LANDOVER — The final absurdity, long after what had been a forgettable game climbed completely through the looking glass, will be Austin Seibert’s never-had-a-chance extra point. That was the point that would have allowed the Washington Commanders to somehow tie the Dallas Cowboys with 21 seconds remaining Sunday at Northwest Stadium.

Except, there’s this: “It doesn’t come down to one play,” said just about everybody in a devastated Commanders locker room. Attribute that line to Dan Quinn, the coach who must sort through what happened Sunday — and keep his fraying team together.

What matters in the standings and in the psyche of Commanders fans is that they lost a 34-26 decision to the hated Cowboys, a game that went from boring to bizarre in light speed. They have now lost three in a row. That’s important, and given how the Cowboys had been playing — five straight losses, the last two in blowouts that suggested they were in meltdown mode — Sunday’s result could linger, affecting Washington’s chances for the playoffs and its seeding if it gets there.

But there’s also another takeaway: What the actual heck was that?

Consider the following buffet of oddities, all of which were contained in the last 3 minutes, 2 seconds of Sunday’s frenzy: a 99-yard kickoff return for a Cowboys touchdown that seemed to put the game away (again); a 51-yard field goal from Seibert that made him look competent; a you’re-kidding-not-again moment for rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels, who found Terry McLaurin for what McLaurin turned into a sneaky, snaking, 86-yard touchdown with 21 seconds left that pulled the Commanders within 27-26; Seibert’s yanked extra point that turned delirium into deflation; and then a final, galling return of an onside kick by Dallas’s Juanyeh Thomas to provide the final margin.

That doesn’t include the field goal the Commanders blocked in the first quarter. Or the field goal the Cowboys drilled off the right upright. Or the snap over the Cowboys quarterback’s head. Or Seibert’s previous missed extra point.

You get the idea.

“I was thinking about that,” Commanders punter Tress Way said. “I forget which one of the crazy moments had happened, and I was just like, ‘What’s happening right now?’

“The crazy games probably feel a little bit — I know they feel a little bit better whenever you win them. But that’s just a …”

He was searching for words and emotions now. How to capture it?

“… tough pill to swallow,” Way concluded. “That sucked.”

Feels about right. There are infinite ways to process this. Not many make sense. Here’s one: When the Commanders took over the ball with 5:08 remaining, they trailed 20-9. They needed a field goal, a touchdown and a 2-point conversion to tie. They got a field goal and two touchdowns — and still lost.

This wasn’t the NFL, always exciting but normally orderly. This was chaos, the kind of football that plays out between quasi-obscure college teams long after the sun has set in the East.

“There’s been a lot of weird,” Quinn said.

For the Commanders, weird needs to be out, and a previous version of process and progress must reappear. They had a vibe. It has escaped them. This three-game skid hasn’t erased a 7-2 start, because a lot of good work and goodwill went into climbing to first place in the NFC East midway through the season, an unfamiliar environ for this franchise.

Still, there’s a new reality, and it stings. After difficult losses against stout opponents — home to Pittsburgh and at Philadelphia, teams that lead their respective divisions — Dallas was supposed to present an opportunity to get right. During the losing streak they dragged into Sunday, the Cowboys had allowed 34, 34, 27, 30 and 47 points.

Don’t let Washington’s final, gaudy totals — 412 yards, a passable 26 points — distract from what is actually happening. The offense, so explosive in the early part of the season, has lost its fuse. Sunday, it found a match too late. What’s going on?

“That’s a good question,” McLaurin said.

When the Commanders took over with 5:08 left, trailing by that 20-9 margin — with no idea how unhinged things were about to become — they had gained all of 198 yards against a defense that coughs up nearly 366 per game. Their previous four possessions had gone thus: three-and-out, three-and-out, three-and-out, fumble on the first play.

“We had opportunities to take control of the game, and we didn’t,” McLaurin said.

Which flips the season. Early in the year, when the Commanders hosted opponents in various forms of disarray, they buried them — 34-13 against Cleveland, 40-7 against Carolina. Throw in the Hail Mary magic Daniels provided to beat Chicago, and they had built a confidence that they controlled their own outcomes.

So the thinking going into the Pittsburgh game had to be, “What game on their schedule is a sure loss?” There weren’t any. After Sunday’s wacky calamity, the thinking turns to, “What game on their schedule is a sure win?” There aren’t any.

“It’s not just learning and being in these end-of-game, winning-time moments,” Quinn said. “It’s about winning them.”

That’s whether a kicker makes a kick or misses one. It’s tackling a returner who drops a kickoff, not letting him spin away and run the length of the field for a score. It’s not having to rely on final-minute heroics. It’s preventing the wacky and winning with straightforward, disciplined football — the way the Commanders got to 7-2 in the first place.

Because there’s a lesson in Sunday’s fiasco.

“You never know what could happen until the clock hits zero,” McLaurin said.

They have known that from the other side. Now they know it from the side that burns. The Commanders will never again play in a game like Sunday’s. But they will play in more games. How they handle what they just saw — which none of them have ever seen — will determine their path forward. The mission: Restore order, because Sunday, there was none.