The Cowboys walked away from Baltimore with a loss that will sting for a while, and the ending only sharpened the frustration. Lamar Jackson and company landed the last-second blow, but Dallas had chances to put this one away long before that final snap. The biggest reason it slipped through their hands: the offense kept leaving points on the table.
Brian Schottenheimer’s play-calling is going to take the heat, and it should. The Cowboys moved the ball early and often, but the execution inside the five-yard line was a mess.
On the opening drive, after the defense forced a three-and-out, Dallas drove deep into Baltimore territory behind Javonte Williams. Once the ball reached the one-yard line, though, the series fell apart with an incompletion and a sack.
Four points vanished right there in a game decided by three.
The same issue popped up again after halftime. Dak Prescott and the offense put together a nine-play march that got them back into scoring range, with Prescott finding CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens and even adding a nice run himself.
Then came the call that turned the drive sideways: a shovel pass to the tight end that popped loose and was recovered by Baltimore. That was another scoring chance gone, and at minimum three more points left behind.
The final drive was the most painful example. Dallas had the ball, had the momentum, and had worked all the way to the two-yard line with 23 seconds left and a timeout still in hand.
Conventional wisdom said to run it in on first down and end it right there. Instead, the Cowboys went to a fade to Pickens, and the defensive back broke it up.
Then Luke Schoonmaker’s false start pushed the offense back five yards before Dallas eventually settled for the tying field goal. That sequence cost them another four points.
By that count, Schottenheimer’s play-calling directly tied to 11 points left on the field. For a head coach, that’s hard to excuse.
There was at least one encouraging sign on the other side of the ball: the rookies are starting to make real plays. Jaishawn Barham showed up in a big way on three short-yardage stops, including a fourth-and-one stuff on Derrick Henry that was officially credited to Caleb Downs, though Barham was there too.
He also helped shut down a third-and-two and a fourth-down goal line stand. Without those plays, this game could have turned ugly fast.
Downs kept flashing as well. The 11th overall pick in this year’s draft was around the ball all night and was part of the early fourth-down stop with Barham and Donovan Ezeiruaku.
The defense is still far from polished, but the young players are beginning to create drive-ending moments. That matters.
The bigger problem is that the defense keeps getting thinner. Dallas already entered the night without Malik Hooker, Cobie Durant, P.J.
Locke and DeMarvion Overshown. Then Jalen Thompson left in the second quarter with a hamstring injury, and Shavon Revel exited in the fourth with what looked like a concerning knee injury.
A few others were banged up and eventually returned, but by Baltimore’s final possession, the Cowboys were piecing things together with Alijah Clark and Reddy Steward.
That’s where the injury situation has reached for Dallas: emergency mode. On the final Ravens throw of the game, the two defenders on the broadcast screen were Steward and Clark. Those are not the names a team wants leaning on in the biggest moment of the night, but the Cowboys didn’t have much choice.
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