Cowboys defeat Commanders

By Elwyn Henderson

The 0-1 Dallas Cowboys, coming off a dismal defensive performance against the New York Giants last Sunday night at MetLife Stadium, opened their 2026 home season Sunday afternoon at AT&T Stadium with another NFC East Divisional contest against the 0-1 Washington Commanders. Washington lost last Sunday to the now 2-0 Philadelphia Eagles.

When the dust settled and the clock ran out Dallas evened their record at 1-1 with a convincing 37-20 victory in front of 92,388 fans.

Washington won the pregame coin toss and elected to defer to the second half. KaVontae Turpin took Drew Stevens kickoff to begin the game at the 3 and returned the ball up to the 34 where Dak Prescott brought the Dallas offense on the field for their first possession of the game.

Wanting to prove they were better than last week’s game showed, Prescott led his unit down the field on a 4:59 second drive, covering the 66 yards in 10 plays. The drive ended when Prescott hit Cee Dee Lamb on a 3-yard TD pass with 10:01 left in the first quarter. Brandon Aubrey added the PAT and Dallas took a quick 7-0 lead.

Aubrey’s kickoff after the score was returned up to the 19 and Jayden Daniels led the Commanders offense on the field for their first possession at that point.

The Cowboys defense forced a three-and-out and after a Tress Way pun Prescott and the offense returned to the field with a first down at their 36.

 The drive stalled at the Commanders 6 and Aubrey came in and tacked on a 25-field goal with 5:01 left in the quarter to put the good guys up 10-0. The drive was 8 plays, 58 yards and took 3:04.

The Commanders drove down to the Dallas 9 and on 4th and 5 Drew Stevens came in for a 27-yard field goal try. The kick was good, and Washington trailed 10-3 with 13:18 left in the half. The drive was 13 plays, 73 yards and took 6:43 off the second quarter clock.

After the kickoff the Cowboys put together a 7-play 65-yard drive that consumed 3:19. The drive culminated with a 10-yard Prescott pass to tight end Jake Ferguson TD pass with 9:55 left in the half. Aubrey added the extra point and Dallas extended the lead to 17-3.

The Commanders found the end zone for the first time on their next possession when Daniels hit Stefon Diggs on a 4-yard TD pass with 6:37 left in the first half of play. Stevens added the point after and the Cowboys lead was down to 17-10. The drive was 8 plays, 66 yards and took 3:18.

Dallas failed to get a drive going on their next possession and when the Commanders got their final possession of the half they were in a position to tie the game down at the Dallas 3 with 3 seconds left on the clock. Daniels was apparently going to drop back to pass into the end zone but got stepped on by one of his offensive lineman at the snap and he fell backwards and tried to brace his fall with his arm and suffered what sadly appeared to be a severe arm injury. He was on the field as time expired for about five minutes until a cart was brought out to take him into the locker room for x-rays. Thus the half ended with Dallas on top 17-10 and Washington set to receive the second half kickoff.

The Commanders received the second half kickoff and Marcus Mariota came in to relieve Daniels after he was ruled out of the game due to the left arm injury. He moved the team down the field but the Cowboys defense came to live and forced a 47-yard field goal from Stevens with 12:50 left in the third stanza. The kick brought the visitors to within 4, as they trailed 17-13. The 6-play, 31-yard drive took just 2:10.

Dallas came back with a nice drive that ended with a 44-yard Aubrey field goal with 7:20 left in the third quarter. The drive was 9 plays, 38 yards and took 5:30 and the score advanced to 20-13.

On the next Commanders possession a hard hit after a pass reception by Jaishaun Barham was recovered by Dee Winters and Dallas took over at the Washington 13.

Prescott hit Ferguson on a 12-yard TD pass with 6:32 left in the half, ending the short 2-play drive. Aubrey was true on the extra point and Dallas advanced their lead to 27-13.

The Cowboys defense came up big on the next Washington possession, forcing a 51-yard field goal try by Stevens. The kick was wide right and Dallas got the ball back at their 41 with 1:53 left in the quarter.

The offense managed one first down and then Aubrey came in and kicked a 60-yard field goal with 13:22 left in the game to put the ‘Boys up 30-13. The drive was 7 plays, 17 yards and took 3:31.

Mariota brought the visitors down the field on their ensuing possession. They traveled 73 yards in 4:19 over 10 plays and the drive culminated with a 20-yard TD pass to Diggs with 9:03 left in the game. Stevens nailed the PAT and Washington was back within 10, trailing 30-20.

Dallas came right back and moved 83 yards in 11 plays and 5:56 and put the nail in the Commanders coffin with a 24-yard TD pass to Lamb. Aubrey hit the conversion and the Cowboys led 37-20 with just over three minutes left in the game.

There was no further scoring and Dallas evened their record at 1-1 with the win.

The big conversation in both Coach Brian Schottenheimer and Dak Prescott’s pressers after the game centered on the fact that Prescott threw 4 TD passes in the contest and the last one gave him the record for the MOST TD passes thrown by a Cowboys quarterback in franchise history.

Schottenheimer said, when asked about the accomplishment, “I mean, the man, you can’t talk about Dak, the player, without starting with the man. The man is unique. He’s just special. That’s why I was emotional watching the guys celebrate him in the locker room. I hope the cameras caught it because you can see the love and admiration that he has from all of his teammates. The way he plays this game, the way he leads us is special. He’s a unique, special, special man and blessed to be able to coach him.”

  When Prescott was asked his thoughts, he said, “I’m blessed, honored. As I’ve told you earlier in the week, records are meant to be broken. It’s my time to break this one. Pretty cool to do it against the team that I threw my first touchdown against, 10 years ago or so. So definitely humbling, something I don’t take for granted. The great history of this organization, of the past quarterbacks before me, obviously wearing to me the greatest one. And so super, super honored, super thankful. God’s great. I’m not taking it lightly, but as I told y’all, it’s just the beginning. I want to double it. I plan to play for a while so I’m just getting started.”

The Cowboys will head to Rio de Janiero this Thursday to take on the Baltimore Ravens next Sunday. The Mirror asked Schottenheimer how big a challenge it will be for the team to have a normal game week considering the long flight and disruption of usual workouts.

“The players will be off tomorrow. It’s going to be unusual. Tuesday is Wednesday and then we’ll finish the game plan. So, we’re going to treat it like a short week and then we’ll fly Thursday night through the night, get down there and move around a little bit Friday. But we’re used to weird schedules and short weeks. We got beat up a little bit tonight. P.J. Locke’s got a foot. Cobie Durant’s got a hamstring. We’ve got to get some more tests there. Barham had a stinger. He came back, but we did get beat up a little bit, so we’ll figure that stuff out in the morning. But yeah, it’s a unique week, but one that we’re looking forward to. We’ll take any test people want to throw at us.”

After the trip to Brazil next Sunday, Dallas will go 4 hours south on I-45 to Reliant Stadium in Houston to take on the Texans and then just four days later on October 8th they will host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at AT&T Stadium. They are hoping they can run the table on the next two games and then return home sitting at 3-1 on the season when the Bucs come to town. That won’t be an easy thing to accomplish but Cowboys fans are hoping they can find a way to do just that.