2024 Week 14: Bengals 27, Cowboys 20
Once again, another primetime banger… what a streak the NFL is on right now. This was a back-and-forth game that could have gone either way, but of course, it had to end in the most inexplicable way possible. Cincinnati was punting the ball late in the 4th quarter in a 20-20 ball game, and Dallas tips the kick… but instead of Dallas recovering the ball it sails about 15 yards and takes a wicked bounce right at a Dallas defender, bounces off of him and Cincinnati recovers the ball which is now technically a muffed punt… and then Burrow-Chase did their thing to ice the game scoring with less than a minute on the clock
The Bengals (5-8) playoff hopes are on thin ice, they need to win out to get to 9-8 and even that might not be enough.
Dallas (5-8) is in the same position but they don’t have the best passer in the NFL so no one will talk about their playoff chances going forward.
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QB Report:
- Joe Burrow (33/44 for 369 yards, 3 TD/1 INT) does it again, 5 straight games with 3+ passing TDs, and 4 straight throwing for over 300 yards. How anyone can say Joe Burrow isn’t the best PASSER in the NFL, I don’t know.
RB Report:
- This was the best Rico Dowdle (18-131-0; 1 catch for 10 yards) has looked in his career so far, shifty, balanced, often making defenders miss, but I wonder how much of that was Rico Dowdle and how much of that is the Bengals defense being awful. Regardless of who was the cause for Dowdle’s nice game, he should have another nice game next week against CAR, then he can be discarded for Week 16 and 17 against TB and Philly.
- Chase Brown (14-58-0; 6 catches for 65 yards, 1 TD) is a much better back than Dowdle and an Ace in the passing game, very Austin Ekeler-esc. Brown's receiving touchdown looked like it was prime Ekeler catching a pass and turning upfield without sacrificing any speed. It was beautiful. Brown is an RB I’ll be targeting in the second/third round of all of my drafts next year.
WR Report:
- After this season I fully expect Ja’Marr Chase (14-177-2/18) to be the consensus 1.1 in 2025. Chase is on pace to win the triple crown this season, and the only one that’s in jeopardy is receptions.
- The Dallas receiving core is lackluster to put it nicely. CeeDee Lamb (6-93-1; 1 rush for 1 yard) is a good receiver but Mike McCarthy relentlessly pushes Cooks, Mingo, and Tolbert instead of the FASTEST PLAYER IN THE NFL Kavontae Turpin (1-16-0/4; 2 rushes for 15 yards). Turpin only played 10 snaps on offense, but Cooper Rush (16/31 for 183 yards, 2 TD/1 INT) was smart enough to target him when he could. He was given looks on 6 of his 10 snaps.
D/ST Report:
- Dallas pass rusher DeMarvion Overshown (6 tackles, 1 PD) hurt his knee and is now out for the year, which means rookie Marist Liufau (2 tackles, 1.5 sacks, 1 TFL) will take the largest share of his snaps. I didn’t think much of him as a prospect but he had a great game on MNF. There might be some IDP interest because we know he’s going to play. Liufau is a beloved rookie to this coaching staff and in a lost season there’s no reason not to have him play and develop.
image source: (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)