Amani Oruwariye might forever regret fumbling a ball as long as he’s alive and playing in the NFL. Basically, that loss to the Bengals is being put on his shoulders right now. So much so, that even the team owner, Jerry Jones is giving him a cold shoulder. Who’d have thought the Monday Night Football game would end in such a baffling way?

Nick Vigil blocked the punt, and the ball was tipped off his hands and bounced off the ground. Amani Oruwariye had it for a second, but it slipped off his hands and was later recovered by Bengals’ Maema Njongmeta. That was a huge turn of events because the play was ruled dead after the Bengals recovered the ball.

“Had he not touched it, it would’ve been Cowboys ball,” play-by-play announcer Joe Buck said during the broadcast. “But he did. … Shades of Leon Lett, and the ’93 Thanksgiving game.” The camera shifted to Jerry Jones towards the end of the game, and he looked borderline angry. After a brief phase of sunshine and rainbows, the America’s team was quickly reminded of reality; they were not making it to the playoffs this year. Oruwariye was activated off injured reserve coming into the game and couldn’t react fast enough in a do or die situation.

After the game, a reporter asked Jerry Jones if he had words for the newly activated cornerback. “I don’t know that we say anything to him. We made the mistakes out there. That mistake we made at the end was really, it was very impactful is all I can say,” Jones said. Before the question about Amani, he was praising the quarterback and rest of the team, but his mood changed when this question about Oruwariye was brought up.

With that sort of a mistake, the team might never sub in the cornerback anymore. On the other hand, they have nothing to lose now. The Dallas Cowboys can experiment with different permutations and combinations of player they have on their roster now. They can even play into people’s narrative and fire Mike McCarthy. Who knows what will happen after the game. But apart from that muffled punt, Jerry Jones was satisfied with the performance of his team.

“The team is really devastated by the turn of events on the block kick. Obviously, the block kick call had won in so many odds that turned against us, and we all would say, well, why block the kick? Just take the kick and get within field goal and kick it. We’re proud of the way the guys hung in there all day, the quarterbacks outstanding, and I thought we did some really good things out there, patched up,” Jerry Jones said earlier.

But it isn’t as bad for Amani Oruwariye as we make it out to be. His Dallas Cowboys still stand with him in solidarity.

Jerry Jones’ Cowboys back Amani Oruwariye

A lot of media people tried to get a byte from the cornerback, but they were shut down by the Cowboys special teams captain CJ Goodwin. He was right in thinking that media was doing its job. But at the same time, he also had some duties he couldn’t ditch. He was standing next to Oruwariye the entire time media tried to ask him about the muffled punt.

He shut down any interview with the cornerback because he understands that everyone has a life out of football and such moments take a toll on mental health. So CJ Goodwin did the next best thing and shut down the reporters.

“Ya’ll think it’s football … but there’s life outside of football,” Goodwin said. “When I see my man going through something mentally, I’m not going to have (the media) bringing up the play over and over. We’re not going to do that.” But Goodwin isn’t the only one supporting Oruwariye.

Veteran CB Jourdan Lewis also felt bad for Amani and thought he should help him out. Sometimes people let the worse moments define them, which shouldn’t be the case. He doesn’t want his fellow cornerback mental health to spiral down.