The Dallas Cowboys walked out of Maracana Stadium on Sunday evening with their tail between their legs after letting victory slip away. It was brutal to watch and a rollercoaster of emotions, but the team must find a way to regroup and move forward.
Dallas had the ball at the one-yard line with under a minute to go, but they failed to punch the ball into the end zone. Ultimately, the Cowboys settled for a field goal with seven seconds remaining, after a bizarre third-and-goal where Dak Prescott simply threw the ball away.
Then, on the ensuing kickoff, Dallas booted the ball out of the back of the end zone instead of putting it in play, which gave Lamar Jackson and the Ravens’ offense the ball without running any time off the clock.
The Cowboys’ wounded secondary and lack of depth were exposed when Jackson found Zay Flowers for a massive gain to set up a 56-yard game-winning field goal with one second left in the game. Ravens kicker Tyler Loop lined up for the kick and booted it right through the uprights to give Baltimore a 34-31 win.
Just brutal. That is a difficult loss to recover from, but it’s even more embarrassing when you realize how historic the lack of competence from the Cowboys’ coaching staff had in the final seconds really was.
We knew the Cowboys would be making history on Sunday night by participating in the league’s first-ever game in Rio de Janeiro, but no one could have expected the other kind of history that the loss to the Ravens made at Maracana Stadium.
Sunday night’s game marked the first time in the Super Bowl era that both teams kicked a field goal in the last 10 seconds of the fourth quarter, according to ESPN Research.
Brandon Aubrey kicked a 23-yard field goal with seven seconds remaining to tie the game. Then, after the kickoff debacle and big throw from Jackson, Loop booted the game-winner as time expired.
The history doesn’t stop there.
Baltimore’s game-winning drive started with just seven seconds on the clock, which is the latest a game-winning drive has ever started after a kickoff since ESPN began recording data in 1978. That means Lamar Jackson led the quickest game-winning drive of all time.
That’s an all time defensive collapse. The team is going to need to dig deep in order to recover from the heartbreak of the Week 3 loss, and a 10-hour flight home doesn’t make things any easier.
We’ll have to see how the team is able to bounce back next week when they hit the road to face off against the Houston Texans in Week 4.
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