The Cowboys were humbled by Lamar Jackson and the Ravens, to the tune of nearly 300 rushing yards in a 34-17 loss Tuesday night.
The Baltimore Ravens offense ran 54 plays against Dallas on Tuesday night. But one of them hurt the Cowboys more than the others.
Late in the first quarter, Lamar Jackson needed just two yards on the fourth-down play in order to move the sticks. He got 37, squirting through the line of scrimmage untouched and racing into the end zone with nary a single Cowboys defender anywhere even close.
“Certain plays, we got out of whack,” defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence told reporters after the game. “And that’s when they had a good opportunity, and they scored on us. Overall, I feel like when you’re facing a good team, a good run team with this triple option, it’s hard to make a mistake on one play, because that one play can hurt you the whole game.”
Indeed. Jackson’s score gave the Ravens the lead and opened the floodgates for the multi-pronged Baltimore running attack. The Cowboys defense surrendered 294 rushing yards on the evening en route to a 34-17 blowout that ensures Dallas a losing record on a season that began with lofty expectations.
Linebacker Leighton Vander Esch took responsibility for Jackson’s touchdown sprint, the longest run any Cowboys defense in history has ever allowed an opposing quarterback.
“That was 100% me,” Vander Esch said in his postgame remarks. “That was on me. I read the play right off the bat, and I should have just fit my assignment. That was all on me. I read it perfectly until I second-guessed myself and thought he handed it to the running back. But that wasn’t my job. I need to do my job.”
Replays show Vander Esch moving to his right as the play develops, following the backfield flock of Ravens and leaving a massive hole in the center of the field. By the time Jackson split off and hit that hole with the ball, Vander Esch was woefully out of position and could do little more than chase the reigning league MVP into the end zone.
With 94 yards on the ground, Jackson wasn’t even the Ravens’ leading rusher on the night; Gus Edwards racked up 101 yards on just seven carries, and J.K. Dobbins gained another 71. Add another 28 from Mark Ingram, and the Cowboys came close to giving up an astonishing 300 rushing yards… for the second time this season, after allowing Cleveland to gash them for 307 in Week 4’s loss.
“I think today was obviously a different challenge than we’ve seen. This is a unique offense. Obviously, a very physical offensive line, just the dynamics of the combination of the running backs and Lamar,” Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy said in his postgame press conference. “But, hey, three hundred yards is obviously astronomical.”
Jackson’s unique dual-threat capabilities as both a runner and a passer presented the Cowboys with a two-part problem that they were never able to solve, even though COVID postponements gave them five extra days to study.
“When you’re playing a run quarterback like we played tonight, I feel like us a D-line, we should have slowed down on our rush,” Lawrence told media members via conference call. “And I take responsibility for the most part of that, because I knew going in all week what type of quarterback we were playing and what he likes to do. Just seeing him throw the ball, I shouldn’t be rushing up the field; I should stay on the ball and make sure he couldn’t escape out of the pocket. It’s self-inflicted wounds.”
“Obviously, it was not a very good night at all,” Vander Esch echoed. “I just think we’ve got to stick together. We’ve got to lean on each other and trust each other and have confidence going into the game that we’re going to go out there and everybody’s going to do their job. Including myself.
“I just don’t think we were there in a lot of areas tonight.”
But on that game-changing fourth-down play, it was Vander Esch who wasn’t there, in the gaping hole it was his job to plug.
“Obviously, that one hurts,” the team’s 2018 first-round pick said of the moment. “And there’s a few other ones that you wish you could get back during the game, too. I think just being humble and being accountable about it is, first and foremost, what you need to do. And that’s exactly what I’m going to be to my teammates and coaches. That was just 100% on me. And I need to be better, trust my instincts, and do my job on that play and throughout the whole game. I want those guys to be able to rely on me. That was out of character of me.”
Humble and accountable.
Jackson and the Ravens took care of the first part, humbling the entire Dallas defense over the course of the night. Now it will be up to the Cowboys players to step up and find some of that accountability as they embark on a short week of preparation for their next game in Cincinnati on Sunday.
“You have a bad week, you have a bad game, you just turn around as a team and focus on the next one, knowing that you’ve got another chance,” Vander Esch said Tuesday night. “That’s the beautiful thing about football; you’ve got another chance to go do it again the next week.”
But, perhaps mercifully, the 2020 Cowboys and their abysmal defense are quickly running out of next weeks.
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