The Cowboys are heading into Sunday night with plenty on their plate already, and now one player has added another blemish to the week.
Dallas is 2-3 after losing to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a team that had not won a game this season before facing the Cowboys. With the Green Bay Packers coming up next on “Sunday Night Football,” the margin for error is thin, and the team needs both sides of the ball locked in.
For Otito Ogbonnia, Saturday brought the league’s version of bad news. The NFL released its Week 5 discipline report and announced that the Cowboys defensive lineman was fined $11,111 for unnecessary roughness tied to a facemask penalty at 9:13 in the second quarter.
The league explained on its official website that “Players subject to accountability measures receive a letter informing them of what they did, a video of the play in question, why they are being fined and how much it will cost them,”
The play also hurt Dallas in the moment. Ogbonnia grabbed the facemask of Buccaneers running back Bucky Irving, drawing an on-field flag and giving Tampa Bay 15 yards plus an automatic first down. So the Cowboys got hit twice for the same mistake: once on the scoreboard and once in the mail.
The fine wasn’t the biggest of the week. That went to Maxx Crosby of the Las Vegas Raiders, who was docked $23,882 for unnecessary roughness involving the use of the helmet. Still, it was a costly Saturday for Ogbonnia as Dallas turned its attention to Green Bay.
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