Well, it is the morning after the Dallas Cowboys lost their international game against the Baltimore Ravens 34-31, in what felt like the last two minutes of the game took an hour because all that happened in that span.
Before I even get into all of that, it has become normal to feel like every single time a game goes down like this, the Dallas Cowboys are going to find a way to be on the losing end, and it has been that way for as long as I have been a fan.
In the last five years that I have been writing for this site, I have been on the wrong side of this way too many times, writing the next day about how, per usual, the Cowboys beat themselves to lose a game.
Why Take A Timeout?
Let’s start with the fact that the Ravens should have never even gotten a chance to TOUCH the football again to make that pass and set up a game-winning field goal.
On the 2nd-and-goal play where Dak Prescott stepped up and ran for two yards or so, Brian Schottenheimer decided it would be a good idea to take a timeout with 14 seconds left, which resulted in the next play being that incompletion with no timeouts left that gave the Ravens that time after they tied the game.
Take a look at the tweet below if you don’t remember what I am talking about.
let the clock tick, just absurd
next play was a quick incompletion that left :10 on the clock, just enough time for the Ravens
It really does not make any sense. If you let that time run down to what, six or seven seconds, you can run one last play and if it was the same thing, an incompletion, you make the kick and go to overtime and don’t even give the Ravens a chance to see the ball again until overtime.
Look, they got a gift with the PI on CeeDee Lamb to get to the 2-yard line to begin with, but how do you not run the ball once with Javonte Williams down there after that happens? I just felt like he was playing to not lose and not to win, like he always does!
2nd Half Errors
The Cowboys took the lead on a 90-yard touchdown drive with 9 minutes left in the 4th quarter, 28-24, and after a series of punts, the Ravens went 11 plays for 64 yards, when they scored the go-ahead touchdown with under 5 minutes left.
Oh, and the defense still only has TWO sacks on the year.
Yet before that, remember when the Cowboys had their field goal blocked when they trailed 17-13 late in the third quarter? Well, Dallas had a first down at the Baltimore 24-yard line on third and nine, but guess what, it was brought back because of a Terence Steele holding call.
That forced them into a 59-yard field goal, which was blocked. They, again, had so many chances to do what they needed to do to put the game away and they beat themselves again.
Listen, you watched the game just like I did. The offense once again scored over 30 points and they LOST.
Giving up a 27-yard pass play to Zay Flowers with seven seconds left is embarrassing, and can’t happen.
Each opponent (Giants, Commanders, Ravens) have averaged more yards per play than the Cowboys that week.
I will end with this: It was not perfect on either end. Did the defense have some great moments and big stops, yes? Did the offense drive 90 yards after a goal-line stand in the 4th quarter to take the lead? Yes.
The Cowboys’ offense averaged more than 5.8 yards a play for the third straight week, and guess what? The team they are playing has averaged more, that should tell you enough.
Yet, when it mattered the most, both of them came up small, but this whole having to score 35 a week to win games is getting old.
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