What Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy, quarterback Copper Rush said after deflating loss to Bengals

After losing 27-20 to the Cincinnati Bengals on Monday Night Football, Dallas Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy and quarterback Cooper Rush met with the media. Here’s everything they said, courtesy of the Cowboys media relations staff.

Coach Mike McCarthy

On the blocked punt

“Yeah definitely. I mean, we actually had a return called. The tackle released, guard went down, b-gap was exposed. Nick [Vigil] took it, and then we were able to get the block. Amani Oruwariye was in a vice situation. And then, you know, he heard the roar of the crowd, and when he turned, I mean, he understands the rule, you know, of crossing [the line of scrimmage]. And once the ball crosses the line, his response was when he turned, when he heard the crowd, the ball was there and he reacted to it. So, obviously, a big play in the game.”

On what he said to Amani Oruwariye

“I haven’t talked to him yet.”

On the emotional swing of that moment

“You know, even before that you had the ball on the ground twice, you had the one turnover going back. It was a lot of ebb and flow to the game. But I just can’t say enough about our guys. They just keep fighting, keep competing. And you know, they made one more play than we did. So, I mean, you can see it at halftime, the big play production at halftime was seven-to-seven. It was really just a message that we had to keep slugging this thing away, and there was a good chance it was going to come down to one play, and that’s what it came down to.”

On if the deflected punt is a peter situation

“Poison, peter yeah.”

On how he reconciles where the team heads following this loss

“Reconcile? I mean, just do the math. Obviously, we’re not even back to even. We’re still in a hole. So, we need a tremendous amount of help, just being captain obvious here. This one stings; we had to have this one. That’s the way we approached it. The team had probably our best week of practice, you know, just having a whole secondary out there. Friday’s practice, they had numerous interceptions. You know, I felt this week, really for the first time since training camp, we were a complete football team. I thought we were running on all cylinders. We knew we had to play a certain way because of where we are right now. And I thought we did a solid job of trying to play today. We needed some takeaways, and our defense created turnover opportunities. You know, the one giveaway, it was a huge play. We really had a clean play, had a collision there with our primary receiver. That was a big play early. But that’s what this time of year is; December. These games are always clawing and scratching, because everybody’s urgency is at the highest. And we just, we were short. We were one play short today.”

On DeMarvion Overshown’s injury

“It’s of a serious nature, I’m told. That’s really, that’s all I know. It didn’t look good.”

On if a game like this feels consistent with the way the season has gone

“I really don’t view it that way. It’s football. Football is an up-and-down sport. It’s 11 individuals on 11 individuals every play. There’s nothing that happened in the game today that players and coaches haven’t experienced before, it just happens in a different order. When you don’t win, yes that’s the kind of things that are said, but when you do win, you overcome adversity. We were short today. We’ve been short, you know, all year, but we had some games early that obviously were not very good at all, as an overall performance. But, they prepared to win, we were in position to win, and we came up short. It’s definitely disappointing.”

On if this is the toughest pill to swallow for a non-playoff loss

“Definitely, because of where it puts us in the season. We understand that we dug ourselves a hole, you know the seven losses coming in here. We had to have this one tonight. So definitely, this is a very disappointing loss.”

On the Bengals offense and Ja’marr Chase

“We talked about it during the media sessions this week. They were playing at a very high level in the passing game, and they did it again tonight. I thought our guys put us in position to win the game. But yeah, he obviously had a huge night.”

On if he expects to do anything different at quarterback following the loss

“No, I haven’t thought about that. Just lost the game. That’s where my head is at.”

On the frustration of players following the game including Micah Parsons

“Everybody’s frustrated, without a doubt, rightfully so. I mean, I would expect it. These guys poured their hearts out tonight. Everybody’s disappointed.”

On Cooper Beebe’s injury

“My understanding is that he was cleared, but then when he came back in, they looked at him again, and they just felt that he needed to be pulled from the game. That was the communication given to me.”

On the running game

“Still didn’t get enough reps at it. Third down, I thought we weren’t at our best today on third down, but I was very pleased with running the football, and just the way we fit it together. So, I thought we had a very good mesh between the quarterback movement and run game today.”

On the team continuing to fight

“It’s who we are, it’s the way you’re supposed to play. We expected to win. I feel terrible for the players because they give you everything during the week, and it’s been a bumpy, bumpy ride without a doubt. So, it’s just really raw right now. So, I just feel for those guys.”

On when a young player makes a mistake like what happened tonight

“It’s a correctable moment. Absolutely. That’s a play that happens not very often. It’s something that we’ve got to be in tune with, and we can see why it happened. You know, he’s (Amani Oruwariye) in a vice situation, he turns and the ball is there and he reacted to it. I haven’t seen the video. I saw it live. But again, it’s a definitely a tough learning opportunity.”

On Rico Dowdle

“Definitely, you know, just continue to give him opportunities. And you know, he needs to continue to grow on third down and be an every down back. I’m really proud of what Rico’s done here of late.”

On the locker room dealing with DeMarvion Overshown’s injury

“Yeah, that’s the hardest part, you know, especially for teammates. I think the whole sideline felt that. It didn’t look good. It’s of a serious nature. So, it definitely hit a lot of the guys.”

QB Cooper Rush

On how tough it is to lose the game on a last-minute play…

“We had a lot of chances. The defense played unbelievable against Joe Burrow, [who] is probably playing the quarterback position better than anybody in the league right now. To hold those guys to 20 points was unbelievable. We had three chances there in the fourth. We were rolling on offense all night, kind of. We just stalled out there in the fourth.”

On how he saw the run game open up tonight…

“Those guys are coordinated up front. It starts with that. They’re running the show well, getting coordinated and getting their targets right and then Rico’s just running alleys. He’s making the right reads and running hard. We got into some good scheme stuff and that was really good.”

On describing tonight’s game in one word and why…

“Two words…missed opportunity. We held a really good offense to 20 points. We turn them over. As an offense, we felt confident that we were able to move it on them. We just didn’t capitalize.”

On the reaction to the blocked punt on the sideline…

“Yeah, you’re excited. I think you block a punt, none of us really saw what happened. Next, they’re telling you that Cincy’s got the ball, so darn. Fortunately for us, they gave us a chance to get the ball back in the last minute. You kind of worry that they’re driving, they’re going to kick a game-winning field goal, a thing like that, so had our chance at the end there.”

On the interception in the red zone and who he was looking for…

“We’re ripping the slant to CeeDee and he gets hit again. I don’t know the ruling on it. It’s kind of a trust, kind of a loose throw, probably a little tight. But we have a No. 88 rip in there, a slant versus man, so we liked it.”

On how tough it is to overcome tonight’s lost on the way that it happened…

“I guess the way it happened was tough, but a loss is a loss. We’re professionals and it’s on to the next week. [We have] a short week again, which is kind of nice. Get right back to it and we have to go beat Carolina.”

This story was originally published December 10, 2024 at 12:36 AM.