target combined with his 82 yards after catch made him unstoppable against Dallas’s secondary.
Tee Higgins caught two passes for 23 yards on five targets. After the game, Burrow addressed offseason speculation about Higgins leaving in free agency. “We don’t know, but those discussions are ongoing and I’m confident that I think we’re gonna be able to do what it takes to bring Tee back,” he said.
Ground Game Production
Rico Dowdle rushed for 131 yards on 18 carries, averaging 7.3 yards per attempt. He posted three consecutive 100-yard games, the first Cowboys running back to achieve this since Ezekiel Elliott in 2019.
Rushing Leaders
| Player | Team | Carries | Yards | Average | TD | Long |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rico Dowdle | DAL | 18 | 131 | 7.3 | 0 | 27 |
| Chase Brown | CIN | 14 | 58 | 4.1 | 0 | 10 |
| KaVontae Turpin | DAL | 2 | 15 | 7.5 | 0 | 10 |
| Ja’Marr Chase | CIN | 1 | 14 | 14.0 | 0 | 14 |
Dallas rushed for 156 yards on 25 carries while Cincinnati had 74 yards on 19 attempts. Dowdle’s performance came without Zack Martin in the lineup. His 27-yard run in the third quarter gave Dallas excellent field position.
Chase Brown caught three passes for 65 yards and a touchdown through the air, which gave him 123 total yards from scrimmage.
The Blocked Punt That Changed Everything
With the score tied 20-20 and two minutes remaining, Cincinnati faced fourth and 27 from their own 29-yard line after Marist Liufau sacked Burrow for an eight-yard loss. Ryan Rehkow came out to punt, and Dallas needed a stop to get the ball back with decent field position for a potential game-winning drive.
Nick Vigil, a former Bengal, fired through the protection and blocked the punt. The ball fluttered toward the Cincinnati sideline as the crowd at AT&T Stadium erupted. Dallas appeared poised to take over with excellent field position and under two minutes left.
Then Amani Oruwariye, just back from injured reserve after missing five games with a back injury, attempted to field the bouncing ball. Special teams coordinator John Fassel frantically waved from the sideline, signaling for his players to get away from the live ball. Oruwariye never saw him.
According to Fassel, Oruwariye heard the crowd noise and turned to see what happened. When the ball bounced toward him, he reacted instinctively. “He said that he heard the crowd, which was significant, so he turned back to see what happened and the ball was bouncing at him,” Fassel said. “He didn’t know that it got blocked. He didn’t know if it was a fumble, he didn’t know that the ball was where it was. And so he just reacted like I would, see ball get ball.”
The ball slipped through Oruwariye’s grasp. Maema Njongmeta recovered for Cincinnati at the 43-yard line.
Three plays later, Burrow hit Chase in stride down the right sideline. Chase made DaRon Bland miss and raced untouched to the end zone for a 40-yard touchdown with 61 seconds remaining.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said after the game that the team was “devastated by the turn of events on the blocked kick.” The play drew immediate comparisons to Leon Lett’s infamous gaffe on Thanksgiving 1993, when Lett slid on the snow trying to recover a blocked field goal, allowing Miami to kick a game-winning field goal on the final play.
Micah Parsons fought back tears in the locker room. “I wasn’t even really grasping what was going on,” he said. “Nick made a great play and then I asked the ref to explain what happened. He told me that Oruwariye touched the ball. It was definitely a huge momentum shift. I mean, we had just caught a huge stop. We were going into the two-minute drill. It’s just real hard because you think and believe you can pull that game out in that situation. That hurts.”
Fellow defensive backs Jourdan Lewis and C.J. Goodwin kept reporters away from Oruwariye after the game.
Defensive Performance
Cincinnati forced two turnovers while committing one. The Bengals recorded three sacks compared to Dallas’s two.
Cincinnati Defense
| Player | Total | Solo | Sacks | TFL | PD | QB Hits |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Akeem Davis-Gaither | 9 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Germaine Pratt | 7 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Geno Stone | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Jordan Battle | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Trey Hendrickson | 1 | 1 | 1.0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| B.J. Hill | 3 | 1 | 1.0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Joseph Ossai | 3 | 3 | 1.0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
Geno Stone intercepted Cooper Rush in the second quarter at the Cincinnati 4-yard line. The interception stopped a Cowboys drive that had reached the red zone and came on a pass intended for CeeDee Lamb that was deflected by Cam Taylor-Britt.
Dallas Defense
| Player | Total | Solo | Sacks | TFL | PD | QB Hits |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eric Kendricks | 12 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Donovan Wilson | 9 | 5 | 0.5 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Jourdan Lewis | 7 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Malik Hooker | 7 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| DeMarvion Overshown | 6 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Trevon Diggs | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| Marist Liufau | 2 | 1 | 1.5 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
Eric Kendricks led all players with 12 tackles. Malik Hooker intercepted Joe Burrow in the third quarter at the Dallas 18-yard line. He returned it for a loss of one yard after Ja’Marr Chase made the tackle. Trevon Diggs recorded three pass deflections in his final game of the 2024 season before undergoing knee surgery.
NFL Network’s game coverage highlighted Cincinnati’s defense forcing two fourth-quarter punts, holding Dallas to 13 total yards on those possessions.
Special Teams
| Kicker | Team | FG Made/Att | Long | XP Made/Att | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cade York | CIN | 2/2 | 37 | 3/3 | 9 |
| Brandon Aubrey | DAL | 2/2 | 47 | 2/2 | 8 |
York connected from 37 and 29 yards. Aubrey hit from 35 and 47 yards. Ryan Rehkow punted three times for 121 yards, averaging 40.3 yards per punt. Bryan Anger punted four times for 198 yards, averaging 49.5 yards with one inside the 20.
Khalil Herbert returned two kickoffs for 67 yards. Isaiah Williams had four punt returns for 25 yards total. KaVontae Turpin’s lone punt return went for 20 yards.
Team Statistics
| Category | Cincinnati | Dallas |
|---|---|---|
| Total Yards | 433 | 322 |
| First Downs | 23 | 17 |
| Third Down Conv. | 4/10 | 4/12 |
| Fourth Down Conv. | 0/1 | 1/2 |
| Red Zone Efficiency | 2/4 | 2/4 |
| Penalties | 10-77 | 4-36 |
| Turnovers | 1 | 2 |
| Time of Possession | 33:11 | 26:49 |
Cincinnati controlled possession for over 33 minutes. The Bengals gained 111 more total yards and converted 40 percent of third downs compared to Dallas’s 33 percent. Both teams scored touchdowns on half of their red zone possessions. Burrow’s 18 first-down passes compared to Rush’s nine showed how Cincinnati sustained drives. The Bengals averaged 6.7 yards per play. Dallas managed 5.5.
Season Implications
Cincinnati improved to 5-8 and remained mathematically alive for a playoff spot, though the odds were microscopic. The Bengals needed to win their final three games and get help from multiple teams. They faced Tennessee next in another must-win situation.
Dallas fell to 5-8, seeing their slim playoff chances take a serious blow. ESPN’s box score and game coverage showed the Cowboys needed to win their final three games to reach 9-8, and even that might not be enough given the crowded NFC wild card race.
Cincinnati ended a three-game losing streak with the victory. Seven of their eight losses this season came by seven points or less. “We needed a break,” Burrow said after the game. “We haven’t got many this year, but it was nice to get that one and nice to come out of this with a win.”
The head-to-head series now stood at 10-5 in Dallas’s favor all time. Cincinnati’s win marked their first against the Cowboys since 2004, ending a five-game losing streak in the matchup.
What Happened Next
Dallas won at Carolina 30-14 on December 16. Cincinnati defeated Tennessee 37-27 the same week. The Cowboys were eliminated from playoff contention before Week 17, though Dallas beat Tampa Bay 26-24 on December 22.
The blocked punt sequence at AT&T Stadium joined Leon Lett’s Thanksgiving blunder in Cowboys lore as one of the franchise’s most painful special teams disasters.
Cincinnati finished the season at 9-8 and missed the playoffs. Burrow’s excellence and Chase’s record-breaking year gave fans reason to believe the Bengals could contend in 2025.
