For the third straight season, the Dallas Cowboys are 1-1 after two games, getting here with their third straight win against the Washington Commanders. Sunday was also the second straight home game against the Commanders where Washington’s starting quarterback Jayden Daniels was replaced by Marcus Mariota due to injury.
Daniels was injured on the final play of the first half, with the Commanders threatening on three straight goal-to-go plays to tie the game down 17-10. The double-whammy of not getting
any points out of this sequence and losing their starter for the rest of the game proved too much for the visitors to overcome, as the Cowboys won the second half 20-10.
Brandon Aubrey’s 60-yard field goal to make it a three-score cushion in the fourth quarter gave the Cowboys 30 points in a home game for the first time since last Thanksgiving, the highpoint of that 2025 season when they beat the Kansas City Chiefs for the second to last win of that season – the last win coming at the Commanders weeks later on Christmas.
Dallas wasn’t done being aggressive with the ball in their hands just yet though, as Prescott threw a fourth touchdown to surpass Tony Romo in the Dallas record books for the most passing touchdowns in franchise history. The record-breaking throw was a beauty to CeeDee Lamb for his second touchdown of the game.
This was Lamb’s first two touchdown game since Week 8 of 2024 at the San Francisco 49ers, and most receiving yards since the year prior in Week 17 against the Lions with 227.
The Cowboys have now put themselves in an uber-familiar position of facing a week three swing game against a quality opponent with a 1-1 record, and this time it will come in Brazil against the Baltimore Ravens. There will be so much to say about that as the week goes on, but let’s start with some notes on this win against Dan Quinn and the Commanders.
One thing that was noticeable on the Cowboys opening drive, which ended in a touchdown as opposed to last week’s controversial three-and-out, was more reduced splits out wide and somewhat tighter formations. This came after Dallas did not get much of anything going all night spreading it out against the Giants.
Following a miscommunication on a deep throw incomplete for George Pickens, Prescott hit Lamb for 15 yards, Lamb again down the middle for 23 yards off play-action (lined up on the opposite side of the formation this time), and then four plays later Lamb again off another play-action for a touchdown.
We’ll get to the Cowboys defense which had it’s highs and lows within this game, but this battle of division foes was decided by how well both teams dictated matchups on offense to get their best players against linebackers, safeties, or corners that could be tested. The Cowboys did some encouraging things here in a bounce back performance for Brian Schottenheimer dialing up the plays to grab the lead, play from ahead, and never look back.
Not only did Lamb have two touchdowns, but Jake Ferguson did as well as the Cowboys exploited a matchup we said coming in they had a chance to, throwing behind the Commanders’ linebackers. Ferguson’s first touchdown came out of an interesting look. Running back Emari Demercado motioned out wide to draw a cornerback in coverage, but remained at the line of scrimmage as a checkdown option. Luke Schoonmaker was in the slot, and Ferguson ran open down the seam for six.
The Cowboys’ multiple tight end sets may not look like many of the other ones used around the league a whole lot right now, but this was a creative way to use two tight ends and a different running back to throw a look at the Commanders.
In between the Lamb and Ferguson touchdowns, the Cowboys defense held the Commanders to a field goal after giving up a 3rd-and-18 off a miscommunication between Marquese Bell and DaRon Bland, plus a missed tackle by Dee Winters on a Daniels scramble. Following the Ferguson touchdown to go up 17-3 though, the defense could not respond to really keep the game firmly in the home team’s control.
This time it was Bland and rookie linebacker Jaishawn Barham, starting at the MIKE for DeMarvion Overshown and wearing the green dot, mixing up a coverage and ending up in the same spot, abandoning the middle of the field. Daniels again took advantage of the rush lane for a big gain on the ground, followed by Rachaad White making a chunk play on the ground when Quinnen Williams tried a pass rush move and completely lost his gap.
A Jalen Thompson personal foul tacked 15 yards onto this 14-yard run by White, and two plays later the Commanders were within 17-10 on Stefon Diggs’ touchdown. Dallas was in man for this red zone play, and Washington used motion to force Caleb Downs to come all the way across the field and try to undercut Diggs at the pylon, which he was unable to do to prevent the score.
The stretches of better defense were not as long as the AT&T Stadium crowd probably hoped for in this game, but there were small flashes of what the Cowboys defense under Christian Parker could be at it’s best. At times the zone drops had much better structure to them and eye discipline, plays were made in man coverage, and linebackers were able to read and react to get to the ball.
Speaking of linebackers doing just that, Barham and Winters combined for the biggest splash play of the game for the defense in the third quarter. The teams traded field goals in the second half to keep the Cowboys’ lead at just seven points, but then Barham forced a fumble coming downhill for a big hit on a throwback screen pass.
Winters came up with the recovery, the Cowboys had their best starting field position of the game set up at the Commanders’ 13, and in two plays Ferguson was behind the Washington zone again for a two score lead at 27-13.
Considering the fact Barham was drafted for both his ability to play middle linebacker and pass rush on the outside, it shouldn’t go without noting the Cowboys just won a game with this rookie third-round pick stepping into the full time middle linebacker role.
Barham was far from perfect, but the hustle that was absent in Week 1was there, and he was good enough for the Cowboys to win the pass catchers versus linebacker matchups that decide big play differential in a huge way, and in turn decide games as a result.
This was the turning point in the game for the Cowboys being able to turn up the pressure defensively, although they got just one sack on Marcus Mariota that was negated by a Bland penalty. Rashan Gary, Donovan Ezeuriaku, and even Kenny Clark from the interior were felt much more than last week in pass rush though, and made life hard for the Commanders backup QB.
Seeing more of these rushes get home for the sack is easily the next thing to look for in signs of progress from the defense. When it comes to playing with the lead on offense, the critique here would be more positive gains in the run game. The Cowboys did run it four straight times prior to Prescott’s record touchdown to Lamb to ice the game at 37-20, but the volume at which they had to continuously throw was concerning at the same time.
Prescott did have his highest completion percentage in a game since Week 18 of 2024 at 83.9%, doing so with nine yards per attempt which was also his most since beating the Eagles at home in last year’s 21-0 comeback game.
The Cowboys’ 37 points are second only to the Buffalo Bills on Thursday night in a week two that saw defenses make the adjustments to a historically high-scoring week one. The fact Dallas did so while still leaving the game feeling like they can clean up a whole lot offensively to be better is encouraging, with the same going for improvements on defense – which will likely need to come quickly against the Ravens.
