It was 31-all in Brazil, the Cowboys and Ravens were locked up, and everyone figured we were headed for overtime. But Lamar Jackson, man, he had other ideas. Just seven seconds. That’s all it took for Jackson to hit Zay Flowers, and then Tyler Loop drilled a 56-yard field goal right down the middle, sending Baltimore home winners from Rio. None of that, absolutely none of it, happens without one boneheaded decision from the Cowboys coaching staff.
The Head-Scratching Kickoff Call That Blew It
How do you even let that happen? Brandon Aubrey, their kicker, he’s the highest-paid in the league for a reason, right? He’s got all sorts of ways to kick the ball. But with seven seconds staring them down, the Cowboys coaches decided to have Aubrey just boot it into the end zone. Touchback. Think about that for a second. Dallas could have kicked the ball into the field of play. That would force the Ravens to return it and run clock. Instead, they handed Baltimore every single second they needed on a silver platter by giving them a touchback.
Lamar’s Lightning Strike and the Brutal Fallout
And wouldn’t you know it, Lamar Jackson is just built different. He took those free seconds, launched a pass to Zay Flowers, and then it was a mad scramble for a timeout with literally one second left. They even had to review it, that’s how close it was! If those Ravens even had to *field* a squib kick, they don’t get that opportunity. They don’t set up that game-winning kick. It’s coaching malpractice, plain and simple. Brian Schottenheimer is the head coach, Nick Sorensen the special teams coordinator, and one of them made a call that looks awful in hindsight, and even worse with that brutal result. As MLFootball put it on social media, “ALL THE #COWBOYS HAD TO DO WAS KICK THE BALL IN BOUNDS AND THE CLOCK WOULD’VE RUN OUT AND THE GAME WOULD’VE BEEN OVER. COACHING MALPRACTICE. AN ALL-TIME BAD CHOKE JOB.” Hayden Winks nailed it too, “Cowboys opting to kick a touchback instead of letting a few seconds drain off the clock ended up costing them.”
This isn’t new, either. Remember Sean McDermott and the Bills letting Mahomes do his 13-second magic? Now we’ve got Lamar doing it in 7. Two head coaches, same wrong decision. It just goes to show you, man, in this league, one single coaching mistake, one bad call in the dying seconds, can absolutely cost you everything. And the Cowboys are gonna be living with this one for a long, long time.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by The Sporting News.
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