By Jamal Baker
NDG SPortswriter

The Dallas Cowboys let a winnable game slip away on Sunday ­­—falling 34-31 to the Baltimore Ravens at Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro.

Questionable offensive playcalling, poor head coaching in-game decision-making and a decimated secondary are all factors that led to the  Cowboys having a long flight home to Dallas.

After jumping out to a 10-0 lead to start the game, Dallas allowed the Ravens to score 17 unanswered points and take a 17-13 lead into halftime.

Baltimore continued to build on their momentum by scoring the first points of the second half to extend the lead to 24-13.

However, the Cowboys responded by scoring 15 unanswered points to regain control and take a 28-24 lead.

Costly penalties by the Dallas defense allowed the Ravens to get in the red zone and score a touchdown with 1:30 to play in regulation.

With one timeout and 65 yards to pay dirt, the Cowboys marched all the way to Baltimore’s 2-yard line with 23 seconds remaining and four downs to win the game.

You might be wondering how the Cowboys walked away with an L in this situation, I still am myself.

A false start penalty by Luke Schoonmaker and what head coach Brian Schottenheimer calls “overcoaching” Prescott caused  Dallas to settle for a game-tying field goal with seven seconds remaining.

“Yeah, we thought we were going to score a touchdown,” Schottenheimer said. “We thought we were gonna score a touchdown and move the ball really well down there. We’ve got to find a way to punch it in. I’ve got to call some better plays to get it in.

“… So proud of this team, this group of young men. They laid it all on the line.”

On the ensuing kickoff and with seven seconds until potentially going into overtime, the Cowboys opted to kick the ball into the endzone instead of a power squib which would have forced a return and taken time off the clock.

Instead, Baltimore started the drive at their 35 and two-time MVP quarterback Lamar Jackson completed a 27-yard pass to receiver Zay Flowers with one second left.

On the next play, Baltimore kicker Tyler Loop nailed a game-winning 56-yard field goal.

Schottenheimer explained his touchback decision by referencing two earlier kickoffs by Aubrey that went out of bounds.

“Again, it happens occasionally,” Schottenheimer said. “It can’t happen twice in a game. We don’t expect that from Brandon. We know how talented Brandon is but like I said, no one coaches 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.”

Not trusting the highest paid kicker in football was one of the many questionable decisions made by Schottenheimer in this game, but the Cowboys must move on and keep improving as the season progresses.

“We just got to lean on our brotherhood, we’ve got to lean on the family that we’ve created, the trust,” Prescott said. “This is one game. It’s early in the season, thankfully. We’re 1-2. We would love to be 2-1 going home, we’re not. It’s a long season. 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. I’ve said it before, after a loss, you have no choice but to lock arms and run back into the fire and trust what you’ve done and your process. So hopefully it’s one of the best things that happens for us. Hopefully we can look back at this in a month or a couple months and say it was good.”

The Cowboys will look to get back on track on the road against the Houston Texans Sunday at noon CST.