The Dallas Cowboys entered their Week 2 contest with a lot on the line. Though early in the season, the club could hardly afford to fall to the Washington Commanders. A loss would've sent them to 0-2 overall, 0-2 in the NFC East and include a home loss at AT&T Stadium. Fortunately, the football gods were on their side. Despite piling up a ton of injuries throughout the game, they avoided one as serious as what Washington endured.
Washington QB Jayden Daniels appeared to suffer a major injury to QB Jayden Daniels at the end of the first half. Driving to tie the game at 17, Daniels tripped and landed awkwardly as he braced himself. The play failed, Daniels was lost for the game, and Dallas pulled away during a record-setting second half by Dak
Prescott. With the 37-20 victory, the Cowboys improved to 1-1 on the year.
Prescott tossed four touchdowns, two each to Jake Ferguson and CeeDee Lamb, giving him 249 for his career. That sets the franchise's career mark, as he passed Tony Romo's 248. Prescott now owns both the yardage and TD totals for the Cowboys.
Lamb had a huge day, catching eight of nine targets for 153 receiving yards and two scores. Dallas needed it, as their rushing game was bottled up from the opening whistle. The running backs combined for just 39 yards on 16 carries.
Prescott had 26 yards on the ground to go with his 279 passing yards and 143.9 passer rating.
The defense, much maligned in their Week 1 loss to the New York Giants, didn't iron out all of their wrinkles, but did play a little better. The tackling was atrocious, as they let several sacks of backup QB Marcus Mariota slip through their fingers, and there were still some coverage breakdowns for Christian Parker's new-look defense. But the club did enough as they try and mold themselves into the type of team that can compete for important things late in the season.
Dallas will next travel to Brazil to take on the Baltimore Ravens in Week 3.
Just who will be available is up for question. The Cowboys lost secondary members PJ Locke (foot) and Cobie Durant (hamstring) in the contest, and tight end Jake Ferguson left the game after a medical call from the replay officials. LB Dee Winters left the game for a while, but did return. The injuries may have been more severe on the opposite sideline with Javon Kinlaw and Sam Cosmi appearing to suffer major injuries along with Daniels.
This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: Lambasted: Cowboys survive injuries, offense soars to 37-20 win over Commanders
