7 instant reactions to Ravens' heart-stopping Week 3 win over Cowboys

The Baltimore Ravens escaped with a win. They defeated the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday, 34-31....how?

The Week 3 battle had all the ups and downs. They were horrible on their first two drives, and quickly fell into a two-score deficit. They then turned it up a notch, looked to be escaping with a win, and…like clockwork, fell back on their old habits and began to blow the game.

But thankfully, they managed to stop the bleeding this time. And Tyler Loop sent the Ravens home happy with a win.

Here are seven instant takeaways from Sunday’s win.

7 instant takeaways from Ravens’ Week 3 win

Fourth quarter ghost barely conquered...

You just can’t breathe easy when the Ravens take a lead into the fourth quarter. No matter how many stops the defense strings together, no matter how in-sync the offense looks, you’re going to be pulling your hair out once the fourth quarter rolls around if you’re a Baltimore fan.

And it happened again. The Cowboys scored 14 unanswered to take a four-point lead, and it all went down in agonizing fashion. Being turned away at the Dallas 1-yard line, getting burned deep, coverage breakdowns, missed tackles, offensive hiccups. This game literally had it all.

Luckily, Tyler Loop saved the day.

Tyler Loop saves the day

How about Tyler Loop, man?!?! Going from a player who was being challenged for his job after a shaky preseason, to the unquestioned leg to take the Ravens into the future.

Statement. Made. 56 yards to win it!

Offensive line continues their putrid run

In all fairness, the offensive line wasn’t expected to look great on Sunday. They’d already strung together two abysmal performances in pass protection, and now they were down their starting left tackle. If you expected the unit to look good, it was probably just wishful thinking.

It was putrid, though, and early on, it looked like it was going to prevent the Ravens from even having a shot at winning this one. Thankfully, they got it together at least in some capacity to allow Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry to lead the team to pay dirt.

Still, it wasn’t a good outing whatsoever. The interior got flat-out embarrassed on several occasions by Quinnen Williams, Vega Ioane had a Daniel Faalele moment where he completely whiffed, and Vinson had Lamar Jackson uncomfortable and doing double-takes on multiple dropbacks.

The only real good news was that Roger Rosengarten held his own on the right side. And I guess you have to take those wins when your offensive line is so bad.

Ravens can’t stop Dallas’ explosive offense

The Cowboys offense is known for finding explosive plays through the air—that trio of Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, and George Pickens is as dangerous as it gets. The Ravens made a tremendous effort to limit those in the first half, but it did open up an explosive rushing attack.

Javonte Williams was impossible to stop on a down-to-down basis. He torched Baltimore’s defense for 98 yards and 1 touchdown on 19 attempts. The 26-year-old was a problem and really came to play after a rough first two weeks of 2026.

Unfortunately, then the fourth quarter happened. This is Ravens football; you’re not escaping that fourth-quarter ghost.

As soon as Baltimore turned it over on downs from the goal line, Prescott and company took off. Lamb got loose and beat Marlon Humphrey badly for 49 yards, Brevyn Spann-Ford eluded what felt like every tackler on the field for 19, and Pickens added a 16-yard gain. Just poor.

Everything we saw go wrong last week was back again versus Dallas. The open-field tackling, the ability to collapse on rushing lanes, and the soft coverage continue to be a thorn in this defense’s side.

Outside runs unlock Ravens’ rushing attack

Punch counter punch. If the Cowboys were going to go crazy on the ground, the Ravens were going to showcase their own dynamic rushing attack.

For all four quarters, interior runs were a stoppable force. Derrick Henry got stonewalled on a 4th-and-1 in the first quarter, was brought down for a loss on that aforementioned 4th-and-goal, and was stopped a drive later on a 3rd-and-1.

To open things up, the answer was pushing Dallas to the limit along the outside and stretching the defense out. Henry and Justice Hill got loose for several chunk gains.

Henry finished with 26 carries for 89 yards and 2 touchdowns, and Hill added 33 yards on 5 carries of his own. The duo snaked their way to the outside, punishing the Cowboys time and time again. Jackson also scrambled past Dallas defenders for 50 yards.

Kyle Hamilton is Superman

What can’t Kyle Hamilton do? I’m beating a dead horse here, but seriously, this guy is just amazing to watch. He can rush the passer as well as any defensive back, finds ways to slither into the backfield and make plays against the run, and has an absolutely insane wingspan to make throwing lanes hard to come by.

He introduced himself to the Brazil crowd in fantastic fashion, ending the evening with 8 tackles, 1 tackle for loss, and 2 pass breakups. That included an impressive leaping deflection when Prescott tried to dump one off to Williams.

If you’re running the play near Hamilton, there’s a good chance that play’s going nowhere. At this point, it feels like the only thing he can't do is go through a consistent stretch where he isn’t leaving the game for a short period with a stinger. And if he keeps playing the way he’s playing, fans won’t care.

Ravens offense pushes for The Big One

You could tell Lamar Jackson and company were eager for the big plays in this one. In the run game, they got their playmakers out in the open field—Jackson, Henry, Hill, and Flowers all took runs around the edge for big gains. In the passing game, Jackson was itching to find someone for that one, big deep shot.

Specifically, it was Devontez Walker that offensive coordinator Declan Doyle was trying to get more involved. Jackson only targeted him twice, but both were on rocket-launcher-style passing plays. Both fell incomplete, but on that first instance, the Ravens drew a 49-yard penalty that set up a Henry three-yard rushing touchdown.

And you want the big one? How about 27 yards to Flowers to set up the game-winning field goal.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow