San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
About the game
More questions about effort
The Cowboys have generated questions about effort after multiple games this season, leading McCarthy earlier this year to warn it was dangerous to make such claims of professional athletes. Safety Xavier Woods suggested it wasn’t possible for NFL players to give maximum effort on every snap.
In the loss to Baltimore, former Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman, now a Fox commentator, called out Woods for not being more aggressive in challenging Lamar Jackson on one of the quarterback’s first-down runs. The Cowboys, who gave up a franchise-record 307 rushing yards to Cleveland in Week 4, allowed 294 against the Ravens.
Same old same old
The Bengals might have different quarterbacks this year, but they’re the same old Bengals. A run of seriously bad luck hasn’t helped.
Burrow looked great and seemed to be turning the ship around before he got hurt. Cincinnati is 0-2 since behind Brandon Allen, who hadn’t played in a year before starting against the Giants on Nov. 29. The offensive line, which wasn’t great in the first place, has been a patchwork because of multiple injuries and COVID-19 issues.
Coach Zac Taylor is in his second year with the Bengals and is sitting on a horrible 4-23-1 record. Whether he can get the team to play hard in the season’s last four games may help determine
When/where: Noon today, Paul Brown Stadium, Cincinnati TV/radio: Fox; KJXK-FM 102.7 Records: Cowboys 3-9; Bengals 2-9-1
Line: Cowboys by 3½
Series: Cowboys lead 8-4.
Last meeting: Cowboys beat Bengals 28-14 on Oct. 9, 2016 at Dallas.
Note: Dallas has won four of the last five meetings. … A Dallas loss would tie the franchise’s longest losing streak against AFC teams at seven. It’s happened twice previously, from 1987-89 and 2000-02. … First-year Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy is 14-25-1 since the start of his last full season in Green Bay in 2017. He had eight straight winning seasons with the Packers before that. McCarthy was out of football last year after a midseason firing in 2018.
whether he keeps his job.
Fading hopes
The Cowboys have the worst record in the NFC but haven’t been eliminated in the league’s only division without a team with a winning record. Those playoff hopes in the NFC East took a big hit in Week 13 with the loss to Baltimore while the co-leaders, the New York Giants and Washington, beat Seattle and previously undefeated Pittsburgh, respectively. Dallas is more likely to end up with a high draft pick while missing the postseason for the second straight year.