FRISCO, Texas – The final 28 seconds of the Cowboys' Week 3 matchup against the Ravens in Rio de Janeiro, and the decisions Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer made in them, have been a large topic of conversation over the last few days.
On Tuesday, Schottenheimer took full accountability for everything that transpired, which ultimately led to Baltimore leaving Brazil with a 34-31 win and the Cowboys falling to 1-2.
"I didn't do very good in the last 28 seconds," Schottenheimer said. "I think when you talk about finishing the game, which I really think you look at our two games that we've lost, we haven't finished. And that was a big part of this one..."
"My dad had a rule: One play at a time. Because it happened to him. He made a decision on a play, it didn't go good, he was pissed off about it, and it affected another decision. And I think that's kind of what happened to me. So, I'll take accountability for it. It's football and life. It's what happens. But I hurt our chance to win that game. I'll be better, I'm better than that. I'm better than I performed in the last 28 seconds."
So, what exactly went down in those 28 seconds? Here's how Schottenheimer explained each play:
1st and goal from the Ravens two-yard line - :23 seconds remaining
"We get the PI penalty down there to CeeDee, and it's first and goal from the two," Schottenheimer said. "We call a run. We have run tags for our elite players on the outside if they're one-on-one. We can do different things. They played one on one, so we took the shot to [George Pickens]."
2nd and goal from the Ravens seven-yard line (after a false start on Luke Schoonmaker) - :20 seconds remaining
"Felt really good about the call, unfortunately we had a false start penalty, so that kind of moved us back, so we had to adjust at that point," Schottenheimer said. "Second down, I thought Baltimore did a really good job. They covered the concept that we had, so Dak did a nice job moving up and scrambling. We called timeout immediately because you wanted to make sure you have enough time to score. We were not trying to tie that game. We wanted to try and take the victory and take the lead."
3rd and goal from the Ravens five-yard line - :14 seconds remaining
"Terence Steele's on the ground, so then Broderick [Jones] goes in. And then third down's where I overcoached Dak and put him into a mindset he normally doesn't play with. So that's where I made the mistake."
From there, Cowboys kicker Brandon Aubrey made a 23-yard field goal to tie the game at 31. On the ensuing kickoff, Aubrey booted it out of the back of the end zone, bringing the ball up to the Baltimore 35 yard line. If he had the chance to do it again, Schottenheimer would not have done that.
"The communication with Nick [Sorensen] and [Ryan] Feder wasn't good enough," Schottenheimer said. "And so that starts with me. Take responsibility, take accountability for it, but those things will not happen again…
"It'd be a short kick where they'd have to bring it out, and then the clock would go down to a couple seconds, two or three seconds. And then they probably would have taken a knee."
1st and 10 from the Baltimore 35: Lamar Jackson finds Zay Flowers in the middle of the field for a 27-yard gain
"I think the coverage was okay," Schottenheimer said. "We played way too tight and there was an error on that play where we should've made the ball go to the low hole player, the low underneath guy, not the deep one. [Christian Parker] and I have talked, and there are some other calls that he would've liked. That's my point, again, as the leader of this football team, I take complete responsibility for the last 28 seconds. It's on me, I own it. I will be better because of it. But as a football team, in our two losses, we've made too many mistakes in the fourth quarter."
All in all, a lot of things that Schottenheimer and the Cowboys wish could have ended differently in the span of under 30 seconds.
After saying he overcoached Dak Prescott following the game, Schottenheimer said the two had a conversation on the plane ride back to Dallas and there's no question of his belief in Prescott.
"Some of the words that I told him have meaning, and it put him into a mindset where he kind of just kind of checked [George Pickens] and then felt a little push and threw it away," Schottenheimer said. "I talked to him after the game. As a competitor, he should be pissed. But again, he and I are great…"
"I trust Dak. This has got nothing to do with trust, this has got to do with everything that was going on. Terence Steele comes out, Broderick [Jones] goes in, and you're like, 'Okay, we need the points.' At that point it's third and seven. But I trust Dak Prescott completely."
Does Schottenheimer feel good about Prescott trusting him?
"I hope so. I mean, he's thrown interceptions before and I still trust him, so if I make a mistake, I hope he trusts me, because I've made a lot of really good decisions too." Schottenheimer said with a smile.
The Cowboys don't have too much time to dwell on their loss anymore, as they travel to Houston on Sunday to face an 0-3 Texans team hungry for their first win of the season. To put it behind him, Schottenheimer again took accountability for the loss to Baltimore and vowed to be better going forward.
"I'll take responsibility for this. I'm a grown man. I can handle it. Do I deserve the criticism? Absolutely. I deserve the criticism. I take the criticism. You know what it's going to do? It's going to fire me up. It ain't gonna happen again."
