The Cowboys had the ball, the game was tied, and the finish seemed to be theirs to manage. Instead, one kickoff decision turned the last seven seconds into Baltimore’s chance — and Tyler Loop turned that chance into a 34-31 Ravens win with a 56-yard field goal as time expired.
That sequence is what made the ending in Rio so jarring for Dallas. The Cowboys chose to kick a touchback, and Baltimore started at its own 35-yard line with seven seconds left. From there, Lamar Jackson hit Zay Flowers for a 27-yard gain, and the Ravens were suddenly close enough for Loop to try the kick that won it.
Loop drilled it.
The kick was not just a game-winner. It was a 56-yarder, a buzzer-beater, and for Loop, another step in a redemption arc that Baltimore had already been talking about. He had missed a crucial field goal last season that would have sent the Ravens to the playoffs, and the organization had backed him from the beginning after that miss. When Jackson reached him after the kick, he told him, “Your legacy is starting now.”
The Cowboys, meanwhile, were left to sort through the final minutes that slipped away. Dak Prescott said Dallas had its chance and did not finish it.
“That was the last chance that we had the ball in our hands, it was a chance to win the game,” Prescott said.
He was even more direct about the closing sequence: “We’ve got to put the game away, period.”
Prescott also acknowledged the Ravens’ execution on the final play, saying, “And they executed their play, they made the field goal and they won.”
The frustration was not limited to the final kick. Dallas had already been dealing with shaky time management in the last 30 seconds, and a timeout with 14 seconds remaining interrupted the flow of the finish. The Cowboys also had a chance to win the game earlier and did not capitalize on it.
Prescott finished 25 of 40 for 276 yards and one touchdown, but the numbers did little to soften the loss. Dallas fell to 1-2, and the trip home came with a short week and another road game ahead against the Houston Texans.
Baltimore’s finish had its own layers. The Ravens had already made a big special-teams play before Loop’s kick, and Jackson had kept the offense patient on the final drive. With under two minutes left, he found rookie tight end Matt Hibner for a go-ahead touchdown from the 2-yard line, only for Dallas to answer and set up the final sequence.
That left the game in the exact kind of late, high-pressure spot where one mistake or one clean execution can decide everything. Dallas’ touchback gave Baltimore the opening. Loop’s kick made it final.