Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott didn’t need to raise his voice to make his frustration with his own team’s play-calling clear. A simple, deadpan exchange with reporters after a gut-wrenching loss to the Baltimore Ravens did the job. The Athletic’s Jon Machota captured the moment on social media, pressing Prescott on why Dallas repeatedly abandoned the run near the goal line in a game the Cowboys ultimately lost.

“You guys didn’t run the ball near the goal line on the first drive. And then the same thing on the final drive. How can we fix this?”

Prescott’s answer left little room for interpretation, saying, “Run the ball when we get down there.” When the reporter pushed further, asking directly whether Prescott agreed with the game plan, his response carried the same quiet edge.

“Yeah, I do. We need to run the ball. Yeah. Good question,” Machota posted on X.

The exchange traces back to a painful sequence for the Cowboys in Rio de Janeiro. Dallas got a controversial pass interference call with 23 seconds left, moving the ball to the Ravens’ 2-yard line and giving the Cowboys a chance to take the lead. Instead, Prescott’s first-down throw to receiver George Pickens fell incomplete.

A false start by tight end Luke Schoonmaker then pushed Dallas back to the 7-yard line. Prescott scrambled for two yards on the next play, setting up third-and-goal from the 5. On third down, Pickens appeared open in the end zone, but Prescott threw the ball away. Dallas settled for Brandon Aubrey’s 23-yard field goal with seven seconds left.

Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer took responsibility for the decision, saying after the game that he had pushed Prescott to throw the ball away instead of letting him go through his reads.

“It had to go to [George Pickens] or throw it away,” Schottenheimer said. “He was throwing it away. That’s on me; I overcoached him. “Feel bad for the guys. We played hard, we fought back, long trip, had our chances to win, and unfortunately we didn’t get it done.”

The night didn’t end there. Dallas’ ensuing kickoff went for a touchback, giving Baltimore the ball at its own 35-yard line with seven seconds remaining. Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson then connected with wide receiver Zay Flowers for a 27-yard gain before calling a timeout with one second left, setting up placekicker Tyler Loop for a 56-yard field goal that split the uprights as time expired, sealing a 34-31 Baltimore win.

Prescott didn’t hide his emotions when he addressed the collapse with reporters immediately afterward.

“Frustrated. Frustrated as hell. Excuse me. Embarrassed. We call ourselves best offense, you know, GOTI, and we get down in the one-yard line and don’t put it in. Yeah, it just sucks. Not a lot of words or full explanation of it. Defense shouldn’t even have been in that position. You know, those guys are over there, you know, saying it’s on us. Absolutely not. We’ve got to put the game away, period.”

Individually, Prescott’s night wasn’t the problem. He completed 25 of 40 passes for 276 yards and a touchdown without turning the ball over, and entered the week ranked third among NFL quarterbacks in Pro Football Network’s QB Impact Metric.

The loss dropped Dallas to 1-2, and the Cowboys are now turning their attention to a Week 4 matchup against the winless Houston Texans. Prescott’s brief, pointed exchange with reporters has only added fuel to a growing debate among Cowboys fans and media about how much offensive authority Schottenheimer is willing to hand back to his quarterback in exactly these situations, especially after publicly admitting he took too much control away from Prescott in the biggest moment of the game.