The 2026 Dallas Cowboys were supposed to find themselves in better positions to compete in all phases compared to the 7-9-1 campaign of a year ago. Instead, after one game, they find themselves in eerily similar position ahead of a week two divisional game at home.
Last season began with a primetime road loss by one score to a NFC East rival, putting the Cowboys in a bit of a “prove it or lose it” spot back in their home stadium against another division opponent, the Giants, in week two. The Cowboys won
that game ugly in overtime, and it felt ominous for how this team would play against better competition.
If things were at least slightly optimistic following last year’s close week one loss to the reigning Super Bowl champions, this week has been a category five hurricane that has fans ready to jump ship if the Cowboys do anything less than beat the Commanders handily. Yes, a Commanders team that was just within a few plays of beating the Eagles on the road in their first outing.
Luckily, the Cowboys have used recent games against the Commanders in this way before, as Sunday will be the fifth time they go up against their former defensive coordinator Dan Quinn since he became the Commanders’ head coach in 2024.
Dallas is 3-1 in these games scoring at least 30 points in each win, and the one loss was Week 18 of 2024 when Trey Lance started for Dak Prescott. That game was also the Commanders’ first win in Arlington since Thanksgiving of 2020.
Last season, the Cowboys came into the home game against the Commanders off a deflating, one-score road loss to the Panthers. The defense was bad, wasn’t even put in position to succeed if they wanted to in critical moments of the game, and the offense made costly mistakes. Sound familiar?
The Cowboys responded with a 44-22 win against the Commanders, a season high for points. Dak Prescott had his second highest yards per attempt of the season, completed 70% of his passes, and threw two touchdowns to Jake Ferguson plus another to CeeDee Lamb. The approach on offense was balanced with 31 rushing attempts, 19 from Javonte Williams for 116 yards and a touchdown, and 30 pass attempts for Prescott.
The Cowboys got points on drives that started at their own 34 yard line to start the game, own 40, 46, 45, and 33 to win the battle of field position. As a season long trend the Cowboys were very poor in this area, and that was among the long list of concerns after last week’s Giants game for the current Cowboys too, but taking the ball away from the Commanders twice while also making two stops on fourth downs went a long way.
The Cowboys will know what they’re seeing in the Dan Quinn defense, one that remained aggressive but had it’s struggles in week one against the Eagles. After failing to establish Ferguson as a threat against the Giants defense, the Cowboys should be encouraged by Eagles tight end Dallas Goedert leading Philly in catches and yards with two touchdowns last Sunday. Both touchdowns came from distance too, one of 17 yards and the other 43.
In the Commanders secondary that will look to be the second straight to keep George Pickens and CeeDee Lamb in check, Nick Cross, Amik Robertson, and Mike Sainristill were all at the top of the Commanders box score for tackles against the Eagles. This is normally not a good sign of how well a defense won at the point of attack, and also points to something else that will be familiar for Cowboys fans and coaches alike for this matchup against Quinn, which is defensive backs on an island.
In an eight point loss in week one, the Cowboys lost an expected 8.3 points to three costly drops. All of the ingredients are in place for the Cowboys to get all of their skill players involved in the game plan this week, calm down the fan base by getting push in the run game, spreading it around through the air, and flipping the script the Giants used on them by having their own offense control a home game.
The other win for the Cowboys against the Commanders last year came on Christmas Day. This time around they were coming in off a season-worst three-game losing streak. A Week 14 Thursday night loss at the Lions felt like the official end to vague playoff hopes, but another primetime loss the following week at home to the Vikings followed by a no-show type performance and loss to the Chargers had the feeling around Christmas anything but jolly. Dallas had already played on Thanksgiving and beaten the Chiefs, but there was little reason to expect more holiday cheer in this game.
The Cowboys caught a break with the Commanders having an injury at quarterback, something that’s been a theme of this rivalry as of late, starting veteran journeyman Josh Johnson. Washington went 1-6 on third down and 1-3 scoring touchdowns in the red zone, seeing Dallas come in and win 30-23. KaVontae Turpin scored an 86-yard touchdown down the middle of the field in the second quarter to push the Cowboys lead to 21-3.
This upcoming game should be an opportunity for Christian Parker’s defense and the Cowboys to keep the ball in front of them, play downhill at linebacker, and win their matchups on the outside. Anything short of this with the Commanders offense picking up where the Giants left off in confusing and physically outperforming the Cowboys defense would be a serious letdown.
If there’s a very general, overall takeaway from week one in the books around the NFL, it’s that coaching is at an all-time importance in games being decided by a razor’s margin. We already said that this week has been toxic around the Cowboys fanbase, but it hasn’t quite reached outcries for the likes of Schottenheimer, Parker, or other coaches to lose their jobs. The same can’t be said for Quinn in Washington who has had the feel of outstaying his welcome for a little bit now within that fanbase, and this also needs to be an area the Cowboys win the Xs and Os battle this week to preserve the optimism of this season.
Speaking of, the last time the Cowboys started 0-2 was 2010, which was also the last time they made an in-season coaching change from Wade Phillips to Jason Garrett. Even that year’s Cowboys team beat Washington at home for win number five of six that season.
The Cowboys have not started a season 0-2 with both losses coming against division opponents since 2000, the second to last year of the Cardinals being in the East. Dallas lost at home to Philadelphia in week one and in Arizona week two. That Dave Campo led Cowboys team finished with even fewer wins than 2010 with five, and even they had two against Washington.
The Cowboys need this game in the worst way in their first appearance on America’s Game of the Week on FOX.
