After three straight losses, the Cincinnati Bengals got back to their winning ways against the Dallas Cowboys on Monday Night Football. Thanks in large part to a special teams gaffe on the part of the Cowboys, the Bengals pulled out a 27-20 victory to move to 5-8 on the season and keep their incredibly slim playoff hopes alive.
Star wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase turned in one of his best game of the season against Dallas, and his production was an enormous factor in the ultimate outcome. Chase finished the game with 14 catches for 177 yards and two touchdowns, and he was Cincinnati's highest-graded player from the game, according to Pro Football Focus.
Right behind Chase was the guy throwing him the ball. Joe Burrow had another great game on Monday night as he threw for 369 yards and three TDs while completing 75 percent of his passes. Burrow has been playing at an elite level all season, and that continued against the Cowboys.
Three defensive players -- Geno Stone, Germaine Pratt and Cam Taylor-Britt -- rounded out the rest of the top five.
The highest-graded Bengals in Week 14 vs the Cowboys:
🥇 Ja'Marr Chase - 91.0
🥈 Joe Burrow - 87.5
🥉 Geno Stone - 81.9
🏅 Germaine Pratt - 81.4
🏅 Cam Taylor-Britt - 74.9 pic.twitter.com/F4Vm0fzMG4
— PFF CIN Bengals (@PFF_Bengals) December 10, 2024
Stone has had a rough first season in Cincinnati, but he had probably his best game of the year against the Cowboys. In addition to an interception, Stone also had five tackles, a quarterback hit and a defended pass. Pratt added seven tackles, one tackle for a loss and one pass defended, while Taylor-Britt had a tackle and a defended pass while playing some solid coverage.
It was a promising performance from the Bengals on both sides of the ball, which is something we haven't been able to say very much, if at all, this season. They'll look to replicate that performance when they travel to Tennessee to take on the Titans in Week 15. Any loss from here on out will eliminate the Bengals from the playoff picture entirely, so the game against Tennessee is quite literally a must-win game for Cincinnati.