FRISCO - By almost all accounts, the Dallas Cowboys' "Monday Night Football" 27-20 loss to the Bengals is at least in part the result of a "football brain cramp'' on the part of Amani Oruwariye, who - in our words - "inexplicably'' - touched the ball when he shouldn't have.
He muffed a Cowboys blocked punt, giving the ball right back to Cincy to set up a Dallas loss that dropped the home team to 5-8 and shriveled up even more "America's Team's'' slim playoff hopes.
But when we say "by almost all accounts,'' we are being considerate of the explanations being given by those involved ... including, for the first time, Oruwariye himself.
"In the moment, I'm taking my guy, and then I heard a thump,'' said Oruwariye, who to his credit on Wednesday at The Star did not shy from his responsibility to speak on the controversial play. "I didn't know what is was. It could have been a punt, it could have been blocked whatever it was. All I know is I turned around to react like any athlete would, and I saw the ball there.
"In a split(-second) decision, I made a decision to go try and secure the ball. That's just part of the game. It was something that I felt in that moment was a reactionary thing to do ...
"So I'm standing by it."
"Inexplicable''? We know that Oruwariye knows the rules. We know that teammates were screaming "Peter!'' - a football code word that means "DO NOT TOUCH THE BALL!''
"That's my job to yell 'Peter,' and that's what I was coming up and doing," return man KaVontae Turpin said. "(But) I ain't mad at him or have anything against him. I understand it. That's what it is."
In fact, notably, nobody really seems "mad'' at the player. Head coach Mike McCarthy excused away what we called a "boneheaded play'' by blaming the crowd noise. Teammate Jourdan Lewis blamed the NFL bylaws, claiming, "It's a dumb rule!'' Special-teams coach "Bones'' Fassel attempted to dismiss the issue altogether.
"He did not let the team down,'' asserted Fassel. "He worked incredibly hard to come off IR after missing [five] games. He tried to make a play on the ball. So none of that stuff should be written about him.''
So, because "A.O.'' is a hard worker ... it's all OK? And we shouldn't even write about it?!
Actually, Dallas All-Pro receiver CeeDee Lamb is among the few who are telling a harsh truth, saying bluntly, ""At that point, you just can't be a superhero. You got to do what you go to do. Let the ball just die.''
In his heart of hearts, Oruwariye - an adult at 28 and a six-year NFL veteran - knows the rule and he knows the truth. He mentioned that this is "a learning lesson ...That's part of life, things you got to kind take and learn from and move on from."
All true. But it's hard to learn from a mistake if we're all supposed to pretend a mistake was never made.
