There is actually a lot at stake for the Dallas Cowboys in primetime this week.
The Dallas Cowboys have only played six opponents in their entire history as a franchise since 1960 less times than the Cincinnati Bengals, hardly a team anywhere in the realm of historic rivalries when it comes to Dallas football. These teams find themselves in a late season primetime matchup on Monday Night Football here in Week 14, also a first for this limited series. Even though the Cowboys are home underdogs by a significant margin, they are also the team in this matchup that finds themselves with much more at stake with the better record of 5-7 compared to 4-8 for the Bengals. Both of those records are good for third place in the NFC East and AFC North right now.
Even though it will be the first time in history these teams meet on ESPN, as well as Disney+ if watching this game transformed into Simpsons characters is your thing, it will hardly be the first time a national outlet like ESPN is relying on the Cowboys to be interesting and the main story. Even led by Cooper Rush, who has a previous win against the Bengals in his second career start in 2022, Dallas has all of the intrigue in this matchup as not just a fringe playoff team that can gain viability with their third straight win. They are also, to a degree that simply cannot be known by anyone outside The Star right now, potentially playing to keep Mike McCarthy in place as head coach after his contract expires at the end of the regular season. Never have so many possibilities been hanging in the air all at the same time in recent Cowboys history, which for both good and bad reasons, is a wild change of fortune from early season incompetence that felt destined to continue from start to finish and mark this 2024 team as nothing but one of the biggest failures in recent memory.
Thanks to two wins in four days against the Commanders and Giants on Thanksgiving, the Cowboys are now miraculously the team in this MNF matchup failing much less than their opponent.
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The Bengals have lost three in a row, two of which were to divisional opponents in the Ravens and Steelers by a combined seven points. Finding the types of clutch wins that Joe Burrow has proven capable of in his career has been impossible for the Bengals this year thanks to a historically bad defense. The Bengals have lost four games when scoring at least 30 points this season. The Cowboys are 3-0 when scoring at least 26 points and have reached 30 twice in wins at the Browns and much more recently at the Commanders (needing two kick return touchdowns in the fourth quarter to get there).
The Bengals’ best wins, only by opponent record and nothing else, are against the currently 3-9 Panthers and Browns. The win at Carolina came in week four to avoid a dreadful 0-4 start and was against former Bengals and Cowboys quarterback Andy Dalton. The Bengals’ win in Cleveland was before the Browns switched to Jameis Winston at quarterback as well. It sounds preposterous to say, but Monday’s starter in Cooper Rush is absolutely playing at a level capable of beating this Bengals team that’s given up at least 35 points in five of their last ten games. Cincinnati has also found ways to lose close, lower-scoring affairs to the Patriots 16-10 and Chiefs 26-25.
If the Cowboys and Rush do extend their win streak to three games, they’ll reach a 6-7 mark that would place them firmly “in the hunt” for a playoff spot. Although Dallas would still face some of the longest odds out of the teams still battling to reach the postseason, and much like the Bengals have nobody to blame but themselves for being on the outside looking in with four games remaining after Monday night, the Cowboys would have yet another win under their belt that shows viability to the style of football they’re playing under Rush.
When Rush beat the Bengals 20-17 in week two of the 2022 season, it immediately changed the tenor of a season that somehow felt lost after just week one. The Cowboys opened with a home loss to the Buccaneers on Sunday night and lost Dak Prescott in the process, not giving fans much of anything to have hope for early on much like this year’s team. Rush leveled the Cowboys’ record at 1-1 with an upset win by going three for three on the final drive of the game and getting quick completions to CeeDee Lamb, Noah Brown, and Lamb again to set up a Brett Maher 50-yard field goal on the last play of the game. The Cowboys won in dramatic fashion after jumping out to a 17-3 lead on a Brown touchdown on the opening drive. The Cowboys pass rush got to Joe Burrow six times, with Micah Parsons and Dorance Armstrong both having two sacks.
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With Parsons being one of the most outspoken current Cowboys about wanting this team to still play hard and fight for the playoffs, it is fitting he draws another matchup in primetime against this current Bengals team that’s allowed at least three sacks in back-to-back weeks. A big part of how the Cowboys have found some late season wins of late is their ability to win up front on both sides of the ball, which will be critical against the Bengals.
This is not an opponent that’s laid down for anyone this year despite their struggles, with Burrow firing until the end even in losses. Dynamic receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins are capable of making a huge play at any given time. The Cowboys have looked much more up to the challenge in the secondary in recent weeks thanks to getting players back healthy, but affecting Burrow in the pocket and forcing this Bengals offense behind the chains will be paramount. Cincinnati cannot be the team that better controls the pace and scoring in this game if Dallas wants their second home win of the year. The Cowboys will look to do this themselves by not only finding their matchups against a porous Bengals secondary, but establishing the run game with Rico Dowdle who just had the team’s first 100-yard rushing performance of the season against the Giants.
Just like the 2022 Cowboys could have had no idea that their week two win against the Bengals would be the start of a four-game win streak that put them firmly in the playoff picture upon Prescott’s return, these 2024 Cowboys will be dreaming of a new four-game win streak that’s come out of nowhere if they get their third in a row on Monday night. The Cowboys would likely need to see this streak grow to seven and win out to keep playoff hopes alive until the very end, making their Week 18 home date with the Commanders relevant. The Cowboys have never won seven straight under McCarthy, and doing so now would bring upon a wild start to the offseason as questions about his future and a new contract would be a whirlwind – playoffs or not.
Even in a down year across the entirety of the NFL it seems, a Cooper Rush-led playoff run to at least the NFC Championship Game, a plateau once expected to be the minimum McCarthy needed to reach to save his job this season, feels much more fitting in a Disney universe than actual reality. There is no Prescott return to look forward to amidst the success of Rush this time around, but this team playing sound football for really the first time all year has become something to smile about.
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It is advantageous timing that McCarthy finds himself calling plays for a primetime game against a Bengals defense that should give him plenty of chances to find space for his receivers, set up favorable passing situations with the run game, and continue to make this offense look confident in their overall direction much like the most recent historically-viewed win against the Giants. That win also featured Tom Brady giving some high praise to the job McCarthy has done overall with the Cowboys, and it will be interesting to see what both Joe Buck and former Cowboy Troy Aikman have to offer on this topic on Monday night.
As if anyone needed a third place to watch this game, it is also available on ESPN2 with Peyton Manning and Eli Manning on the Manningcast. Having two former Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks break down a matchup between Rush and Burrow, where Burrow is the betting favorite but Rush has the benefit of being on the team playing better football, is a wonderful example of the overall strangeness of professional football.
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McCarthy went just 1-2 against the Bengals with an overtime win in his career with the Packers, but is 2-0 against them with the Cowboys. The other win besides the one led by Rush in 2022 came in his first season and was just the fourth win for the 2020 Cowboys, who finished 6-10. Having gotten both the team’s fourth and fifth wins in the same week to come into this Bengals game with extra rest, the idea that this team will continue playing hard under McCarthy and possibly go as far as earning him a second contract in Dallas is becoming far less of a crazy one with each passing week.
Overall, the Cowboys have won five in a row against the Bengals. Their four losses in franchise history to the Bengals, the most recent of which came in 2004, have mostly come when the team was having very difficult seasons. The exact type of season this 2024 one has been, but now with an unexpected and almost awkward high point here at the end. With the exception of losing at Cincinnati in 1985 by giving up a season-high 50 points but still winning the division, the only other teams in franchise history to lose to the jungle cats are the 1985 Cowboys who finished 3-13, the 1997 team that finished 6-10, and that 2004 Bill Parcells squad that also was 6-10 at year’s end.
Much like the Simpsons are the show that simply will never end, the drama surrounding the Dallas Cowboys that’s made them something of a saving grace for this week’s talking points on Monday Night Football is also never ending, and however fans are tuning into this game it has a strong chance to be a good one until the end.
This will be the Cowboys’ second appearance on MNF of the season after getting embarrassed by the Texans just three weeks ago 34-10. It is amazing how the two wins that have followed that loss have made it a footnote, although Dallas is not done with primetime games after the Bengals as they still have a Sunday night home game against the Buccaneers in Week 16.