5 momentous plays in Week 3: Cowboys' clock failures, critical Carolina penalty, and more

The momentous plays from Week 2 centered around a few major quarterback injuries. In Week 3, the theme was poor game management and missed opportunities.

There were several wild games on Sunday, and plenty of momentum changes in each of the close contests. A few stood out above the rest.

Here are the most quietly momentous plays from Sunday's afternoon games:

1. The Cowboys blew the final 20 seconds … in multiple ways

Brazil was treated to a wild one, as the Ravens and Cowboys scored three times in the final 90 seconds – with Tyler Loop's 56-yard field goal the game winner .

But the Cowboys badly mishandled the end of the game, with a chance to win. At worst, overtime felt assured. Alas, it was not.

After Nate Wiggins ' pass interference call, the Cowboys were in business at the Baltimore 2-yard line with 23 seconds left, trailing 31-28. Dak Prescott 's first-down pass was incomplete. Then came the first big mistake.

Cowboys tight end Luke Schoonmaker was flagged for a false start, and it completely changed the options Dallas had. It not only moved them back five yards, but it also slimmed down the playbook. With a timeout in their pocket, they could have tried to run the ball on second (or third) down if they wanted to.

But moving it back to the 7-yard line took away the handoff threat. Prescott scrambled on third down — out of necessity — which set up the next mistake. Dallas called a timeout with 14 seconds left, probably leaving too much clock left. They probably could have run it down under 10 seconds, as there is no threat of a 10-second runoff with the clock stopped. Brandon Aubrey 's game-tying field goal could have left the clock far closer to zero.

That led to the third mistake: on the ensuing kickoff Aubrey kicked the ball into the end zone. If the ball is kicked inbounds, the clock runs immediately; those can't be fair caught any longer under the revamped kickoff rules.

It ended with Lamar Jackson hitting Zay Flowers on a 27-yard catch that took only six seconds off the clock, followed by Loop's boomer.

Hard not to think that Brian Schottenheimer could have helped his team's chances with better game-management execution. Twenty seconds doesn't seem like a lot, and we're talking about Dallas arguably leaving a handful of additional ticks on the clock here, but it was just enough for Jackson and the Ravens to pull off a miracle win.

That's the lesson here, one that Michigan fans can affirm quite well: Every second matters.

2. Panthers missing chances in shocking Browns loss

The Panthers outgained the Browns, 391 yards to 276, but they kept kicking field goals and leaving points on the field. They also were on the wrong end of too many big plays in the game.

Midway through the second quarter, Bryce Young was sacked on 4th and 3 in Cleveland territory — the first of three turnovers on downs — which led to a Browns field goal for the first points of the game.

But the real killer came with less than three minutes remaining, with Carolina protecting an 18-13 lead late. The Panthers' Akayleb Evans appeared to intercept Deshaun Watson in the end zone, but Bobby Okereke was flagged for a killer roughing-the-passer penalty.

You decide if this was worth a flag or not:

Watson was hurt on the play and left the game for one snap, but he returned to thread a TD pass to Harold Fannin Jr. for the game winner.

The successful two-point try made it a 21-18 game, and the Panthers couldn't cross midfield as Young was intercepted in the waning seconds. The Browns made more big plays, but the Panthers coughed up a game they could have won.

3. Lions use well-timed blitz to beat Jets

The Lions were perilously close to losing a game they led by 14 points with just over 12 minutes remaining.

The Jets faced a key 3rd-and-17 play in the fourth quarter, and Geno Smith 's pass was incomplete, but D.J. Reed 's defensive pass interference led to a Jets TD, making it a one-score game. After the Lions were stopped on 4th and 1 on the next series, trying to put the game away, the Jets miraculously tied the game on Garrett Wilson 's TD (which was reviewed) and the subsequent two-point play — with Breece Hall knocked out of the game.

Everything was tilting the Jets' way, but the Lions took back the lead, 31-24, on a four-play, quick-strike TD drive.

The Jets were in business to score themselves, using their final timeout with 51 seconds left when Wilson was injured. On second-and-10 at the Detroit 28-yard line, Lions safety Chuck Clark perfectly timed up his blitz and sacked Smith, forcing a fumble recovered by Detroit's Jack Campbell and effectively ending the game.

Jets head coach Aaron Glenn was a few plays away from beating Dan Campbell and the Lions, his former boss and former team, but the Jets couldn't convert when they needed it most late.

4. Darnold 's late pick 6 collapses Seahawks

The Seahawks overcame a 14-point, second-half deficit to tie the game early in the fourth quarter. Even with the Commanders retaking the lead on a field goal, the Seahawks had the ball in Sam Darnold's hands and had driven into Washington territory when disaster struck.

Darnold faced some pressure, never saw Washington's Kain Medrano lurking underneath and threw it right to him. Medrano, who'd never played a defensive snap in the NFL prior to Sunday, undercut the pass, picked it and ran it back 50 yards for a stunning touchdown. That gave Washington a 33-24 lead after the missed extra-point try.

Prior to the pick, it was 2nd-and-15 at the Washington 49-yard line with four minutes left. The Seahawks had all their timeouts, plus the two-minute warning, and trailed only 27-24. There were ample chances remaining for them. Instead, they trailed by two scores late.

The Seahawks actually had a chance to win — and the missed XP loomed large. They drove five plays and 68 yards for a touchdown on a drive that only took 66 seconds. That made it a 33-31 game.

Washington faced a third-and-7 play at the Seattle 44-yard line, and stopping the Commanders there would have given the Seahawks the ball back with a little less than a minute remaining. Seattle was out of timeouts, but a field goal would have won it. Instead, Marcus Mariota kept the ball on a read-option play and gained enough for the first down, giving the Commanders a shocking victory.

Darnold threw for 379 yards and four TDs in his first game back since suffering an oblique injury Week 1, but he was forced into a heavy-pass game when the Seahawks' run game was held to 44 yards. Jadarian Price's lost fumble at his own 20 basically handed the Commanders a free TD early on.

5. Koonce's strip started the Raiders' stirring comeback

In the span of less than a minute, the Raiders turned a three-point edge into an 11-point deficit. New Orleans took a 27-16 lead in a 54-second span of the third quarter with a TD drive, a fumble recovery on the ensuing kickoff, then another TD two plays later.

The Raiders scored to cut the Saints' lead to 27-22, but New Orleans looked poised to make it a two-score game again. At worst, a field goal would have put them up eight points early in the fourth quarter.

The Saints drove to the Las Vegas 29-yard line when Tyler Shough was strip-sacked by Malcolm Koonce , recovered by Maxx Crosby for the Raiders.

Six plays later, Kirk Cousins hit Cody White for a TD that made it a 28-27 Raiders lead. That was the start of the avalanche.

The wheels completely fell off for the Saints, who had been terrific in their first two fourth quarters of the season. That was not the case Sunday. Their four possessions in the fourth: fumble, interception, fumble, fumble.

Shough was guilty of the first three turnovers. Amazingly, even after the Raiders stretched it to a 35-27 lead, the Saints still had a chance to win in the final minutes. They were approaching midfield with just over a minute left when Nakobe Dean stripped Juwan Johnson and Eric Stokes recovered.

The Johnson fumble was big, and we can't overlook Shough's second and third turnovers, but the Koonce strip was the hinge for the Raiders' stirring comeback. What followed were 19 unanswered points. That rally might have come either way, but it shouldn't have started with the Saints only up five points.