Cowboys defeat Falcons

By Elwyn Henderson

The 0-2 Dallas Cowboys took on the 0-2 Atlanta Falcons at AT&T Stadium in Irving Friday night in the third and final preseason game of 2025. NFL teams will be off next weekend before opening the season the following week. The game went back and forth and when the 4th quarter clock wound down to zeros the Cowboys won the contest by the score of 31-13.

Dallas won the coin toss and elected to defer to the second half and they kicked off to start the game. Brandon Aubrey’s kick landed at the 5 and was returned to the Atlanta 26 where backup quarterback Easton Stick brought the Falcons offense to the field for their first possession of the night.

The visitors moved the ball down to the Dallas 34 where Younghoe Koo missed a 51-yard field goal wide to the right with 11:23 left in the first quarter, turning the ball over to the Dallas offense at their 41 for their first possession of the night.

As was the case a week earlier, Joe Milton started the game at quarterback for the Cowboys. Milton led the team the 59 yards into the end zone to pay dirt, capping the drive off himself with a 1-yard TD run around right end with 7:42 left in the quarter. Aubrey hit the PAT and Dallas took a 7-0 lead. The drive consisted of 9 plays and took 3:41.

Aubrey’s ensuing kickoff landed in the landing zone at the 7 and was returned up to the 33 where the Falcons began their second drive. The defense forced a quick three-and-out and on 4th and 6 Bradley Pinion booted the ball away to the Dallas 13 and Jalen Cropper returned the ball up to the 25 where Milton and company set up shop once again.

Milton led the offense on another successful TD march and this time former University of Texas running back Jadon Blue ran into the end zone from 1 yard out with 1:19 remaining in the opening frame. Aubrey nailed the extra point and Dallas led 14-0. The drive was 8 plays, 75 yards and took 4 minutes of clock time.

Aubrey’s next kick was returned up to the Falcon 26 and Stick led his unit back on the field again. The Falcons were moving the ball when Troy Pride intercepted a Stick pass at the Dallas 4 giving the ball back to the Cowboys, but after review Dallas had 12 men on the field which negated the pick and on top of that they were called for a personal foul in the end zone, allowing Atlanta to keep the ball and get a first down at the Dallas 32.

The drive ended with a 39-yard Koo field goal with 10:45 left in the first half, bringing the score to 14-3. The drive was 10 plays, 55 yards and took 5:34 of clock time.

Koo’s kickoff after the field goal resulted in a touchback at the 20 yards line and Milton remained at quarterback. It was a quick three-and-out possession and Bryan Anger came in for the first time to punt the ball away. The kick traveled 51 yards to the Atlanta 20 where it was fair caught and the Falcon offense went back to work again with 9:14 left in the half. The defense forced a three-and-out and after a punt Dallas went back to work at their 15 with 5:30 left in the

The Cowboys were unable to get a drive going and after an Anger punt and a 15-yard personal foul on Dallas the Falcons were back in business at the Dallas 38.

The visitors moved the 38 yards in 6 plays and found then end zone when Stick hit Felipe Franks from the 23 with 48 seconds left in the half. Koo was good on the extra point try and Atlanta cut the Dallas lead to 14-10.

The home team got one more possession at their 20 after Koo’s kickoff. They moved down to the Atlanta 46 with 2 seconds left in the half and Aubrey blasted a 64-yard field goal as the half ended, extending the Cowboys lead to 17-10 at the break. The drive was 7 plays, 34 yards and took 48 seconds.

The Cowboys began the second half in grand fashion as they began their first drive at their 35 after the kickoff by Koo. Milton led the team on a 6-play, 65-yard drive that took just 2:36 off the clock before he hit Jalen Brooks from 24 yards out with 12:24 left in the third quarter. Aubrey added the extra point and the Cowboys advance the lead to 24-10.

There was no additional scoring in the third quarter but the Falcons began the final stanza on the Cowboys 10 with a first down to begin the final frame. The Dallas defense forced a 28-yard Koo field goal with 14:10 left in the game to narrow the gap to 24-13. The drive was 16 plays, 70 yards and took 8:04.

There was no more scoring until Grier led Dallas on a 6-play, 43-yard TD drive with 7:53 left in the game. The score came on a 1-yard TD run from Phil Makah. Aubrey added the PAT and Dallas increased the lead to 31-13.

On the ensuing Atlanta possession former Cowboys backup and UFL player Ben DiNucci was intercepted by Robert Rochelle at the Dallas 21 and he returned the ball up to the 30 and the Cowboys were back on the offensive once again but the offense couldn’t muster a first down and Anger punted the ball back to the Falcons. They began their next possession at their 26 with 4:30 remaining in the game.

DiNucci led the team down the field and the drive concluded when Dallas had a fantastic goal line stand, stopping the Falcons at the Dallas 1 with 32 seconds left in the game. Grier took a knee on what was the final play of the game and the Cowboys got their first win of preseason action.

When he addressed the media after the win, Shotty was asked about the team’s performance in the game.

“I was pleased with the way we played. We played physical I thought throughout most of the night. I thought that goal line stand at the end was awesome. I’m so excited for those guys. Some guys jumped out on that drive. Justin Barron was awesome. Elijah Clark did some good things. Again, you guys know, I’ve said it all along. Nothing changes — this is about evaluation. I thought we started really fast. I thought that it was great to see. But again, the biggest thing for us is we had some guys show how much they want to be here and they fought for it. The film will tell us a little more tomorrow. But (it was) very competitive, very physical. We certainly have things to clean up, like in any game, the penalties and things like that. But overall, I’m pleased with the performance and the fact these guys got a victory.”

The Mirror asked the coach if the performances of some of the players on the bubble was going to make it hard for him and the coaching staff to make the final cut downs to the 53 man roster on Tuesday.

“I think it’s going to be tough. I really do. I think it’s going to be tough. Why? Because I think we’re a talented roster, and we’ve got some really, I would say, very competitive position battles, and there’s numbers. When you’re looking at a 53-man roster, you’re like, man, okay, where are you going to fit these guys? And there were some guys that I thought stepped up tonight that made a great statement saying what they wanted to do. Alijah Clark’s a guy that’s missed some time and he stepped up and did some great things tonight. So, it’s supposed to be hard, and it’s supposed to require very long conversations and hard conversations and back and forth. And this is why you don’t hire yes men on your staff. You know you want people that’ll be like, “Hey, I don’t see it that way”. Okay, well, why? And those are the same type of conversations that we have with Will and Stephen and Jerry and then we make a decision that’s in the best interest of the Cowboys.”

As always, there are a lot of questions to be answered as to whether or not the 2025 team will have success on the gridiron but as always there will be plenty of hype and drama and the team will be exciting to watch as the season progresses. Dallas opens the season on the road in Philadelphia on Thursday night, September 4th on Monday Night Football on ESPN.