FRISCO, Texas — Jerry Jones said Tuesday that he was thinking about tying the game, not winning it, as the Dallas Cowboys worked from the Baltimore 2 in the final seconds against the Baltimore Ravens.
The Cowboys owner and general manager made his weekly appearance on the Shan and RJ show on 105.3 The Fan two days after a 34-31 loss at Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro. Dallas trailed 31-28 when Dak Prescott threw the ball away on third-and-goal from the Baltimore 5. Brandon Aubrey then made a 23-yard field goal to tie the game with 7 seconds left.
Baltimore did not need overtime. Lamar Jackson hit Zay Flowers for 27 yards to the Dallas 38, the Ravens called timeout with 1 second left, and Tyler Loop made a 56-yard field goal on the final play.
Jerry Jones On Tying The Game Against The Baltimore Ravens
The Cowboys had a tough time stopping the Ravens on Sunday, which was part of Jones’ thinking at the time. What the situation created, in his words, was ambiguity from trying to win the game while keeping the safety net of a tie.
“No. No. Did not,” Jones said. “I read in my mind, what if we just tie the game and go there? Because we’d had a tough time stopping them. We stopped them on short yardage, but not necessarily at all. And so that, at the end of the day, is hindsight. Go for it or come back for another day.”
“And I think the process of how to give yourself a shot at winning it, but leaving yourself the safety net of still being in the game if you aren’t successful, therein lies what the situation created: all of the ambiguity that we’re talking about, trying to do both,” Jones continued. “We all thought, every person there thought, we’d been better off being behind four points than just trying to get a score. Then you would have had a different mindset as you tried to get that ball in the end zone. So, no, you assume going in that what you want to do is try to get the score to win it, but not at the cost of getting out of there without a tie so that you can play for a possible win later in the game.”
Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said at his news conference Tuesday afternoon that Dallas was not trying to tie the game and wanted to take the lead when it called its final timeout with 14 seconds left.
Jackson finished 15-of-20 passing for 186 yards and 2 touchdowns, and he ran for 50 yards on 6 carries. Derrick Henry rushed for 2 touchdowns. Baltimore took its 31-28 lead on a 2-yard touchdown pass from Jackson on third down with 1:30 left, the game’s third lead change.
Jerry Jones On Being More Aggressive In Decisions
Cowboys chief operating officer Stephen Jones appeared on the station’s K&C Masterpiece show Monday, and the hosts raised his mention of a conversation with players and coaches about being more aggressive. Jerry Jones said he did not listen to that appearance. The aggressiveness he would expect to be discussed is about decisions rather than physical play.
“I would say in this case, because it’s the hot topic, decision,” Jones explained. “Because in decisions, certainly less likely, I didn’t listen to it, but less likely to be talking about physically being more aggressive, but it would be more about being aggressive in the decisions.”
“And so that’s always, what is aggressive?” Jones continued. “Well, that is basically throwing it up or not having an option of living with a more conservative call. When you look at the makeup of what we’ve got on offense, then you can use that term a little bit in general: say, let’s be more aggressive because of the talent we’ve got over on the offensive side of the ball.”
Prescott completed 25 of 40 passes for 276 yards and 1 touchdown with no interceptions in Rio. Javonte Williams ran 19 times for 98 yards and a touchdown. The Cowboys outgained the Ravens 415 to 378.
Dallas entered Week 4 averaging 29.3 points per game. The Cowboys (1-2) visit the Houston Texans on Sunday at noon CT at Reliant Stadium.
