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The Cowboys Continue to Find New and Exciting Ways to Lose Games
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The Cowboys fell to 5-8 with a 27-20 loss on Monday Night Football, giving up a touchdown after this sequence:
WHAT JUST HAPPENED?! 😱
THE COWBOYS BLOCKED THE PUNT BUT CINCY GOT THE BALL BACK AFTER A DALLAS PLAYER TOUCHED THE BALL! #CINvsDAL | ABC, ESPN pic.twitter.com/vaMWLRHxIa
— ESPN (@espn) December 10, 2024
The rule is that if a deflected punt goes beyond the line of scrimmage, and the receiving team touches it, it’s a live ball and can be recovered by the kicking team. So if Dallas had just let that roll, they would have regained possession. It was more or less a muff.
Greg Olsen tweeted this out and it’s a good way to look at the play:
“No such thing as a partially blocked punt. If it goes past the LOS it’s not blocked. It’s just a punt.”
Correct. That’s why the fielding rules are the same. If the punt was blocked behind the line, it’s a live ball and anyone can touch it.
Dallas gave up a three-play touchdown drive on the ensuing Cincy possession, then couldn’t score on their final drive, so the Bengals took a knee and that was that. How bout them Cowboys!
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com