RIO DE JANEIRO — Dak Prescott put the Dallas Cowboys’ 34-31 loss to the Baltimore Ravens on the offense Sunday. Dallas reached the Baltimore 2 in the final 23 seconds and settled for a tying field goal.
Tyler Loop made a 56-yard field goal as time expired at Maracanã Stadium, 7 seconds after Brandon Aubrey’s 23-yarder tied it. The Cowboys’ defense gave up a 64-yard touchdown drive and a two-play, 27-yard drive in the final 1:30.
Defensive players were already taking the loss on themselves in the locker room, according to Prescott.
“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.”
Prescott completed 25 of 40 passes for 276 yards and 1 touchdown with no interceptions, ran four times for 19 yards, and was sacked once. CeeDee Lamb caught 7 passes for 112 yards, and Jake Ferguson caught a 19-yard touchdown in the third quarter.
Dallas reached the Baltimore 1 on its first possession and kicked a field goal. In the second quarter, it was stopped on fourth-and-1 at its own 44. Ferguson fumbled a shovel pass at the Baltimore 24 to open the third.
“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 said. “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. “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. But ultimately, we stopped ourselves again.”
Dak Prescott On Final Throw To George Pickens
A 20-yard pass interference penalty on Ravens cornerback Nate Wiggins gave Dallas first-and-goal at the 2 with 23 seconds left. Then a false start on tight end Luke Schoonmaker moved the Cowboys back to the 7.
“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. 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 put ourselves in a position that, yeah, we just got to execute that last play.”
Prescott did not want to get into the last sequence in the minutes after the game and said that could come later in the week. On third-and-goal from the 5, he threw the ball away in the direction of George Pickens.
“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.”
Pickens caught 7 of 11 targets for 82 yards. Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said he overcoached Prescott on the call.
“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 explained. “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 continued. “Yeah, and unfortunately, yeah, threw the ball away.”
Dak Prescott On 1-2 Start Before Houston Texans
The Cowboys lost 28-20 at the New York Giants in the opener and beat the Washington Commanders 37-20 last Sunday. Prescott does not expect to feel different by the time the team lands.
“I’m sure when I land I’ll be just as pissed,” Prescott said.
Missing on the first drive does not matter to him as long as Dallas scores at the end.
“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,” 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.”
Prescott is aware a game like this can derail a team, and he wants the Cowboys to lean on the trust they 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.”
Dallas plays at the Houston Texans on Sunday, Oct. 4, at noon CT on FOX. Houston is 0-3. The Cowboys host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Thursday, Oct. 8, at 7:15 p.m. CT on Prime Video.
