Throughout recent years the Dallas Cowboys have been criticized for not taking care of the details and performing poorly when it comes to clock management. Those two forces were on display Sunday, as the Cowboys fell to the Baltimore Ravens 31-29 in a game they possibly could have won.
The Ravens used a record-tying kick return from Jacoby Jones and a complete breakdown from the Cowboys with time winding down in the game to win and improve to 5-1 on the season.
"You know when you get that itch? I wanted to scratch it," Jones said to the Associated Press. "So I took it."
Jones took a kick from the back part of the end zone and ran it back 108-yards for a touchdown, tying a record for the longest play in NFL history. According to ESPN.com, the Ravens won their 14th straight home game.
The return tied Randall Cobb's kick return from last year and an Ellis Hobbs play from 2007.
The game wasn't a complete victory though for the Ravens. The team lost a host of important players to injuries, some of them very significant. Linebacker Ray Lewis hurt his triceps and will have an MRI on Monday, while Ladarius Webb may have torn his ACL and could be lost for the season according to NFL Insider Adam Schefter.
The Ravens also lost Haloti Ngata to a knee injury and cornerback Jimmy Smith to a leg strain.
The game went back and forth for a while, but it was the procedural ineffectiveness of the Cowboys that lost Dallas the game as much as the Ravens won it. After scoring a 4-yard touchdown to Dez Bryant with 30 seconds left to cut the lead to 31-29, that's where the trouble began.
The team missed a two-point conversion after Bryant let the ball through his hands, after which the Cowboys kicked and recovered an onside kick. The team showed no urgency with 30 seconds left on the clock, running only one more play even though they had a timeout to use.
Players showed no hustle as the team lined up to try another shot at the end zone and were forced to take a timeout with six seconds to attempt a game-winning field goal. Dan Bailey missed wide left and the Ravens were winners.
"I felt we fought really hard and well through a lot of different adversities in all three phases," Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said. "(The Ravens) have been awfully good for a while. This team's been awfully good in this place for a while. We gave them everything they could handle."
The team also committed 13 penalties for 82 yards.
The Cowboys were dominant on Sunday and based on their stats, they should have won the game. They gained over 450 yards, including 227 rush yards and 30 first downs. The team also possessed the ball for over half the game. But it wasn't enough for a win.
"We ran it inside, we ran it outside, we got some stuff off the run game," Garrett said. "We kept the ball for a long time and those were all good things."
The Ravens pulled together and earned the victory, with quarterback Joe Flacco throwing for 234 yards and a touchdown and no turnovers.
"They threw a lot of haymakers at us," coach John Harbaugh said. "Our guys stepped up at the end and found a way to win the game."
Ray Rice had a solid game for the Ravens, gaining 63 yards on 16 carries and two touchdowns. The Jones return proved essential, allowing the Ravens to take a 24-13 lead in the third quarter.
"To set the National Football League record for a kickoff return, in what was the difference in the game, is pretty special," Harbaugh said.
Following a touchdown pass at the end of the third from Romo to Bryant, Bailey added a field goal at the start of the fourth to cut the lead to 24-23. The Ravens responded with a touchdown drive and were able to outlast a comeback try from Dallas.
"At the end of the day, we've got to finish the game and we have to win the game," Garrett said. "We didn't do that."
The Cowboys lost more than the game on Sunday as well, with starting running back DeMarco Murray getting hurt and leaving the game with a foot injury in the second half.