Cowboys vs. Bengals: Dallas rallies to keep playoff hopes alive

As Cincy Jungle stated, it was a day of missed opportunities:

Archie Barberio of Blogging The Boys praises Spencer as one of the Cowboys top players in the emotional win.

Witten has had at least 50 yards receiving in all but two games since the Cowboys’ Week 5 bye. He has yet to score a touchdown since Week 4, however. He saw his fewest targets since the season opener on Sunday.

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Bryant has now caught at least one touchdown pass in five straight games. He failed to gain at least 87 yards receiving for the first time since Week 9. Austin saw double-digit targets for the first time since Week 11, but now has caught a touchdown pass in just one of his last seven games.

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Romo came into Sunday’s game with six touchdown passes over his previous two outings. He had thrown for at least 303 yards in each of his previous three games.

Fantasy Impact: Romo has struggled to be an elite fantasy quarterback this season, but he has come on strong as of late. Unfortunately, he reverted back to his early season “eh” self against a solid Bengals secondary.

Green’s outing was his worst since Week 7 when he was held to just one reception for eight yards (albeit a touchdown). He has now been held without a touchdown in three straight games after scoring in nine straight outings.

Fantasy Impact: Green is rightfully receiving a lot of attention from opposing secondaries, but that hasn’t stopped him from producing in the past. Nor was he facing a particularly stout defense. He just had an off day. Unfortunately, the dud came in the midst of the fantasy playoffs for a lot of owners.

Those inefficient trips to the red zone allowed a stumbling Dallas offense to hang around, and Romo capitalized in the fourth quarter to reel off 10 unanswered points and clinch the win. Dallas has won four of their past five games and is now over .500, a half-game back of the NFC East leading Giants

Fantasy studs

You don’t need to be a lip reader to know that Rob is mad.

Maybe he just likes melted cheese.

The Cowboys training staff immediately attended to the rookie and No. 6 overall pick, and there was a call for a stretcher. But Claiborne did eventually get up and walk off the field under his own power. He did, however, have a towel to his bloody face as he went to the locker room with trainers. Ian Rapoport said it appeared the trainers were either wiping away blood or looking for teeth on the sideline where Claiborne went down.

Claiborne had five tackles against the Bengals before leaving the field early in the third quarter.

Romo: “ughhhhhh”

Dunlap: “Man...”

Brown and Brent both attended the University of Illinois and Brent, who was in his third season after being a seventh-round draft choice in 2010, reportedly lobbied to help get Brown an opportunity with the Cowboys.

Ian Rappaport from NFL.com talked to their former coach at Illinois, Ron Zook:

Both sides of the ball have been soaring for the Bengals over the past four weeks. Offensively, the unit has put up 31, 28, 34 and 20 points, respectively, while the defense has allowed only 13 (twice), 10 and six over that span. The Bengals rank in the top 15 in the league in passing (241.8) and rushing (115.1) yards per game, as well as passing (221.1) and rushing (110.3) yards allowed.

Quarterback Andy Dalton is fifth in the NFL with 24 touchdown passes, as he has thrown for 2,980 yards while completing 63 percent of his throws with 13 interceptions.

Sunday, Dec. 9, 1 p.m. ET

Paul Brown Stadium, Cincinnati, Ohio