It's difficult to pinpoint exactly when things started to go awry for the Washington Commanders.

It could have been several mistakes that started the Commanders on the path towards a frustrating 34-26 loss to the Cowboys -- their third consecutive defeat that dropped them to 7-5 -- but perhaps that's the point. There were simply too many errors in a game that was once again within Washington's grasp but ended up falling through.

"It's not enough to learn the lessons," coach Dan Quinn said, "but we have to apply them. I love the fight that we have...in close games, but we've got to learn to apply [the lessons]."

Sunday's game was the continuation of a rough patch for the Commanders, who started the season with an offense that was outperforming expectations and piling up points against their opponents. Daniels made few mistakes in critical moments, and the running game was churning through defenses at a rate that few other NFL teams could match.

That has not been the case for the better part of three weeks for the Commanders.

Although the offense seemed to find itself in the final six minutes, resulting in a wild stretch where Washington continuously flirted with either tying or taking the lead with a four-yard touchdown catch from Zach Ertz as well as an 86-yard score by Terry McLaurin, most of the afternoon was filled with more frustration than production.

Adding to that vexation was that the defense once again did its job and played well against a struggling Cowboys offense for about 50 minutes of game time. The Cowboys were 2-of-11 on third down and held to three points in the first half. Cooper Rush's stats -- 24-of-32 for 247 yards and touchdowns -- look good, but it didn't lead to much movement for the unit, which averaged just 5.4 yards per play.

But as the game progressed, and the Cowboys continued to hang around, their mistakes felt more difficult to recover from. Despite the Cowboys being down both starting guards, the Commanders' pass-rush only recorded one sack on Rush. CeeDee Lamb was kept relatively in check, but backups like tight end Luke Schoonmaker and rotational players like Jalen Tolbert made detrimental impacts.

And then there was the insanity at the end, which saw the Cowboys and Commanders combine for 31 points in five minutes. Through all that madness, the Commanders actually had chances to win -- several of them -- but as Quinn and Daniels alluded to in their press conferences, it was too late for those moments to save them.

"It's never about one play," Quinn said. "That execution falls on all of us."

Things started well enough for the Commanders. The defense held at their own 17-yard line on the Cowboys' opening drives, and Michael Davis returned a blocked field goal kick by Quan Martin to the Cowboys' 40-yard line. The offense turned that into a 41-yard field goal to go up 3-0.

But Washington also stalled after 17 yards on that drive, and failing to finish on drives starting close to and even in Cowboys territory became a habit. Over the next four possessions, Washington started at their own 32, Dallas' 47, their 42 and Dallas' 39 following a blocked punt by Phidarian Mathis. Washington produced three first downs, no points and one turnover in that stretch.

Dallas didn't do much in the first half; Brandon Aubrey missed his second field goal attempt, and Rico Dowdle had the ball ripped away from him by Johnny Newton on the first play of a possession. And yet what they did produce was enough to keep the Cowboys in the game. They got into field goal range off a 41-yard catch by Jalen Brooks with seven seconds left, and rather than try for the touchdown, elected to send Aubrey out for a 46-yard attempt that tied the score 3-3 at halftime.

Despite all the self-inflicted wounds in the first two quarters, which included an exchange where Noah Igbinoghene intercepted a pass from Rush and then gave it back up to the Dallas offense only for the play to be negated anyway because of an illegal contact penalty, Washington was still in position to win and looked primed to do so. They went 10 plays covering 60 yards to open the third quarter, and Daniels broke loose on a 17-yard touchdown thanks to a crushing block by Ben Sinnott.

However, Austin Seibert missed the extra point that would have made the score 10-3. It's a small moment, and hardly the one mistake that broke the Commanders, but like several other things for the team, it came back to haunt them.

The Cowboys immediately responded with a touchdown of their own and took the lead with a six-yard touchdown pass to Tolbert, which was the indirect result of Igbinoghene being called for pass interference on third-and-2. Then, after a stretch where both teams combined for 44 yards, Aubrey hit a 48-yard attempt that brought the score to 13-9.

Then disaster struck once again for the Commanders, as Bates' fumble on the first play of the ensuing drive was recovered by the Cowboys at Washington's 44-yard line. Five plays later, Schoonmaker broke through the secondary for a 22-yard score.

Washington's offense finally came alive in the final minutes, and even after all the problems it had shown, it was nearly enough to win. Daniels and Zach Ertz connected on a four-yard score, and Daniels scampered across the goal line for a two-point conversion to put the Commanders down by three. With the two-minute warning still left and two timeouts, Washington had a glimmer of hope.

It was smothered seconds later by KaVontae Turpin, who fumbled the kickoff before returning it 99 yards for a touchdown, only for it to be revived seconds later by McLaurin's 86-yard catch-and-run that put the Commanders within a point of tying the score.

The hope was dashed again, seconds later, when Seibert's kick was sent wide left. Juanyeh Thomas then added a 43-yard kickoff return touchdown to essentially end the game.

Washington's final chance -- a last-second Hail Mary -- died with an interception by Israel Mukuamu at the end of regulation.