Too little, too late. Despite a furious fourth quarter that saw them nearly erase a 22-point deficit, the Dallas Cowboys were unable to complete the comeback, falling to the Baltimore Ravens, 28-25.
Up until those final 15 minutes, the game had been a lopsided affair. The Cowboys had hoped to bounce back from last week's embarrassing loss with a different performance in this home matchup, but Baltimore largely manhandled Dallas through the first three quarters.
The Ravens bullied their way through a Cowboys defense that continues to struggle to stop the run. Derrick Henry racked up 151 rushing yards and two touchdowns with Baltimore as a team totaling 274 rushing yards, averaging of 6.1 yards per carry.
Quarterback Lamar Jackson contributed to the Ravens' ground game with 87 rushing yards, but he also proved dangerous with his arm, completing 12 of 15 throws for 182 yards and a touchdown for a 139.4 rating.
Conversely, the afternoon was tougher for Dak Prescott and a clearly-at-times frustrated CeeDee Lamb. Under pressure throughout, the quarterback was frequently off target but still threw for 379 yards with two scoring tosses for a 91.9 rating. Meanwhile, the star wideout had just four catches for 67 yards and a fumble while tight end Jake Ferguson led the team with 95 receiving yards on six catches.
And again, the Cowboys running attack wasn't able to provide much help, although with such a big hole to dig out of, the offense was forced to go to the air. Rico Dowdle averaged 4.0 yards per carry, but only got eight attempts for 32 yards. As a team, Dallas averaged 3.2 yards per carry.
Overall, the Cowboys were outgained, 456 yards to 412, with Baltimore dominating the time of possession, 34:45 to 25:15.
First Quarter
It was déjà vu all over again. Last week against the Saints, the Cowboys found themselves down 14-3 after the first quarter. This time, Dallas took the ball after winning the coin toss, hoping they would soon find themselves playing with a lead. Instead, by the end of the first quarter, the Ravens held the advantage, again 14-3.
And in reaching the end zone twice in the quarter, Baltimore made it look rather easy. The first saw the Ravens run the ball on four of five plays, with the lone pass going for 30 yards. Jackson then got the touchdown when he darted around the left end and outraced the defense to the pylon.
Brandon Aubrey got Dallas on the board with a 65-yard field goal, which was a team record and one yard shy of the NFL mark. But Baltimore came right back with another score. The big blow occurred when wideout Nelson Agholor grabbed a short out pass, slipped the would-be tackle of cornerback Caelen Carson and then sprinted down the sideline 56 yards to the 1-yard line. Two snaps later, Henry rumbled across the goal line.
Second Quarter
As the clock ticked into the second quarter, Prescott and company found themselves with a first-and-10 at the Baltimore 9-yard line, thanks to back-to-back completions to Ferguson for 24 yards and Lamb for another 18. And then things fell apart.
First, a holding penalty pushed Dallas back 10 yards. Even worse, when Prescott then hit Lamb with a pass over the middle on the next play, the receiver had the ball punched out with the Ravens recovering the fumble.
The Cowboys defense settled down and forced a pair of punts on Baltimore's next two possessions, but the Ravens found their rhythm again when they got the ball back with just over three minutes remaining in the half. Five of the visitor's eight plays went for at least 12 yards with Henry rushing 3 times for 28 yards. The touchdown came when Jackson found a wide open Rashod Bateman in the back of the end zone.
Dallas did threaten again before the quarter ended and appeared to have the ball at the 1-yard line after a clear pass interference penalty was called. But the Cowboys also got flagged for holding, negating the play. That resulted in another Aubrey field goal, this one from 51 yards, to put the home side down 21-6 at the break.
Third Quarter
Baltimore took the kickoff to start the second half and promptly marched 70 yards in five plays to the end zone. Henry just ran over the Dallas defense, gaining 58 yards on only three carries, including a 26-yard run off left guard for the touchdown to bump the score to 28-6.
The Cowboys were able to keep the Ravens off the scoreboard for the rest of the quarter, but the deficit was now essentially too much to overcome.
Fourth Quarter
Or was it?
Dallas did get going again late in the third, and they were in Baltimore territory when the final quarter got underway. But Prescott threw behind Ferguson on third down and then on fourth-and-long lofted a prayer up deep that would have been intercepted had Brandin Cooks not purposely committed pass interference.
But finally, following a missed Ravens field goal, the Cowboys got in the end zone. Prescott completed four of five passes for 63 yards, which included a 23-yard connection to KaVontae Turpin to the Baltimore 1-yard line. Prescott then handled the sneak himself for the touchdown, breaking a five-quarter scoring drought. Given the deficit, head coach Mike McCarthy elected to try a two-conversion, but Prescott's pass to Lamb fell incomplete.
And the stadium then received a jolt when Dallas perfectly executed an on-side kick, special teams ace C.J. Goodwin falling on the bouncing ball. That eventually led to Prescott finding a Jalen Tolbert on a 15-yard pass for the touchdown to narrow the gap to just 10 points. Again, the two-point conversion failed.
The Cowboys tried another on-side kick, but unfortunately, Baltimore was able to corral the ball this time to take possession at the Dallas 47-yard line. The defense held and the Cowboys got the ball back at their own 9-yard line with 5:26 remaining.
Helped along by a couple of Ravens' penalties, Prescott steadily moved his troops down the field, completing passes of 24 yards and 18 to Hunter Luepke and Dowdle, respectively, along the way. He then wrapped up the drive with a 16-yarder to Turpin in the back of the end zone. With the extra point, the Cowboys now trailed only 28-25 with 2:58 left in the game.
It was now on the Dallas defense to get a stop. They couldn't. On the first play after the two-minute warning, Jackson darted 10 yards up the middle to get the first down. With the Cowboys out of timeouts, Baltimore was then able to run out the clock.
