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Morning After -Boys Finally get a December win, but does it even matter?
Like so many children, the Cowboys had to wait all December until Christmas Morning.
Bob Sturm
Dec 26, 2025
There is nothing a writer enjoys less than games that don’t matter. Every game has a reason for existing, we assume. There is so much on the line, we tell ourselves. This one matters so much!
But, if some games matter so much, then I suppose others must balance it out by barely meaning anything.
This Christmas clash in Maryland would have to qualify as one of the latter. Yes, we had the noon window on Christmas so it must be important on some level. Just imagine what Netflix was paying to offer us live football on Christmas! Imagine these two lifelong-rivals playing at noon on Christmas with the universe on the line!
There has to be a reason we will stop the family get-together to say the TV must be on because kickoff is here. There is a Cowboys game on and this game could have been so important if only they won a single game between Thanksgiving and Christmas. But, alas, instead, we got what we got.
And that was watching Dallas bully the game and what is left of the Washington Commanders around a rather indifferent stadium filled with indifferent fans for roughly three hours.
Dallas won this game, 30-23, and it wasn’t as close as the final score would indicate and but, it was also considerably closer than it should have been. Washington had a few big plays on offense – mostly due to poor tackling efforts again – and Dallas could not protect Dak Prescott again and therefore there was some level of intrigue for all 60 minutes on whether Dallas would win their seventh game of the season on this Christmas.
So, no, this game did not completely matter and our thoughts are mostly on things other than win. Instead, we are on to 2026 and what can be salvaged from this season and what we should be talking about coming out of these last two meaningless road games inside the division against other teams that just want to get this all over with, too.
And that will fuel most of My Morning After column. Bouncing around many elements of where we currently sit here on the morning of December 26 and what popped in my head as I carefully sat with my notebook and reviewed this win during the late hours of last evening.
A lot about the win makes plenty of sense as you have your QB and weapons and that puts you in a spot where most opponents are playing uphill. Dak Prescott with CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens should get 28-35 points every week and that has to be non-negotiable if you are building your cap structure that way.
Some weeks they don’t seem to remember how this was built and that is what is frustrating about the offensive attack and design by Schotty. They have known they need to take advantage of this and lean into it. They know they must use the play-action repeatedly and to go for it on fourth downs.
In short, they know they must hide their defense.
But, Dallas has a structure problem that makes me wonder how aligned everyone is with reality and this was best seen in the game-plan and coaching decisions from week to week. This has been a theme with me this season under Brian Schottenheimer because I can see that he thinks these things through, yet it doesn’t always add up.
The game in Washington was an ideal example of “how it should look” in many ways. The biggest was seen in how the Cowboys seemed to understand finally that the offense is where this team has put all of its resources. When I say that, I mean the biggest chunks of money and the best draft picks are presented to the offense way more than the defense. So, if you are giving 70 percent of your resources to one side of the ball, it is ok to ask them to do 70 percent of the heavy lifting in return. This is not a wild thought.
Then we watch the games each week and there are repeated moments where Schottenheimer has seemed ready to kick and trust his defense to come up with a big stops at big times. He acted like this should be a 50/50 team where the defense does as much as the offense. How would that make sense with the resource allocation decisions that have been made?
The Cowboys held the football for an enormous amount of time – 38 minutes, 44 seconds to be exact. In doing so, they made sure that the offense stayed on the field continuously. They made decisions to “go for it” on fourth down and not stop.
The best way to help this defense is to try to minimize the moments they are on the field at all. So, Dallas held the ball, moved the chains, and held the ball some more. This is the ground and pound game plan that seemed obvious in August when the Cowboys decided to make their bad defense even worse.
Getting those decisions right made beating a bad Washington team pretty easy. Aside from their fantastic linebacker tandem and the veteran wide receivers that will always be a problem, they just don’t have near enough right now on either side of the ball. I expected Washington to be taking a huge step backwards this year, but once again this shows us how important the QB1 situation is in every city.
That leads us back to the questions of structure and alignment from all involved with the Cowboys. If the objective is to be a ball-control offense, we have to ask three very important questions that seem off here in Dallas as we presently sit.
No. 1 — Can we think of a ball control offense that was ever able to win with a defense that has no teeth?
I have seen many ball control offenses win, but they are always paired with an attacking defense that generates big plays to find turnovers or those moments where you flip the field with one big hit. I don’t believe ball control and trying to win play differentials (Dallas had a +46 on Thursday which is the most I have ever seen in the NFL as they snapped 87 plays and Washington just 41) pairs at all with bend-but-don’t break defenses. Especially the ones that break all of the time and generate zero takeaways (yet again).
No. 2 - If this is the type of offense you believe in, can you build the roster smarter and more versatile?
If you wanted to be a physical team that acts like a boa constrictor in these games and slowly takes the life out of your opponents, I am here for it. I do love that type of football because it usually ends deep in the playoffs with so many of the Cowboys rivals who would play better when the weather turns because they are planning on bully-ball all the way in. But, for about the fourth week in a row, this Cowboys roster has no RBs who they trust once Javonte Williams leaves another game because he is clearly playing without shoulders. If you watch these games, they continuously take us to the exact same spot for about the last month and it is making me crazy.
When Williams is there, the offense functions well and handles its business both on the ground and in blitz pick-up. The moment Williams needs a rest or to leave the game, the Cowboys offense falls apart. They no longer feel great about their passing game and Dak starts getting hit more. I do want to make sure we recognize that Malik Davis is really running the ball hard and with fine results. He is a great story and grinds everything he has. But, this entire month of December, they have needed another RB who can help them in pass protection and scare the defense with the ball.
Instead, they have these small RBs who can not handle blitzes or Hunter Luepke who can handle blitzes but does not really provide the juice. Invariably in these 2nd halves, the offense looks much more like a juggling act because they are trying to give Davis just a light workload because they can’t lose him, too. They also aren’t planning on 44 running plays in a single game and with just Davis at the position, they are trying to ration out the work load.
That is a long way to say that I am not sure why the Cowboys have allowed this to happen week after week. Six sacks were allowed yesterday which is a season-high. Four of them were in the second half and some of it was just picking up LBs on blitzes. It isn’t the world’s biggest deal until one of those linebackers injury your QB because you got it wrong and the luck changed its mind.
They didn’t need to choose between Rico Dowdle and Javonte Williams. They needed them both. I am sure they would tell you that is what Miles Sanders was here for, but now we are seeing the template for what they seek. RBs who are in the 215-220 range are the type to help this offense protect and run inside. Those who are barely 195 or under (Malik Davis, Jaydon Blue, Deuce Vaughn) may have a role, but there are limits to the body-blows they can sustain in a given series against a 235 Linebacker hitting them on a dead sprint. I know you weren’t expecting a rant on RB2 on this roster, but they are trying to ignore this problem and hope it will go away. I guess with only one game left, they aren’t changing courses now.
No. 3 — how do you only arrive at the high-volume on fourth down approach on Christmas?
We have talked about those games against the Broncos, Lions, Vikings and Chargers where Dallas started playing with more caution. Carefully taking field goals and smart punts and not playing with reckless abandon is an issue. I realize that there is a limit to how much you gamble, but if this offense stops scoring touchdowns, then the design and structure has been misaligned.
Now, the solution for some when it comes to pass protection and the injury prevention to your QB1 is to simply not play Dak Prescott at all in games like these. Every time he is sacked again, fans want to ask whether any of this is worth it at all.
I must tell you that I am not your Huckleberry on this topic, because I would not think of sitting my starting QB on Christmas against a rival unless he was resting for next week’s playoff start. You are reading the game reviews of someone who loathes load management in sports and will not join anyone in this claim that a sack in December risks health in 2026. For what we charge fans to watch the best in the world compete when we watch, the mere suggestion that Prescott “should not be playing because they have been eliminated from playoff contention” makes my blood boil.
This is not basketball. Football players play football. I can see sitting a QB1 to get him an off week before the playoffs, but never just to prevent the tiny possibility that this is their day. There are only a few times a year when football games happen and careers are short enough as it is. To encourage healthy players not to play for no good reason would be a disease that our sport cannot engage with. I expect these players to play if they are healthy, and you should, too.
Dallas won because they have too much quality to lose this game to that team. But, unfortunately, this game was meaningless because they did not have enough quality to deal with all the teams they played between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It is what it is.
They need a new defensive structure. They need massive improvement to contend because that side of the ball’s best performances are when the offense protects it all day. But, the offense still needs better work up front. And entire football operation has to be in better concert than they have shown us.
That 86-yard home run hit by Prescott to Kavonte Turpin demonstrates the upside of the offense is enormous. But, they sit at 7-8-1 because the team structure was wrong. In a season of remarkable health, they could not equate enough of these home runs into wins. The defense betrayed with no takeaways and not enough sacks as well as simply making a tackle when the occasion is called for.
I guess the game resembles the season in some ways. Its not all bad at all. And, you can see that in some ways, they aren’t that far from winning football. But, after next week, they will not play another game for months and months and the hope must be that everything makes more sense soon.
You should not have a 4,000-yard QB, a 1,000-yard RB, and two 1,000-yard WRs and still be playing meaningless games on Christmas. It is wins like this that show you how much has been squandered by the organization’s decision makers. You don’t get seasons of great health to all of you top offensive pieces very often and Dallas has and still were not even close to where they should be. Next week, they fight to be able to say this “wasn’t a losing season” by finishing 8-8-1.
Unfortunately, that is the only prize left in reach.
The 2025 calendar year has felt rather empty for meaning and emotion from start to finish for this Cowboys organization. That hopefully inspires more moving forward, but we probably shouldn’t get our hopes up until we see real action.
I assume they will draw some similar conclusions, but let’s allow their actions to speak louder than their words in the days to follow Jan. 4. They have plenty to do if they wish to learn from the mistakes of Year 1 of Brian Schottenheimer’s Cowboys.
There is so, so much to do.
Like so many children, the Cowboys had to wait all December until Christmas Morning.
Bob Sturm
Dec 26, 2025
There is nothing a writer enjoys less than games that don’t matter. Every game has a reason for existing, we assume. There is so much on the line, we tell ourselves. This one matters so much!
But, if some games matter so much, then I suppose others must balance it out by barely meaning anything.
This Christmas clash in Maryland would have to qualify as one of the latter. Yes, we had the noon window on Christmas so it must be important on some level. Just imagine what Netflix was paying to offer us live football on Christmas! Imagine these two lifelong-rivals playing at noon on Christmas with the universe on the line!
There has to be a reason we will stop the family get-together to say the TV must be on because kickoff is here. There is a Cowboys game on and this game could have been so important if only they won a single game between Thanksgiving and Christmas. But, alas, instead, we got what we got.
And that was watching Dallas bully the game and what is left of the Washington Commanders around a rather indifferent stadium filled with indifferent fans for roughly three hours.
Dallas won this game, 30-23, and it wasn’t as close as the final score would indicate and but, it was also considerably closer than it should have been. Washington had a few big plays on offense – mostly due to poor tackling efforts again – and Dallas could not protect Dak Prescott again and therefore there was some level of intrigue for all 60 minutes on whether Dallas would win their seventh game of the season on this Christmas.
So, no, this game did not completely matter and our thoughts are mostly on things other than win. Instead, we are on to 2026 and what can be salvaged from this season and what we should be talking about coming out of these last two meaningless road games inside the division against other teams that just want to get this all over with, too.
And that will fuel most of My Morning After column. Bouncing around many elements of where we currently sit here on the morning of December 26 and what popped in my head as I carefully sat with my notebook and reviewed this win during the late hours of last evening.
A lot about the win makes plenty of sense as you have your QB and weapons and that puts you in a spot where most opponents are playing uphill. Dak Prescott with CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens should get 28-35 points every week and that has to be non-negotiable if you are building your cap structure that way.
Some weeks they don’t seem to remember how this was built and that is what is frustrating about the offensive attack and design by Schotty. They have known they need to take advantage of this and lean into it. They know they must use the play-action repeatedly and to go for it on fourth downs.
In short, they know they must hide their defense.
But, Dallas has a structure problem that makes me wonder how aligned everyone is with reality and this was best seen in the game-plan and coaching decisions from week to week. This has been a theme with me this season under Brian Schottenheimer because I can see that he thinks these things through, yet it doesn’t always add up.
The game in Washington was an ideal example of “how it should look” in many ways. The biggest was seen in how the Cowboys seemed to understand finally that the offense is where this team has put all of its resources. When I say that, I mean the biggest chunks of money and the best draft picks are presented to the offense way more than the defense. So, if you are giving 70 percent of your resources to one side of the ball, it is ok to ask them to do 70 percent of the heavy lifting in return. This is not a wild thought.
Then we watch the games each week and there are repeated moments where Schottenheimer has seemed ready to kick and trust his defense to come up with a big stops at big times. He acted like this should be a 50/50 team where the defense does as much as the offense. How would that make sense with the resource allocation decisions that have been made?
The Cowboys held the football for an enormous amount of time – 38 minutes, 44 seconds to be exact. In doing so, they made sure that the offense stayed on the field continuously. They made decisions to “go for it” on fourth down and not stop.
The best way to help this defense is to try to minimize the moments they are on the field at all. So, Dallas held the ball, moved the chains, and held the ball some more. This is the ground and pound game plan that seemed obvious in August when the Cowboys decided to make their bad defense even worse.
Getting those decisions right made beating a bad Washington team pretty easy. Aside from their fantastic linebacker tandem and the veteran wide receivers that will always be a problem, they just don’t have near enough right now on either side of the ball. I expected Washington to be taking a huge step backwards this year, but once again this shows us how important the QB1 situation is in every city.
That leads us back to the questions of structure and alignment from all involved with the Cowboys. If the objective is to be a ball-control offense, we have to ask three very important questions that seem off here in Dallas as we presently sit.
No. 1 — Can we think of a ball control offense that was ever able to win with a defense that has no teeth?
I have seen many ball control offenses win, but they are always paired with an attacking defense that generates big plays to find turnovers or those moments where you flip the field with one big hit. I don’t believe ball control and trying to win play differentials (Dallas had a +46 on Thursday which is the most I have ever seen in the NFL as they snapped 87 plays and Washington just 41) pairs at all with bend-but-don’t break defenses. Especially the ones that break all of the time and generate zero takeaways (yet again).
No. 2 - If this is the type of offense you believe in, can you build the roster smarter and more versatile?
If you wanted to be a physical team that acts like a boa constrictor in these games and slowly takes the life out of your opponents, I am here for it. I do love that type of football because it usually ends deep in the playoffs with so many of the Cowboys rivals who would play better when the weather turns because they are planning on bully-ball all the way in. But, for about the fourth week in a row, this Cowboys roster has no RBs who they trust once Javonte Williams leaves another game because he is clearly playing without shoulders. If you watch these games, they continuously take us to the exact same spot for about the last month and it is making me crazy.
When Williams is there, the offense functions well and handles its business both on the ground and in blitz pick-up. The moment Williams needs a rest or to leave the game, the Cowboys offense falls apart. They no longer feel great about their passing game and Dak starts getting hit more. I do want to make sure we recognize that Malik Davis is really running the ball hard and with fine results. He is a great story and grinds everything he has. But, this entire month of December, they have needed another RB who can help them in pass protection and scare the defense with the ball.
Instead, they have these small RBs who can not handle blitzes or Hunter Luepke who can handle blitzes but does not really provide the juice. Invariably in these 2nd halves, the offense looks much more like a juggling act because they are trying to give Davis just a light workload because they can’t lose him, too. They also aren’t planning on 44 running plays in a single game and with just Davis at the position, they are trying to ration out the work load.
That is a long way to say that I am not sure why the Cowboys have allowed this to happen week after week. Six sacks were allowed yesterday which is a season-high. Four of them were in the second half and some of it was just picking up LBs on blitzes. It isn’t the world’s biggest deal until one of those linebackers injury your QB because you got it wrong and the luck changed its mind.
They didn’t need to choose between Rico Dowdle and Javonte Williams. They needed them both. I am sure they would tell you that is what Miles Sanders was here for, but now we are seeing the template for what they seek. RBs who are in the 215-220 range are the type to help this offense protect and run inside. Those who are barely 195 or under (Malik Davis, Jaydon Blue, Deuce Vaughn) may have a role, but there are limits to the body-blows they can sustain in a given series against a 235 Linebacker hitting them on a dead sprint. I know you weren’t expecting a rant on RB2 on this roster, but they are trying to ignore this problem and hope it will go away. I guess with only one game left, they aren’t changing courses now.
No. 3 — how do you only arrive at the high-volume on fourth down approach on Christmas?
We have talked about those games against the Broncos, Lions, Vikings and Chargers where Dallas started playing with more caution. Carefully taking field goals and smart punts and not playing with reckless abandon is an issue. I realize that there is a limit to how much you gamble, but if this offense stops scoring touchdowns, then the design and structure has been misaligned.
Now, the solution for some when it comes to pass protection and the injury prevention to your QB1 is to simply not play Dak Prescott at all in games like these. Every time he is sacked again, fans want to ask whether any of this is worth it at all.
I must tell you that I am not your Huckleberry on this topic, because I would not think of sitting my starting QB on Christmas against a rival unless he was resting for next week’s playoff start. You are reading the game reviews of someone who loathes load management in sports and will not join anyone in this claim that a sack in December risks health in 2026. For what we charge fans to watch the best in the world compete when we watch, the mere suggestion that Prescott “should not be playing because they have been eliminated from playoff contention” makes my blood boil.
This is not basketball. Football players play football. I can see sitting a QB1 to get him an off week before the playoffs, but never just to prevent the tiny possibility that this is their day. There are only a few times a year when football games happen and careers are short enough as it is. To encourage healthy players not to play for no good reason would be a disease that our sport cannot engage with. I expect these players to play if they are healthy, and you should, too.
Dallas won because they have too much quality to lose this game to that team. But, unfortunately, this game was meaningless because they did not have enough quality to deal with all the teams they played between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It is what it is.
They need a new defensive structure. They need massive improvement to contend because that side of the ball’s best performances are when the offense protects it all day. But, the offense still needs better work up front. And entire football operation has to be in better concert than they have shown us.
That 86-yard home run hit by Prescott to Kavonte Turpin demonstrates the upside of the offense is enormous. But, they sit at 7-8-1 because the team structure was wrong. In a season of remarkable health, they could not equate enough of these home runs into wins. The defense betrayed with no takeaways and not enough sacks as well as simply making a tackle when the occasion is called for.
I guess the game resembles the season in some ways. Its not all bad at all. And, you can see that in some ways, they aren’t that far from winning football. But, after next week, they will not play another game for months and months and the hope must be that everything makes more sense soon.
You should not have a 4,000-yard QB, a 1,000-yard RB, and two 1,000-yard WRs and still be playing meaningless games on Christmas. It is wins like this that show you how much has been squandered by the organization’s decision makers. You don’t get seasons of great health to all of you top offensive pieces very often and Dallas has and still were not even close to where they should be. Next week, they fight to be able to say this “wasn’t a losing season” by finishing 8-8-1.
Unfortunately, that is the only prize left in reach.
The 2025 calendar year has felt rather empty for meaning and emotion from start to finish for this Cowboys organization. That hopefully inspires more moving forward, but we probably shouldn’t get our hopes up until we see real action.
I assume they will draw some similar conclusions, but let’s allow their actions to speak louder than their words in the days to follow Jan. 4. They have plenty to do if they wish to learn from the mistakes of Year 1 of Brian Schottenheimer’s Cowboys.
There is so, so much to do.
