Dallas Cowboys vs. Cincinnati Bengals: Cowboys stun Bengals in 20-17 victory for first win of season

The Dallas Cowboys are hosting the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday afternoon in a battle of winless teams. Starting the season off 0-2 is traditionally a difficult hurdle to overcome, which only increases the pressure on each team to come out on top.

As far as the Cowboys are concerned they need a win in the worst possible way. The prospect of an 0-2 record is tough to take, but Dallas is in the middle of some extreme turmoil. Their offseason was questioned by many and exploited for its faults in the season opener, and to make matters worse quarterback Dak Prescott fractured his thumb and is out for a month at the absolute best (if you buy Jerry Jones’ optimism).

This is the fourth game in a row for the Cowboys in which they are starting a new quarterback against Cincinnati. Tony Romo (2012), Dak Prescott (2016), and Andy Dalton (2020) all won their games, perhaps Cooper Rush can make it four in a row.

We will be providing live quarterly updates along with highlights from the game (presuming there are some!) right here. Make sure to follow along through what is surely going to be a few memorable hours.

4th Quarter

Dallas started the fourth quarter with an impressive stop of Cincinnati’s offense after the Dalton Schultz fumble. To be clear the Cowboys forced a three and out which all things considered was impressive.

But the Cowboys gave the ball back and Cincinnati responded mightily. The Bengals put together a drive that lasted almost 9 whole minutes and that featured a fourth down conversion AND a two-point conversion to tie the game.

The Cowboys couldn’t do much with the game tied and wound up punting the ball back to Cincinnati.

But that didn’t matter. Cincinnati gave the ball back to Cooper Rush and he delivered with a game-winning opportunity for Brett Maher which he made!

Final Score: Dallas 20, Cincinnati 17

3rd Quarter

The Bengals started the second half with the ball and were about to punt to the Cowboys... until Dallas jumped offsides on the punt formation.

It was unfortunate to see the Bengals stay on offense but it did provide an opportunity for Micah Parsons’ fourth sack of the season (the third came earlier in the game as noted)!

Ultimately the Bengals were able to scrap 3 points out of this possession, though.

Dallas didn’t do much with their first possession of the half. After a first half featuring a lot of creativity they went three and out to start the second.

This gave Cincinnati the ball back and they finally broke through a little bit... until the Dallas Cowboys defense stepped up once again to stop another drive. Cincinnati settled for another field goal, their third of the game.

As the Cowboys were driving down the field to potentially somewhat ice the game though disaster struck by way of a Dalton Schultz fumble.

Score at the end of the 3rd Quarter: Dallas 17, Cincinnati 9

2nd Quarter

The Bengals punted not long into the second quarter after Micah Parsons flustered Joe Burrow once again.

Dallas couldn’t make anything happen with their next possession so they booted the ball right back before Cincinnati did it again. A punting extravaganza began to unfold.

After that guess what happened? The Cowboys punted back to the Bengals. Although while all of this punting was happening the Cowboys were proving that they were in fact a competitive football team which was improvement based on what we saw in the season opener.

Before the Bengals punted again (lol) Dorance Armstrong reeled in his second sack of the game.

Just before the half came to a close Brett Maher attempted a 54-yard field goal. It was good!

All told it was a very productive first half of football.

Score at the end of the 2nd Quarter: Dallas 17, Cincinnati 3

1st Quarter

After receiving the opening kickoff, the Dallas Cowboys took their opening drive down the field and scored a touchdown. Seriously.

Prior to this the Cowboys only had one opening drive touchdown in their last nine games at AT&T Stadium so to say it was nice to see would be quite the understatement. The drive featured touches from Ezekiel Elliott, Tony Pollard, and even KaVontae Turpin out of the backfield. In the least dramatic way possible, it was perfect.

On the other side of things the Cincinnati Bengals would have gone three and out to start their performance in the game if not for a penalty on Anthony Barr that kept their drive alive. Cincinnati was able to squeeze out a field goal, but not before Micah Parsons picked up his third sack of the season.

The Cowboys did get the ball back with time left in the first quarter and it sort of felt like things were already too good to be true.

And then Tony Pollard happened.

Pollard punched it in the play after after being ruled down at the 1-yard line.

Score at the end of the 1st Quarter: Dallas 14, Cincinnati 3