Ravens edge Cowboys

By Elwyn Henderson

The 1-1 Dallas Cowboys came into AT&T Stadium in Arlington Sunday to host the surprisingly 0-2 Baltimore Ravens. Dallas was hoping to prove to themselves and their fans that their blowout loss a week earlier to the New Orleans Saints was just a fluke. Everyone coming in knew that the Cowboys desperately needed to prove they were a better team than they showed last week, and they urgently needed to find a way to defeat Lamar Jackson and the Ravens.
Dallas won the coin toss and elected to receive to begin the game. Justin Tucker kicked away to get the game started. The kick was taken at the 2 by Juanyeh Thomas up to the 30, but Dallas was called for a hold on the return, so Dak Prescott and company set up on offense at the 15 for their first possession of the game.
The Pokes managed one first down before having to bring in Bryan Anger on a 4th and 15 on the next series. His punt went down to the Ravens 17. The kick was returned to the 29 and Lamar Jackson and his offensive team took the field for their first possession.
Jackson led the Ravens down the field with precision, throwing perfect passes and rushing around the left side for long gains twice, and the drive ended when Jackson ran into the end zone from the Dallas 9 with 9:36 left in the first quarter. Tucker added the PAT and the visitors led 7-0. The drive was 5 plays, 71 yards and took 2:27.
Dallas started their next drive and things looked good, but Baltimore’s defense forced a Brandon Aubrey 65-yard field goal try. The kick cleared the crossbar and Dallas was on the board, trailing 7-3 with 6:33 left in the opening frame. The drive was 7 plays, 23 yards and took 3:03 of clock time.
The Ravens began their next drive at their 30 after a touchback, and once again Jackson led his team into the end zone. The score was set up by a 52-yard pass from Jackson to former Philadelphia Eagle Nelson Agholor. The Dallas defense was in position to limit the pass to a gain of just a couple of yards, but a bad angle by the defender allowed Agholor to ramble free. The score came on a 1-yard run by Derrick Henry with 2:41 left in the first quarter. Tucker added the extra point and the Cowboys found themselves in a 14-3 hole.
The next Dallas drive began at their 30 following a touchback and every fan in the stadium knew the offense needed to get into the end zone or things could go south quickly. It looked like they would get a TD, but after CeeDee Lamb’s first catch of the day, he was stripped of the ball and Marcus Williams recovered for Baltimore at the Ravens 10 with 14:34 left in the first half.
The Cowboys defense finally made a stop and after a 55-yard Jordan Stout punt Prescott and the offense set up on their 8 with 9:18 left in the first half of play. It was a quick three-and-out by the offense and Anger came in to punt from his 7. The ball was returned to the Baltimore 47 and Jackson brought his offense back on the field. The defense held and forced a Stout punt down to the Dallas 18 where KaVonte Turpin made a fair catch with 5:46 left in the first half. The offense managed one first down but Anger had to punt away from his 34 on the next series. The ball was fair caught at the Ravens 12, bring Jackson and his charges back to the field with 3:07 left in the half, giving the visitors a chance at a 2 for 1 since they were to receive the second half kickoff.
Jackson led the Ravens down the field and the drive ended when he hit Rashod Bateman on a 13-yard TD pass with 25 seconds left in the half. The extra point by Tucker was good and the potential for a second blowout loss in a row was in the making with Dallas trailing 21-3. The drive was 8 plays, 88 yards and took 2:42.
The ‘Boys got the ball back at their 30 after a touchback, hoping to find a way to get SOMETHING on the scoreboard before the half, but knowing the chances were very slim. Amazingly, Prescott did manage to move the team down to the Ravens 33 with 6 seconds left in the half and Aubrey came in to kick a 51-yard field goal. The kick was good with 2 seconds left in the half, getting the deficit down to 21-6.
Aubrey’s ensuing kickoff was returned to the Baltimore 23 and the teams headed to their respective locker rooms with the Cowboys hoping to come up with a second half plan that would bring them back to a victory.
Things went from bad to worse at the beginning of the third quarter, as after a touchback of Aubrey’s kickoff Jackson led the Ravens on a 5-play, 70-yard TD drive that took 3:02 off the third quarter clock. The score came on a 26-yard run by Henry with 11:58 left in the quarter. Tucker’s point after kick was good and Baltimore led 28-6.
The ensuing Tucker kickoff was returned to the Dallas 28 where Prescott brought the offense out to try and find the end zone for the first time on the day. Thanks to a couple of offensive penalties, Anger had to punt the ball away after one first down by the offense and following a fair catch Jackson was back on the field again at his 11 with 7:52 left in the third quarter with a chance to add insult to injury on the Cowboys.
The Dallas defense finally forced a punt from the Ravens 28. Stout’s kick was fielded by Turpin at his 23 with a fair catch and the offense came on the field once again, hoping to somehow find the combination to the lock in the end zone.
It wasn’t in the cards as a fourth down Prescott pass was almost intercepted and Baltimore went back on offense at their 39 with 14:47 left in a game that could not end quickly enough for the Dallas fans.
Fortunately, Tucker missed a 46-yard field goal wide left with 10:41 left in the game and the Cowboys went back on the offensive at their 36.

Prescott finally led the offense down the field and into the end zone for their first TD of the game with 8:53 left in the contest. The decisiowas made by Mike McCarthy to go for 2, but Prescott’s pass fell incomplete, leaving the score at 28-12 in favor of Baltimore. The drive was 6 plays, 64 yards and consumed 1:48.
Dallas announced, as required by the new kickoff rules this year, they were going to try an onside kick following the score. Aubrey placed the kick perfectly and CJ Goodwin recovered for the ‘Boys at the Dallas 45.
Prescott led the offense into the end zone, tossing a 15-yard TD pass to Tony Tolbert with 7:07 left in the game. The try for 2 was an incomplete pass once again, and the score was 28-18 Baltimore.
Once again, the Cowboys declared they were going to kick onside. This time the Ravens recovered at their 47 and Jackson came back on the field to try to close out the game.
The defense, possibly inspired by the offense on the previous two drives, forced a three-and-out, forcing Stout to punt the ball from the Dallas 40. The kick was downed at the 8 by the Ravens and Prescott brought the offense back out with 5:26 left, hoping to pull yet another rabbit out of the hat.
They did just that, as Prescott hit Turpin on a 16-yard TD pass with 2:53 left in the game. Aubrey came in and added the extra point and Dallas closed the gap to 28-15. The drive was 11 plays, 91 yards and took 2:33.
The Cowboys chose to kick the ball away after the TD and thanks to a holding on the return; the Ravens began their next drive at their 21 with Dallas knowing they could not allow a first down.
Baltimore got a first down at their 34, forcing the Cowboys to use their final time out of the game with 2:28 left in regulation, and all but assuring the Ravens would survive the late Dallas comeback attempt. To lock things up, Jackson picked up a first down just 2 plays later and Baltimore ran out the clock and got their first victory of the season. The loss dropped Dallas to 1-2 on the year.
A somber Mike McCarthy met with the media following the second consecutive home loss in 7 days and attempted to explain what happened in the game.“Oh, I think it’s like anything. Just my last words after the prayer before we went out is, the bags of ice are packed and it’s going to be four quarters. Let’s take this thing into the final rounds. We felt, the start, we needed to get going. They started faster than we did. Six-point half time. As an offensive play caller, I was frustrated. A couple of calls, I definitely wish I would have had back, but you’ve got to love the fight and the effort. But our execution is…we need to be better. When I sit up here and talk about all the work we need to do, those are the things I’m referring to. We had a chance. They made more key plays than we did. I mean, just based off our big play production, numbers at halftime we keep track of, it was plus-eight, plus-eight, and the score didn’t reflect that. I think clearly, the two point play, or they got the big takeaway down there in the red area. And so we just had to battle back. You definitely want to get in front of that team. That’s a team that plays to their strength and their profile – aggressive on defense. Got some excellent players, excellent coach. But we just, we were not clean enough to get the win today.”

Quarterback Dak Prescott was asked what led to the slow start in the game and how he felt after the loss.
“Very frustrating, especially when you’re playing a quarterback that like on that side. An offense that powerful, you just can’t do it, honestly. Just holding some of the defensive guys, we have to look in the mirror. Us offense first, and we have to help them. I know they’re standing; they don’t allow 28 points against an MVP player and an offense like that. It’s a game that we have to score 30 and we know it. We didn’t so it and started late. That’s the biggest part of it. The penalties and some errors. I guess you can say whether it be alignment, whether it be assignment, we’ve got to be cleaner. We’ve got to lock in and be more focused on our job, take accountability in every position and grow.”

There was a very different feeling in the Ravens locker room after their first win of the year. Coach Jim Harbaugh opened his presser with a statement of his take on the game.

“It was a really good win. It was a tough win, a hard-fought win in the fourth quarter. [There are] a lot of things in the game to look at, a lot of things to be very proud of and a lot of things to work on. But, I’m proud of the guys. We got the victory, and we’ll start getting ready for Buffalo.”

Things don’t get any easier for the Cowboys. They have to make a road trip to Met Life Field Thursday night to take on the 1-2 New York Giants who just secured their first victory of the season over the Cleveland Browns today. Hopefully, the team can turn things around, but it really looks like this team may have serious problems on both run defense and being able to run the ball on offense. You don’t win many games when you have that much trouble.