Cowboys vs Ravens: 3 reasons the home team lost 28-25

The NFL is unpredictable. For the first three quarters, you can do almost nothing right, but suddenly, everything seems to click. That’s how it was for the Dallas Cowboys against the Baltimore Ravens. Baltimore dominated Dallas on both sides of the ball and went into the fourth quarter leading 28-6. Dallas mounted a furious comeback, recovering an onside kick and scoring 19 unanswered points with a chance to get the ball back at the end of regulation for a game-tying/winning drive. Unfortunately, Baltimore sealed the win late with two crucial first downs to run out the clock . The loss is disappointing for the Cowboys as they slide to 1-2 to begin the season. Also, despite the thrilling finish, Dallas’ mistakes throughout most of the game dug them a hole they couldn’t dig themselves out of. Here’s where things went wrong for the Cowboys.

Self-inflicted mistakes
Forget that the Cowboys had only six accepted penalties for 44 yards. It doesn’t lessen the impact the penalties had on the game. To open the game, Dallas had numerous penalties on their first drive. It was not the start you wanted to get off to, taking the ball after winning the opening coin toss. This served as ominous foreshadowing.

Instead of moving forward in the right direction, the Cowboys went backward. Several penalties negated possible points. After a CeeDee Lamb reception to the Baltimore nine-yard line, Tyler Smith would commit a holding penalty to drive the Cowboys back 10 yards. The penalty changed the dynamic of the team’s play calling, and on the ensuing play, Lamb fumbled the ball away to Baltimore as the offense walked off the field empty-handed.

Then, with the offense desperate to answer after a touchdown pass to Rashod Bateman, a holding penalty on Tyler Guyton nullified what would have been pass interference on Lamb and set up the offense on the Ravens’ one-yard line. Without Guyton’s penalty, there’s a chance the Cowboys would have scored a touchdown heading into the locker room at the half and trimmed the deficit, but instead, Dallas settled for a long Brandon Aubrey field goal. Lamb’s turnover and team penalties stripped any momentum and confidence the offense could have had much sooner in the contest.

Not stopping the run
The formula is out for the Cowboys’ defense. Do you want to neutralize Micah Parsons and stop him from taking control of the game? Bludgeon him and the defensive line with the running game. You hate to say that a defense is one-dimensional and can only rush the passer, but with performances like Sunday, what is anyone supposed to think?

Dallas could not contain the rushing attack against the New Orleans Saints last week and had trouble fitting runs and getting off blocks. This week, their problem was setting the edges and playing with good eye discipline. Lamar Jackson didn’t have to win the game from the pocket necessarily and threw just 15 passes. Once the run game was firmly established, it led to the play-action pass drawing in the defense, and the misdirection from the Ravens caused the defense to lose leverage and leave wide-open receivers in the secondary. The Cowboys missed over 10 ten tackles.

Baltimore ran for 274 yards on the ground on 45 attempts (6.1 ypc) and converted 16 first downs rushing versus two for Dallas. The Dallas offense and defenses are bottom-five units when it comes to stopping the run and running the ball. Last week, we figured that the Cowboys rush defense was susceptible to allowing big gains. However, allowing this many yards inside and out and a vintage performance from Derrick Henry (151 rushing yards) may have illustrated that the run defense is far worse than anyone could have imagined.

Lack of explosive plays
Though Dallas had a late flurry, the reason they were so behind and unable to sustain drives, was because they could not produce explosive plays. We understand the running game wasn’t going to provide that spark, and it has yet to all season. The Cowboys running backs have only one run of 10 yards or longer, placing the burden on Prescott and the receivers to generate big gains.

A few factors weighted the offense down against the Ravens. For starters, the offensive line is struggling to protect Prescott. Cooper Beebe and Tyler Guyton are rookies, so there is a learning curve, and they need time to get acclimated to the NFL. Guyton’s protection problems are rushing Prescott from the pocket, forcing him into premature throws, and tapering down the vertical attack. Veteran Terence Steele is also having comparable issues as well. Nnamdi Madubuike gave Steele fits with his strength and technique, capturing the edge on Prescott and flushing him from the pocket prematurely.

Although Prescott had limited chances to throw the ball deep against a Ravens secondary that was hemorrhaging yardage in previous, there were a few occasions. Prescott took shots deep to Cooks and Tolbert, but the receivers could not make the play. The lack of a vertical threat early in the game condensed the offense’s spacing. Nearly every throw from Prescott through the first three quarters was tightly contested. The offense was shackled until it was too little, too late.