“Of course that locker room is really devastated by the turn of events on the blocked kick,” Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones said postgame Monday night. … “That mistake we made at the end, it was very impactful. That’s all I can say. … If you had told me that going into the end of the fourth quarter, all they had was 20 points, I would have taken that with a smile.”

Jones’ use of the word devastated perfectly encapsulated the mood in the locker room once media were let in to speak to Cowboys players after a loss that puts a significant damper on Dallas’ already thin postseason hopes.

“Oh, I’m hurt,” Cowboys All-Pro edge rusher Micah Parsons said postgame when asked about the frustration of losing the way Dallas did Monday night. “I wouldn’t wish this on anybody. I can’t put that [frustration] into words bro. I wasn’t really grasping what was going on. Nick [Vigil] made a great play, and I asked him directly what happened. He told me touched the ball. It was definitely a huge momentum shift. We just caught a huge stop. We’re going to a two-minute drill. It’s just real hard to [put this into words], you think and believe you can pull the game out from that situation. That hurts.”

Parsons even admitted Monday night’s loss hurts more than even a loss in the postseason considering the way Dallas had rallied to reach 5-7 after two wins in a row with quarterback Dak Prescott out for the season with a hamstring tear, right guard Zack Martin out for the season with an ankle injury and edge rusher DeMarcus Lawrence out indefinitely with a foot injury to name just a few of Dallas’ numerous injuries this season. CBS Sports’ SportsLine simulation model gave the Cowboys just a 1.8% chance to make the postseason entering Week 14, and while Dallas isn’t yet mathematically eliminated, Monday’s night loss dashed a lot of hope in the Cowboys locker room.

“I’m really going to soak this one [in],” Parsons said. “This one hurt me more than any loss this year, probably even worse than a playoff loss to be honest because of where we going, how we were playing. Playing good football. I’m going to sit on this, but you know I have to find a way to keep these guys alive. There’s still football to be had. There’s still opening to be had, but we have to take advantage of every opportunity the rest of the way. We can’t let these types of games slip away like we did today.”

Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy concurred with his superstar edge rusher, and he also revealed why the loss to the Bengals hurt his players more than others: Dallas felt they were as complete a team as they could be at this stage of an injury-plagued 2024 campaign.

“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,” McCarthy said postgame. “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 [with corners Da’Ron Bland, Trevon Diggs and Jourdan Lewis all playing]. 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. … 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.”

Dallas All-Pro wide receiver Cee Dee Lamb could only lament what could have been when reflecting on the muff on Cincinnati’s final punt.

“I wish we would have got the ball,” Lamb said postgame. … “At that point, you just can’t be a superhero. You got to do what you go to do. Let the ball just die. Whatever yards that we lose on the roll, we’ll get it back on offense. I feel like he saw that as an opportunity to make a play for us, and obviously it went the other direction.”

Not only are the Cowboys dealing with the frustration of a gut-wrenching defeat, but they’re also working through a fresh batch of grief regarding second-year linebacker DeMarvion Overshown’s knee injury that knocked him out the game in the second half. The 2023 third-round pick took over in their 27-20 Thanksgiving Day win over the New York Giants in Week 13, and he leads the Cowboys in tackles for loss with eight. Overshown ranks second on the team in total tackles (87) and sacks (five). McCarthy called the injury “of serious nature” postgame.

With Parsons being drafted 12th overall in the 2021 NFL Draft, his first three seasons of life in the NFL involved three consecutive 12-win campaigns and marching into the postseason feeling good. He and the rest of the Cowboys are now stuck grappling with a stark contrast in 2024 thanks to injury after injury piling up in addition to critical, fundamental flaws undermining their efforts to stay afloat as they slowly sink deeper and deeper into the abyss of a lost year.

“Between the players, so many situations, it’s just I wouldn’t say it’s snowballing, but I don’t know. It seems like we’re paying a due that’s not fair,” Parsons said. “I don’t know if it’s bad luck, karma, but in terms of the work ethic, everyone is working so hard. I think we really did well. We could have done a little bit better containing. I think we gave up some points, but you tell me we hold Joe Burrow to 20 points with two minutes left with our offense the way we were moving the ball the today, I think we could win the game.”