RIO DE JANEIRO — Tyler Loop made a 56-yard field goal as time expired Sunday to give the Baltimore Ravens a 34-31 win over the Dallas Cowboys at Maracanã Stadium. Seven seconds earlier, Brandon Aubrey had tied the game at 31 with a 23-yard field goal.
Baltimore got into range in two plays. Aubrey’s kickoff after the tying kick went for a touchback, Lamar Jackson found Zay Flowers over the middle for 27 yards to the Dallas 38, and the Ravens called their third timeout with 1 second on the clock. Loop, who played high school football at Lovejoy in Lucas, also made a 27-yard field goal in the second quarter and all four of his extra points.
The loss dropped Dallas to 1-2. It came in the NFL’s first game in Rio de Janeiro, before an announced crowd of 72,792, and Dallas was the designated home team in its first regular-season game outside the United States since a 2014 game in London.
Flowers ran a dig of 25 or 26 yards on the final completion, according to rookie safety Caleb Downs, the Cowboys’ first-round pick.
“I’m learning that’s what the NFL is,” Downs said. “So turn of events and then just, as I said, execution. So we’ve got to make our plays.”
Dallas was in a man-to-man robber look and playing soft on the snap, Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said.
“John said to me he looked up and there was one second left on the clock. Bottom line is we need to keep that ball in front of us,” Schottenheimer said. “But at the end of the day, really just feel bad for the guys. We played hard, we fought back, long trip, had our chances to win. And unfortunately, we didn’t get it done.”
Dallas had taken over at its own 35 with 1:30 left, after Jackson hit rookie tight end Matt Hibner for a 2-yard touchdown and a 31-28 lead. Dak Prescott completed passes of 13 and 9 yards to Ryan Flournoy and 14 yards to CeeDee Lamb, then scrambled for 7 yards to the Baltimore 22.
With 28 seconds left, Ravens cornerback Nate Wiggins was flagged for pass interference against Lamb on a deep throw. The 20-yard penalty gave Dallas first-and-goal at the 2 with 23 seconds remaining. Prescott’s first-down throw to George Pickens fell incomplete, and a false start on tight end Luke Schoonmaker moved Dallas back to the 7.
Prescott scrambled for 2 yards on the next snap, and the Cowboys used their last timeout with 14 seconds left. On third-and-goal from the 5, he threw the ball away.
Prescott did not put the result on a defense that gave up 10 points in the final 1:30. Those players were already saying it was on them, he said, and he disagreed.
“Frustrated. Frustrated as hell. Excuse me. Embarrassed,” Prescott said. “We know we call ourselves the best offense, and we get down in 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,” Prescott continued. “Those guys are over there saying it’s on us. Absolutely not. We’ve got to put the game away, period.”
Dallas reached the Baltimore 1 on its first possession and the Baltimore 2 on its last. It kicked field goals both times.
“I thought we were going to score. I still think we’re going to score. We just got in our own way. That’s the only thing that stopped us tonight,” Prescott explained. “First drive, third and the fourth drive, not getting it on fourth down, not scoring a touchdown in the last drive. I mean, I go pretty much to every drive. And that’s a hell of a team. It’s a good team. And they did a great job. Well coached.”
“I mean, hell, they had some great timeout calls just in the fact of, it felt like I saw exactly what I was getting from them and about to gash them. And then they called the timeout. And so it was a great back and forth,” Prescott added. “I talked about the swing of just the points. I wouldn’t say it’s emotions. For us, it’s about staying steady, understanding we’re going to get an opportunity to get back in this thing and to make something happen as long as we don’t get in our way and we’re able to get back in it. But ultimately, we stopped ourselves again.”
Pickens was the target on both of Prescott’s throws from inside the 5, and neither was caught.
“We called a quick out. I probably overcoached Dak on that one, because we had the points,” Schottenheimer explained. “And I probably overcoached him on that because it had to go to, with the time, no timeouts, it had to go to GP or throw it away.”
“Yes, he was throwing it away, yep. And again, that’s on me. I overcoached him,” Schottenheimer said.
In the first minutes after the game, Prescott did not want to get into the details of the last sequence. He left that for later in the week, but he did address whether Pickens was open toward the front pylon.
“He probably was. I probably should have just sat on it a little bit longer, sank on my back foot and just put it on that front pylon,” Prescott said. “Yeah, definitely probably should have.”
Dak Prescott, Dallas Cowboys Reach Baltimore 1 And 2, Kick Field Goals Both Times
On the opening possession, Dallas went 57 yards in 11 plays. Javonte Williams carried six times for 44 yards on the drive, the last a 4-yard run to the 1. Prescott threw incomplete to Flournoy on second down and was sacked for a 9-yard loss on third, and Aubrey kicked a 28-yard field goal.
Missing on that first drive does not matter to Prescott as long as Dallas scores at the end. He took not finishing the game on himself. “Absolutely,” he said. “Yes, yeah, of course.”
“Any [time] you get down there and you don’t score, you’re frustrated. But that doesn’t matter as long as we score at the end of the game. I’m not going back,” Prescott said. “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. That 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, the same thing goes for the Ravens. Everything up to that point doesn’t matter,” Prescott continued. “And they executed their play. They made the field goal, and they won. And that’s the beauty of this game, and that’s the heartbreak of it when you’re on the other side.”
Williams had the ball on six of that first drive’s 11 plays.
“We were just trying to go in it. I support the coaches and their decisions, the play calls that they made,” Williams said. “Just good job to the Ravens’ defense.”
Baltimore’s second possession ended on a fourth-and-1 at its own 30, when Downs stopped Derrick Henry for no gain. A face-mask penalty moved Dallas to the 14 on the ensuing drive, and Williams scored from 2 yards out for a 10-0 lead with 4:32 left in the first quarter.
Henry answered with touchdown runs of 4 and 3 yards on Baltimore’s next two possessions. Aubrey’s kickoff after the Williams touchdown went out of bounds and gave the Ravens the ball at their own 40. On the second scoring drive, a 49-yard pass interference penalty on safety Markquese Bell put the ball at the Dallas 3, and Henry’s run made it 14-10 with 11:23 left in the half.
Dallas went for it on fourth-and-1 at its own 44 on the following drive. Williams was stopped for no gain, fumbled, and recovered, and the Ravens took over on downs. Loop kicked a 27-yarder for a 17-10 lead, and Aubrey made a 38-yard field goal with 18 seconds left in the half to cut it to 17-13.
The Cowboys opened the third quarter with a 9-play drive to the Baltimore 24, where Jake Ferguson fumbled a shovel pass and the Ravens recovered. Replay upheld the ruling. A drive later, Aubrey’s 59-yard attempt was blocked, and Baltimore needed four plays to go 51 yards. Henry ran for 29, and Jackson threw a 4-yard touchdown to Chris Moore for a 24-13 lead with 3:44 left in the third quarter.
Dallas went 67 yards in six plays on its next possession, helped by a 19-yard completion to Pickens and a roughing-the-passer penalty. Ferguson caught a 19-yard touchdown down the right sideline, and Prescott hit Lamb for the two-point conversion to make it 24-21 with 1:48 left in the third.
Early in the fourth quarter, Baltimore had first-and-goal at the 3 after a 20-yard run by Flowers. Henry’s 2-yard touchdown run on third down was reversed on review and spotted at the 1. On fourth down, rookie linebacker Jaishawn Barham dropped Henry for a 3-yard loss.
Dallas then went 96 yards in seven plays. Prescott hit Lamb for 49 yards on second-and-9 from the 5, found Brevyn Spann-Ford for 19, and converted a third-and-8 with a 16-yard throw to Pickens. KaVontae Turpin ran 9 yards around left end for a touchdown and a 28-24 lead with 9:42 left.
Baltimore’s go-ahead drive covered 64 yards in 11 plays. Flowers caught passes of 14 and 14 yards to reach the Dallas 2, a false start pushed the Ravens back to the 7, and a 5-yard pass interference penalty on Bell returned them to the 2. Dallas used two timeouts inside the final 1:47, and Jackson threw to Hibner for the touchdown on third-and-2.
Williams described Dallas’ own false start at the end as a self-inflicted wound.
“Self-inflicted wounds. I mean, that backed us up. That hurt us,” Williams explained. “But like I said, I support the play-calling. We just got to move on to Houston.”
Prescott said the snap count and the call sheet both changed with the 5-yard penalty.
“Plays, a number of plays. I mean, you’re going from a whole different five-and-in to your six-and-out play. So a lot changed,” Prescott said. “The factor of running the ball, we wouldn’t have ran it anyways. We’re out of timeouts. But at that point, yeah, a lot changes.”
“Yeah, I mean, you can’t run the ball. Being within right there where we are, that’s probably what you want to get a chance to do that. So a lot changes,” Prescott continued. “You have to, after that, right, then I have to scramble, try to make something. We call the timeout, now we’re out of timeouts. We’re forced to, excuse me, put ourselves in a position that, yeah, we just got to execute that last play.”
Better red-zone play was one of Dallas’ corrections going into the season, according to Williams. The Cowboys went 3-of-5 in the red zone Sunday, and the Ravens went 4-of-6.
“That’s something that we’ve been focusing on all season. One of our corrections going into this year was better in the red zone. Like, we got to score touchdowns in the red zone,” Williams said. “We had an opportunity to score a touchdown in the red zone earlier on. We didn’t. And then we had an opportunity on the two-yard line. We had a false start.”
“And we’re not pointing fingers at anybody, but that’s just somewhere where we all have to [be] better, where we all have to grow, because that definitely could have changed the outcome of the game,” Williams added. “But I don’t like to play with hypotheticals, so we just got to [be] better and make sure that we’re not having penalties in the red zone. But there’s a lot of things. It didn’t come down to that one play. We had a lot of opportunities to create a bigger lead in that game to prevent the outcome that we had tonight.”
Schottenheimer liked the call before the false start. Dallas had a couple of plays it felt good about from that spot.
“It can’t happen. [Schoonmaker] knows that. At the end of the day, we were down there low. I liked the call that we had,” Schottenheimer said. “But you move us back, it definitely hurts because there’s a couple things that we had that we felt really good about down there low. But again, I’m a broken record, I apologize, but no one coached or played a perfect game tonight, and unfortunately that was a big play in the game, just like some of the mistakes I made.”
“[It was] a man-to-man robber look that we had where we were playing soft, and again, got to force the ball to go to the underneath in-cut, not the deep one behind some of the players,” Schottenheimer continued.
After the Hibner touchdown, Prescott said, Dallas put its defense in a terrible position.
“I don’t know. This one hurts. This one, I mean, it’s just getting back to work. Being candid with just getting back to work. But it sucks. It sucks. And there’s no ifs, ands, and buts about it,” Prescott said. “Oh yeah, hoping for overtime, we put our defense in a terrible position. And those guys, it’s a 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 yeah, just getting back to work is the only way to flush it,” Prescott continued. “And unfortunately, we don’t get to do that for a couple days.”
Dallas ran for 148 yards on 30 carries. Williams finished with 19 carries for 98 yards and a touchdown, and Tyler Goodson added 22 yards on six carries in his Dallas debut. Early in the game, Prescott saw how the Ravens were playing the Cowboys and went to the offensive line.
“Something that we needed to get going. The offensive line embraced it. As I think I told you during the week, they wanted that challenge. They wanted to run the ball,” Prescott said. “I saw early in the game the way that they were playing us. Went over there and told them, hey, we’re going to have to run the ball. They’re playing back, and they respect our guys outside. They don’t want us to get behind them. The offensive line did a good job of answering and making some holes. The running backs did a good job.”
Two days of moving around in Rio before the game helped with the plan, in Williams’ view.
“Just the whole line. They had great communication. They executed the game plan well,” Williams said. “I feel like the two days that we got out here and got moving around really helped us with the game plan. Then just CeeDee, George, and the receivers, tight ends, they opened it up for the run game. So, I mean, we’ve got to keep it going.”
A one- or two-yard run on first down leaves second-and-9 or second-and-8, according to right guard Tyler Booker.
“I feel like we leaned on our fundamentals and focused on us rather than what they were doing. We just took advantage of the opportunities that we had to run the ball,” Booker said. “And something that I preach to the offensive line, something that we all preach to each other is that we have to earn the right to run the ball.”
“If you go out there and you have a one or two yard run, it’s hard to say, all right, let’s run the ball again on second and nine, second and eight. When we get another one or two yard game, like, okay, now we’re in second and seven, second and six,” Booker continued. “So this is, we have to be a lot better at taking advantage of our opportunities for running the ball. And I feel like we did that tonight. So that’s one of the positives from tonight, but obviously it wasn’t enough to get the W.”
Goodson’s speed and athleticism were on display, Schottenheimer said.
“I thought Tyler showed why we liked him, why we grabbed him. You saw the speed. You saw the athleticism out there. And, again, I thought he did a nice job complementing those guys,” Schottenheimer said. “I thought our run game bounced back. That was good to see. So like I said, I’m disappointed as hell right now because of the pain in the locker room. But when we watch this film, there’s going to be things that we did really, really well. And it doesn’t make you feel any better at the moment.”
Prescott completed 25 of 40 passes for 276 yards and 1 touchdown with no interceptions, and he ran four times for 19 yards. Lamb caught 7 passes for 112 yards on 8 targets. Pickens had 7 catches for 82 yards on 11 targets, and Ferguson had 3 catches for 23 yards and a touchdown. Flournoy caught 2 of 8 targets for 22 yards, both on the final drive.
Baltimore got home once, with linebacker Roquan Smith sacking Prescott on the opening drive. Prescott wanted to switch protections on about two plays.
“I thought they did well. There was probably still two plays or so out there that I’d want to get into switching to a different protection. If I got time on the clock, they did a good job of disguising it, hitting it late,” Prescott said. “But overall, I think the offensive line, I mean, did a hell of a job tonight. But, yeah, those two plays were just, I mean, they brought more guys than we could block or we had planned to block. So they did a great job.”
Coverages that took Lamb and Pickens away left Flournoy to go win, Prescott said.
“Maybe if you’re just saying getting both of those guys involved. Flo made some big catches at times throughout the game, especially that last drive,” Prescott said. “We’ve got a full season of work in our belt with those two guys and knowing what we want to do. And so it really depends on what defenses are giving us, how they’re playing us. And we were able to attack with both guys. And then when they played coverages that took them away, Flo did his job and went and won.”
Brian Schottenheimer On Baltimore Ravens’ 192 Rushing Yards, Maracanã Field
Baltimore ran for 192 yards on 38 carries. Henry finished with 26 carries for 89 yards and 2 touchdowns, and Jackson added 50 yards on six carries while completing 15 of 20 passes for 186 yards, 2 touchdowns, and no interceptions. Flowers caught 5 passes for 84 yards.
Dallas lost the edge in the run game and gave up contain, Schottenheimer said, even on a night he liked what he saw from defensive tackle Quinnen Williams. Williams made 2 tackles, including a 5-yard loss on Henry in the third quarter.
“I thought Quinnen looked great. I really did. I thought he did some very impactful plays. I thought there was some positive things. I thought, get the big stop down there in the red zone, kind of a couple of big stuffs,” Schottenheimer said. “But at the end of the day, I still think some of our edges in the run game, we’re just, we’re getting beat to the edge. We’re giving up some contain. Those are things you’ve got to clean up.”
“They had too many yards rushing. Again, 192. And at the end of the day, you just can’t do that,” Schottenheimer continued. “You’ve just got to [be] better as a football team. But, yeah, this one stings.”
Barham made 7 tackles, 2 of them for loss, including the fourth-down stop at the 1 and a 4-yard loss on Henry on third-and-1 in the fourth quarter. The rookie called the defense with the green dot for the second straight week, in communication with defensive coordinator Christian Parker.
“I remember the one where he shot the gap. He’s just such a big, strong, powerful guy,” Schottenheimer said. “Again, I thought he flashed a lot, but I thought more than anything, I thought he was in great command and control of what we were doing, and calling the game with the green dot. And it’s a young player stepping up. And, again, I do think that helps him settle into the game a little bit, being in communication with Christian.”
Bell led Dallas with 8 tackles. Dee Winters had 7, and defensive tackle Otito Ogbonnia had 6 and a quarterback hit. Dallas did not sack Jackson.
The pass rush is below where Dallas expects it to be. The Cowboys have been around quarterbacks, Schottenheimer said, and have not gotten them on the ground.
“Certainly below where we expect to be. Especially with these athletic quarterbacks, that makes it hard. But I definitely think that there’s some [opportunities]. We’ve been around these guys a lot. We just haven’t gotten them on the ground,” Schottenheimer said. “And we’re looking at everything. But I do think Quinnen Williams, I thought he flashed tonight, looked really good. And we’re going to keep working because we’ve got a long way to go.”
Von Miller made 1 tackle in the rotation.
“You’re rolling these guys through. Sometimes it’s hard to get into a rhythm. But at the end of the day, we’re going to put guys in there and try to stay fresh,” Schottenheimer said. “I mean, that’s a big part of rushing the passer. You got to stay fresh, and Von’s going to help us win a lot of games.”
Downs made 3 tackles, including the fourth-down stop on Henry in the first quarter and a tackle on a 12-yard Jackson run in the third.
“I think we did a lot of good things, but we also have a lot of things to clean up,” Downs explained. “That’s the way that we’re always going to look at it in terms of improvement, in terms of trying to get better.”
Aubrey made 3 of 4 field goals and both of his extra points, and two of his kickoffs went out of bounds. Both times, Baltimore started at its own 40.
“It happens occasionally. It can’t happen twice in a game. We don’t expect that from Brandon. We know how talented Brandon is,” Schottenheimer said. “But like I said, no one coached or played a perfect game. And because of that, we ended up coming up short to a good football team and a team that played well tonight.”
After the tying field goal, Dallas wanted the ball in the end zone and the Ravens throwing short. Ravens coach Jesse Minter called the touchback “huge” in giving Baltimore a chance to reach Loop’s range, the Ravens’ team website reported.
“At the end of the day, we just felt like, hey, let’s boom it through. Let’s put them out there, make them throw the ball short, and we’ll be fine, play for overtime,” Schottenheimer said. “And that’s what the plan was.”
The grass at Maracanã passed NFL and NFL Players Association thresholds on Saturday, and the Cowboys brought cleats with seven studs among their options. Downs wore the seven studs.
“I wore seven studs. So at the beginning of the game it was good, but at the end of the game it was pretty much just dirt out there,” Downs said. “But I can’t make mistakes. I mean, I can’t make excuses about it, so we still got to go out and do our jobs.”
Turpin slipped once, on a third-and-6 comeback route that fell incomplete with 6:01 left, according to Schottenheimer.
“Number one, I thought the field held up fine. I thought there was one slip. I remember Terp had one on the third down where he slipped on a little comeback route that we had,” Schottenheimer said. “I thought the emotion of the fans was great. And unfortunately, I wish we could be out there celebrating with them right now, but we came up short.”
On Saturday, Dallas told its players the surface might be slick.
“We came here yesterday, guys, and we looked around and we educated our guys that it might be a little bit of a slick surface. It’s a little different than what we play on, in the soccer pitch,” Schottenheimer said. “But I thought the league did a nice job of making it to where it held up okay. And I didn’t think it really had much to do with the outcome of the game. I just think it was two good football teams battling and it came down to them making a play and ending the game.”
Some Ravens and Cowboys players swapped jerseys during the trip, Schottenheimer said, and the facility and practice fields were ready for Dallas’ workout.
“A lot of respect. I thought the facility was beautiful. I thought they did a great job getting the fields prepared for us. That was a real work day for us. So I think that was very much appreciated by us,” Schottenheimer said. “It was cool to see some of their players come out and the respect that they have for some of our star players and some jersey swaps and things like that. So, all in all, this has been a very cool trip. But like I said, I wish we would have come up with a win. It would have been even better.”
Downs credited God for bringing him to Maracanã.
“A lot of history. Great to be here,” Downs said. “Just the places that God brings you is kind of unimaginable just with the game of football. So I give him all the glory for it and just thankful to be in the situation he put me in.”
Williams did not expect a full stadium.
“It surprised me to see the stadium full. I didn’t know they supported NFL football this much,” Williams said. “But I appreciate NFL, all the fans for showing up. I mean, I had a good time.”
Booker called the trip an honor and a blessing.
“Besides losing, it was great. It’s just an honor and a blessing to expand the game, and it’s just very thankful that God has blessed me with this ability to be able to travel and play this game and glorify his name within everything that I do,” Booker said. “So it’s just truly a blessing.”
Prescott was glad to play in the first game in Rio, and he returned to the coverage on the final throw to Pickens.
“Rio got a hell of a game. They got a hell of a football game. But just the ebbs and flows, that’s how the NFL football works,” Prescott said. “And so I’m glad to be a part of the first game here in Rio and give the fans, and they were awesome in the atmosphere. And to give them that game, unfortunate, we’re on the losing side. And the only way we get better is just get back to work. We’re a hell of a team.”
“As I said, I know we just got in our own ways on offense a number of times, a number of drives, and that last one was just another example of that,” Prescott continued. “The coverage that they were playing, 99 out of 100 times that they’re supposed to cover GP. That corner’s supposed to be outside leverage, funneling him inside to the safety. GP’s GP. He did a great job of winning regardless.”
“And I said, I wish I would have just sank on my back foot and just threw it to the front pylon and trust it. But it’s one of those, you read the coverage, you say, oh, well, they’re not giving you that,” Prescott added. “Yeah, and unfortunately, yeah, threw the ball away.”
In the locker room, Schottenheimer told the players he was sorry.
“I was very honest with them. I told them this one hurts, and I was sorry. I was sorry that we didn’t find a way to win,” Schottenheimer said. “I was proud of them, how hard they played, how many guys had to step up and make plays and move in and whatnot. It was back and forth. It was a hell of a football game if you didn’t care who won.”
“But I told them I was proud of them, but I also told them that it’s supposed to hurt,” Schottenheimer continued. “We have to find a way to win football games. And came up a couple points short.”
He does not question whether the team will quit.
“I don’t ever question these guys, man. Watch the way they play. This team doesn’t have quit in them. They’re hurting right now. I’m hurting,” Schottenheimer said. “I felt like we made enough plays to go win the game, but we didn’t, so give Baltimore credit for that. But at the end of the day, I hurt for the guys in the locker room. They put a lot into this.”
“It’s a long trip, but I mean, no one cares. A long flight back. They got two days off. We gotta get right to work as a staff, get ready for Houston,” Schottenheimer added. “So very, very disappointed for the men in that locker room because of the type of men they are and how they work. And when you come up short, it hurts.”
Dallas scored touchdowns on its two possessions after falling behind 24-13. The Cowboys, Booker said, are a family and will not point fingers.
“I mean, it sucks. You want to have the opportunity to go back and win the game, but we had plenty of opportunities to open up that lead as an offense earlier,” Booker said. “We’re never going to point the finger at anybody else on this team. We’re a family. We’re all together. But there’s room for improvement everywhere. There’s always going to be room for improvement.”
“Even if we won this game, there was going to be room for improvement, so we just have to [be] better,” Booker continued. “But at this point in time, we have to band together and grow together and come together rather than grow apart and point fingers.”
This is one game at 1-2, in Prescott’s view, and the team has to lean on what it built.
“We just got to lean on our brotherhood. We’ve got to lean on the family that we’ve created. The trust. This is one game. It’s early in the season, thankfully. We’re one and two. We would love to be two and one going back, going home. We’re not. It’s a long season,” Prescott said. “And 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.”
“As you know, I’ve said it before, after a loss you don’t have anything but to, no choice but to lock arms and run back into the fire and trust what you’ve done and your process,” Prescott continued. “And so hopefully it’s one of the best things that happened for us. Hopefully we can look back at this in a month or a couple months and say it was good.”
Safety Jalen Thompson left in the second quarter with a hamstring injury, The Associated Press reported, and was ruled out in the third. Cornerback Shavon Revel Jr. and defensive tackle Jay Bullard were listed as questionable to return in the fourth quarter, and right tackle Terence Steele was hurt on Prescott’s scramble on the final drive. Schottenheimer did not have injury reports after the game.
“I know we got beat to hell. I don’t have all the injury reports, you guys can ask me about that, but we got beat up pretty good, and next man up was real tonight,” Schottenheimer said.
Linebacker DeMarvion Overshown, cornerback Cobie Durant, safety Malik Hooker, running back Emari Demercado, tackle Ajani Cornelius, and wide receiver Camden Brown were inactive for Dallas.
Dallas lost 28-20 at the New York Giants in the opener and beat the Washington Commanders 37-20 last Sunday. Baltimore is 2-1 and 7-1 all-time against Dallas.
The Cowboys have a quick turnaround. They are off Monday and Tuesday after the flight home, and Schottenheimer wants the players to stay awake when they land and go to bed early Monday night.
“They got to rest. We’re going to try to, it’s going to be hard. We’re going to try to sleep a little bit on the flight. We get back, they’re off Monday and Tuesday. They need it. They got to get their bodies back,” Schottenheimer said. “But we’ve also talked to them about, sick call is going to be busy tomorrow. All the guys that got banged up, it’s going to be busy. But they got to get back to work.”
“So we’re trying to get them to stay awake. We think that’s the best thing for them when we get back, stay awake and then go to bed early Monday night to try to keep their bodies on our local time,” Schottenheimer continued.
Dallas plays at the Houston Texans on Sunday, Oct. 4, at Reliant Stadium, with kickoff at noon CT on FOX. Houston is 0-3. The Cowboys then host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Thursday, Oct. 8, at AT&T Stadium, with kickoff at 7:15 p.m. CT on Prime Video.
