Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said there was “no explanation” that could justify his team’s late clock-management mistakes in Sunday’s 34-31 loss to the Baltimore Ravens in Brazil.
Dallas appeared headed for overtime after Brandon Aubrey kicked a tying 23-yard field goal with seven seconds remaining. Instead, Baltimore quarterback Lamar Jackson completed a 27-yard pass to Zay Flowers, allowing the Ravens to call timeout with one second left before Tyler Loop drilled a game-winning 56-yard field goal.
The Cowboys had opportunities to leave the Ravens with considerably less time.
Dallas reached first-and-goal at the Baltimore 2-yard line with 23 seconds remaining. After an incompletion and a false-start penalty, Dak Prescott scrambled to the 5 before coach Brian Schottenheimer used the Cowboys’ final timeout with 14 seconds left.
Prescott then quickly threw the ball away on third down, taking only four seconds off the clock.
“There is no explanation you’re satisfied with. None,” Jones said Tuesday on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas. “Let’s be sure that we all understand that. They (the coaches) don’t have one that they’re satisfied with.”
Schottenheimer acknowledged after the game that he instructed Prescott to either target George Pickens or throw the ball away.
“That’s on me,” Schottenheimer said. “I overcoached him.”
Jones said the Cowboys recognize the issue but must turn the breakdown into something useful.
“We made mistakes during that time,” Jones said. “There’s no question about it, so there is no explanation, but there’s an evaluation of how not to make the same mistakes again, which is what you should be doing. You can’t get that back.”
Despite the frustrating finish, Jones remains optimistic about the Cowboys, who fell to 1-2 and visit the Houston Texans on Sunday.
“We will be better from this experience and what happened to us at the end of the game,” Jones said.
