After the Cowboys' loss to Baltimore, the question of whether the head coach trusts his quarterback has come up.
The post-mortem of the Dallas Cowboys' 34-31 loss to the Baltimore Ravens in Rio in NFL Week 3 has been damning, and rightly so.
The big issues stem from those final 23 seconds in the fourth quarter, as Dallas played scared, played for the tie and overtime, and didn't go for the win.
Some have stated that, given Dak Prescott's throwaway on third down, head coach Brian Schottenheimer doesn't trust his QB of 11 years to go win the game.
Is there a case to be made? Well, Dak did throw it on two of the three downs, so there's that.
But even on the third down, it was a quick read to George Pickens, and then Dak threw it into the stands. That's not great.
However, the issue of trust between play-caller and quarterback has repeatedly come up in recent days ...
So much so that the head coach has been moved to address it.
"I trust Dak Prescott completely," Schottenheimer said. "So it was the word that I chose which I'm not going to give away. The words that we say have meaning, and when I said the word, it put him into a mindset that he doesn't play with.
"He doesn't play that way, and so that's what I would change."
Right, so that isn't great.
Let's assume the not-so-magic word is "careful.'' Or "caution.'' Something like that.
Your quarterback wanted to go win the game, or was at least of that mindset, and you changed it.
Schottenheimer trusts Dak, but is that feeling mutual?
"I hope so," Schottenheimer said, noting that Prescott is "pissed'' about the sequence. "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."
But back to that third-down play.
We have seen from the film that CeeDee Lamb slips on his route, but that in addition to Pickens being open, Ryan Flournoy had some space on a crosser, a route that Dak could have hit Flo for the game-winner on.
Of course, it is easier to say that when you are re-watching and not on the field with live bullets flying.
But Schottenheimer again went back to that one word that seemingly froze his four-time Pro Bowl, MVP-caliber quarterback in the game's biggest moment.
"There's a reminder, and I gave Dak a reminder, I think, on second down," Schottenheimer said about giving Prescott advice. "No need to do it with Dak on third down. I trust him. I trust him completely, that's why you're willing to call passes in situations.
"He and I have done a lot of stuff together. We worked together. He's bailed me out at times. I've bailed him out at times. What bothers me was the word that I chose, put him into a more conservative mindset that he normally plays with.
"I don't know, do we hit Ryan Flournoy running across the field? I don't know. We might, we might not. But again, trust your players, and Dak Prescott certainly deserves 100% of my trust, and that's what bothers me."
So, Schottenheimer knew he should have trusted Dak in that moment and not been in his head so much, because so many people, including Prescott, have stated that if he had just held onto the ball for a second longer, there was a strike to Pickens at the pylon just waiting to be completed.
Unfortunately, we will never know because Schottenheimer took away his quarterback's instincts on that play, something he says won't happen again.
If you are blown away by the fallout this time, imagine what it'll be like if it happens again.
You have one of the better quarterbacks in football. Trust him, and let No. 4 go win you the game; whatever happens, you live by that decision.
It really is that simple, because trust is something that is so hard to gain, but really easy to lose.
