At the end of the first half, with the Ravens owning a 15-point lead in Dallas, Lamar Jackson pulled together his teammates and implored them to finish.
The Ravens went down this road last week against the Las Vegas Raiders, when they lost a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter. They've been down this road too often, and they were veering that direction again Sunday evening.
Then Jackson steered them out of it.
Facing a critical third-and-6 with two minutes, 36 seconds remaining, Jackson ripped a pinpoint pass from the opposite hash to Zay Flowers on an out route to pick up nine yards and move the chains.
Two plays later, Jackson and Flowers sold a run-pass option jet sweep and Jackson kept it himself. The Cowboys defense bit hard and Jackson darted through a lane up the middle for a 10-yard gain. Ballgame.
"Lamar was phenomenal throughout the game and then took over the last drive," Head Coach John Harbaugh said. "To finish out that way was really important."
After leading by 22 points in the fourth quarter, a series of mistakes (missed field goal, missed onside kick recovery), penalties, and gashes from the Cowboys' passing attack whittled the lead to just three points.
But Baltimore held on for a must-have 28-25 win in large part because of those two plays to finish it off. After the game, Harbaugh's first two game balls went to Jackson and Flowers.
"Sometimes a play's got to be made in a situation when everything is on the line," Harbaugh said in the postgame locker room.
Finishing was a theme this week for the Ravens. They didn't deliver the knockout blow they wanted, but they technically got it done. Baltimore's other focus was locking in, eliminating the mistakes. They didn't quite check that off either with 13 penalties for 105 yards.
The Ravens had extra meetings this week. Derrick Henry spent extra time after practice going over the run plays with the offensive line. Multiple players said they had some of their best practices of the summer because they "locked in" more – less joking around.
They all knew the stakes sitting at 0-2 with a daunting schedule still ahead. They had to beat the Cowboys.
"To be honest, every game is a big game for us, because we're trying to get somewhere," Jackson said. "We've got to win these games to get to the playoffs, man, and win these playoff games to get to the Super Bowl. But it starts with the game that's in front of us."
The postgame locker room was a mixture of emotions. They won, and that's a whole lot better than leaving Dallas with a loss. But they knew it shouldn't have come down to a couple plays at the end when Jackson came through.
After Henry's 26-yard touchdown to start the third quarter, the Ravens offense had three more drives. Justin Tucker missed a 46-yard field goal, Flowers whiffed on an onside kick, and they had a three-and-out. Then Jackson finished it.
"There's no one I would rather be led by than Lamar. When 8 decides he wants to do something, we're all behind him," left tackle Ronnie Stanley said.
"He's just reinforcing that our fate is in our hands, especially in games like this when we can make the gap even bigger. He wants us to want it just as much as him. He wanted everyone to make sure he knew this game wasn't over."
