Dallas Cowboys special teams coordinator John Fassel defended defensive back Amani Oruwariye for his punt block blunder on Monday night, contributing to the loss to Cincinnati.
"I don't think this was a failed play, it was an unfortunate bounce off a blocked punt," Fassel said, via the team's official website. "I think this how the special teams volatility kind of goes over the course of the season, and it's an uncomfortable phase of the game for a lot of people because you never know what can happen."
After the two-minute warning in a 20-20 game, Cowboys linebacker Nick Vigil blocked a Bengals punt, sending the pigskin tumbling through the air. Oruwariye, who didn't know the punt was blocked, attempted to corral the oblong but botched it. The Bengals recovered. Three plays later, Joe Burrow hit Ja'Marr Chase for a 40-yard go-ahead TD.
"[Oruwariye] said that he heard the crowd, which was significant, so he turned back to see what happened and the ball was bouncing at him, he didn't know that it got blocked," Fassel said. "He didn't know if it was a fumble, he didn't know that the ball was where it was. And so he just reacted like I would, see ball, get ball."
Fassel noted that there weren't any players in the DB's vicinity who saw that it was a blocked punt to warn Oruwariye away from the ball with a "Peter call" -- the standard phrase screamed to let teammates know to get away from the play during special teams action. (Of course, that explanation subdues the question of how else the ball could have been bounding at that portion of the field without it being a partial block or shanked punt.)
Fassel said in the heat of the moment that most would react the way Oruwariye did.
"So if we can put ourself in his shoes and how fast things happened, I think that's probably what you expect for him to do," Fassel said. "I told Oruwariye if I'm a football player in his shoes and I see the ball bouncing, and I don't know how it got there… I'm probably going to handle it too."
Fassel reassured Oruwariye that he did not cost the Cowboys the game.
"I asked him how he was doing, word for word. He said, 'I'm doing good.' I said, 'Good, because you should be doing good. You have no reason to think you cost us the game or you made a mistake or that you let the team down,'" Fassel said. "He did not let the team down. 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 [Oruwariye]. He didn't let the team down. He felt bad about it. I'm glad that he is good today. Football happens."
It's right for the coordinator to defend a player. It's also fair to point out that the Cowboys have had several wild special teams situations in recent weeks -- the blocked field goal and onside kick return touchdown against Washington, to point out two.
"I think I attribute it to sometimes, special teams is the wild wild west," Fassel said. "There's very unique situations that happen over the last couple of weeks."
