RIO DE JANEIRO – With 28 seconds left and the Cowboys on the Ravens 22-yard line down by three, Ravens CB Nate Wiggins was penalized for pass interference, giving Dallas' offense first and goal at the two.
From there, the Cowboys ran a goal line fade to George Pickens that was incomplete, TE Luke Schoonmaker was called for a false start, Dak Prescott had to scramble for two yards, and then threw the ball away on third and goal to set up a 23-yard field goal for Brandon Aubrey to tie it with seven seconds left.
It appeared to be enough to send the game to overtime, but Lamar Jackson and Zay Flowers connected in the middle of the field for a 27-yard gain to set up a game-winning 56-yard field goal from Ravens kicker Tyler Loop.
"Frustrated," Prescott said of the loss. "Frustrated as hell. Excuse me. Embarrassed. We don't call ourselves the best offense, GOTI, and get down to the one-yard line and don't put it in. Yeah, it just sucks. Not a lot of words or full explanation of it. Defense shouldn't even have been in that position. Those guys were over there saying 'it's on us,' absolutely not. We've got to put the game away, period."
One of the reasons for Prescott's frustration was his feeling the offense got in the way of themselves too much on Sunday night.
"I thought we were going to score," Prescott said of what he thought after the pass interference call on Wiggins. "Still think we were going to score, we just got in our own way. That's the only thing that stopped us tonight. First drive, third and the fourth drive, not getting it on fourth down, not scoring a touchdown on the last drive, I could go back pretty much to every drive. And that's a hell of a team, it's a good team and they did a great job."
On the third and goal throw where Prescott tossed the ball into the stands, he says he was throwing the ball away. It appeared that Pickens, who ran a fade two plays early and on this play came back to the pylon, may have had a chance to catch a go-ahead touchdown, and it's a throw Prescott wishes he had back.
"I probably should've just sat on it a little bit longer. Sank on my back foot and just put it on that front pylon. Definitely should have." Prescott said.
Prescott finished the night 25/40 for 276 yards and a touchdown, adding 19 yards on four carries. Dallas' offensive night was bookended by trips deep into opposing territory where the Cowboys couldn't find the end zone, as they settled for three on their opening drive as well.
Of course, in retrospect, four more points on that opening drive would've gone a long way for the Cowboys tonight. Still, they had their chance to make up for it at the end of the game and couldn't execute.
"Anytime you get down there, and you don't score, you're frustrated," Prescott said. "But that doesn't matter as long as we score at the end of the game. That's why I'm as frustrated as I am right now. That was the last chance that we had the ball in our hands, it was a chance to win the game. That's the National Football League. Everything up to that point doesn't matter."
"And then after we kick the field goal, same thing goes for the Ravens. Everything up to that point didn't matter. And they executed their play, they made the field goal and they won. That's the beauty of this game, and that's the heartbreak of it when you're on the other side."
With a 10-hour flight ahead of them back to the United States, Prescott and the Cowboys now head into a short week with another road trip coming up against the Houston Texans next Sunday. How does Dallas make sure this loss doesn't deflate them going forward?
"We just got to lean on our brotherhood, we've got to lean on the family that we've created, the trust," Prescott said. "This is one game. It's early in the season, thankfully. We're 1-2. We would love to be 2-1 going home, we're not. It's a long season. Just the maturity of understanding that, that this game can derail you, is going to be the beneficiary of us not allowing it to."
"Just being aware of that, understanding, going back to work. I've said it before, after a loss, you have no choice but to lock arms and run back into the fire and trust what you've done and your process. So hopefully it's one of the best things that happens for us. Hopefully we can look back at this in a month or a couple months and say it was good."
That said, it doesn't make the digesting of the loss any easier for Prescott.
"This one hurts," Prescott said when asked how he's learned to quickly flush tough losses. "It's just getting back to work, being candid with you, just getting back to work. But it sucks. It sucks. There's no ifs, ands or buts about it. Knowing you had a game, you could have won a game, you don't, you tie, hoping for overtime, we put our defense in a terrible position and those guys, good offense, a hell of a quarterback, MVP quarterback, makes a throw. And young kicker comes in there and kicks a game winning field goal. It's the NFL, so just getting back to work is the only way to flush it. Unfortunately, we only get to do that for a couple days."
The Cowboys now fall to 1-2 on the season, and will land back on Dallas early on Monday morning and will begin preparation to face the Texans, who have started the season 0-3.
