Cowboys insiders Mike Fisher and Adam Schultz break it down: A goal-line collapse in Rio exposed fatal clock management flaws, as Brian Schottenheimer’s play-calling blunders and costly penalties doomed Dallas to a heartbreaking late-game failure against Baltimore.
Twenty-three seconds.
How many errors can one team stuff into such a small clock window?
The Dallas Cowboys will be kicking themselves as they travel back to The Star with a 34-31 loss to the Baltimore Ravens at Maracanã Stadium in Rio on Sunday.
Over the course of the day, the Cowboys had been up-and-down on both sides of the ball; there was excitement and there was effort.
But in crunch time late, head coach Brian Schottenheimer, defensive coordinator Christian Parker and quarterback Dak Prescott didn't cover themselves in glory with how they managed the game.
Now, let's be clear: this isn't "just a Cowboys thing''; every team has a time management problem.
But Dallas just whiffed in Rio, in perhaps the worst collection of ways in a short span that we've seen in a while.
When asked for the grade he’d give himself as offensive play-caller, Schottenheimer said it was an “F.”
“I was very honest with them,” Schottenheimer said of his postgame message to the team. “I told them this one hurts and I was sorry - I was sorry that we didn’t find a way to win.''
"Sorry''?
"Sorry'' doesn't fly. And an "F'' is too high.
Let's go through that now-infamous final few moments - "23 Seconds of Cowboys Hell'' - in Brazil ...
00:23 - First-and-goal at the Ravens' 2-yard line: No Williams??
The Cowboys ran the football superbly for most of the game, with Javonte Williams racking up 98 yards on 19 carries, averaging 5.2 yards per carry.
With Dallas so close to the goal line (following a lucky PI call favoring CeeDee Lamb) and a timeout in their pocket, why on earth didn't No. 33 get a look in at all?
They were set up to have at least three downs to score from 72 inches away, with a timeout in their pocket.
But ...
The Cowboys didn't run the ball on any of their three plays. Not once.
The first-down call was a pass to George Pickens. Incomplete. That ate up three seconds.
00:20 - Second-and-goal at the Ravens' 2-yard line: 'It can't happen!'
Then Luke Schoonmaker inexplicably flinched and was flagged for a false start, pushing Dallas back to a second-and-goal at the 7.
“It can’t happen,” Schottenheimer said. “You move us back, it definitely hurts because there’s a couple of things that we had that we felt really good about down there low.”
00:14: The odd time out:
After Dak Prescott has scrambled for two yards to make it third-and-5 (eating up six seconds), proper clock management would call for the Cowboys let the clock run down in order to leave just enough time for one more play (presumably an end-zone toss) and then (if needed if a TD isn't scored) the calling of a timeout with a few seconds left, and let Aubrey kick a tying field goal.
They botched this in every way.
Unfortunately, Schottenheimer called his timeout with 14 seconds left.
And even more unfortunate is what happened next.
00:14: Questionable play call:
Still facing a third-and-goal at the 5, Dak right for looked for Pickens in the end zone and overthrew him by a mile, air-maling the ball pretty much into the bleachers.
But Pickens did have separation. He looked open.
Schottenheimer stated post-game that Dak was throwing it away. Why? Schotty essentially stated that Dak is taught to do so in those situations.
Said Schottenheimer, “I probably over-coached Dak on that one ... It had to go to GP or (Prescott had to) throw it away. … That’s on me. I over-coached him.”
Facing a third-and-goal, with your $60 million MVP-candidate QB and you're "over-coaching'' him to not go for the win? You're "over-coaching'' him to the point at which he's reluctant to throw a TD pass to a Pro Bowler who's wide-open?
Baffling.
Oh, and why would there be just one read before the throwaway? You've got 14 seconds, Schotty!
Dak initially didn't seem willing to discuss the play - or maybe to discuss his coach's ill-fated urging.
“Maybe (later) in the week,” he said of the idea of further conversation. “(It’s) still fresh. I’m just upset. I don’t want to get into it.”
But later, Prescott acknowledged that he had plenty of time to decide what do to without having to throw the ball away in needless, mindless desperation.
“I probably should have sat on it a little bit longer,” he said. “Sank on my back foot and just put it on the front pylon. Probably should have.”
This raises an interesting point: If Dak knows his coach has offered up an idiotic instruction ... Does he have the authority to void it? Veto it? Ignore it?
00:07 - The odd Aubrey kick:
Even though the Cowboys "should've'' been ahead 38-31 with one or zero seconds left on the clock, the offense's drive to tie was impressive, we must note.
Now it was the special-teams' turn to help out.
We saw Aubrey try his new kicks in Rio, and he got penalized twice for booting kickoffs out of bounds. But with so little time on the clock, again, simple game-management guidelines make the plan clear ...
The score is tied with seven seconds left. You kick the ball into the field of play so the Ravens have to return it, thus making it almost impossible for two-time NFL MVP Lamar Jackson and friends to move up the field.
Instead, Schottenheimer's Cowboys kicked the ball through the end zone for a touchback.
Lamar had seven seconds, and as we know, that was more than enough time to get into field-goal range.
How dumb was the kickoff decision? Ravens rookie head coach Jesse Minter politely noted, “Honestly, anything less than seven seconds would have been really hard to do the play that we did. We may have even just ran the clock out.”
Of course.
00:01 - The prevent defense:
Dak is right to try to take his defense off the hook here, saying his "GOTI'' ("Greatest Offense There Is'') should've never put those guys in this position.
True. But still, the one thing you can't do here is give up is a big chunk play; in elementary school, you're taught, in this situation to "Keep the play in front of you,'' right?
But ...
With seven seconds left, Zay Flowers didn't have a defender near him as he hauled in a second-level the 27-yard catch - followed immediately by the wise Ravens calling their timeout - both of which set up the game-winning 56-yard field goal.
There were 23 seconds on the clock when Dak and Dallas had the ball at the Ravens' 2-yard line, and what followed was exactly what not to do late in games. ... time after time after time ...
Totaling 23 seconds worth of hellish time.
