"I knew it!'' Dez tells CowboysSI.com outside the locker room of his former Cowboys team here at AT&T Stadium after an upset win over the Bengals. "I even bet $10,000 on it. ... and I made $37,000!''
ARLINGTON - Cooper Rush, Mike McCarthy, Micah Parsons and Brett Maher aren't the only Dallas Cowboys-related guys who have reason to celebrate a 20-17 home victory over Cincinnati in NFL Week 2 on Sunday.
Dez Bryant is celebrating as well.
"I knew it!'' Dez told me outside the locker room of his former Cowboys team here at AT&T Stadium. "I even bet $10,000 on it. ... and I made $37,000!''
That's right: Bryant, after watching injured Dak Prescott backup QB Rush drive Dallas to what would become a Maher's 50-yard field goal as time expired, told me that he'd bet a grand on his old team winning, despite the fact that Cincy came in a seven-point favorite.
How, I asked, did you know?
"I played with Coop. I know Micah. I knew,'' he said.
"So,'' I said, "you put your money where your mouth is?
Replied Dez, wearing a black cowboy hat and a Deion Sanders jersey while waiting to visit (and celebrate) with team owner Jerry Jones: "I always do!''
Joe Burrow and the defending AFC champion Bengals were controlled for most of the day, but in the late going pulled even at 17-17 with a 19-play, 83-yard TD drive as they joined Dallas in desperately working to avoid an 0-2 start.
But the Bengals couldn't handle Cowboys standouts like Parsons (his two sacks part of Dallas' six-sack defensive barrage) and Trevon Diggs (who controlled the boastful Cincy receiver Ja'Marr Chase) and they couldn't handle lessen lights like Rush, Maher, Tony Pollard and receiver Noah Brown, who opened the game with a 12-yard TD catch off a Rush throw - Brown's first NFL touchdown on the way to a career-high 91 yards receiving.
And then the Cowboys closed it just as perfectly.
"I felt like I put a good stroke on it to see it go in," said Maher, a former Dallas kicker who re-signed this summer with a Cowboys team that was crossing its fingers he would get it right. "It was just mayhem, to be honest with you."
Not to Dez Bryant, it wasn't. Dez knew it.
Follow FishSports on Twitter
Follow Cowboys / Fish on Facebook