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The Morning After Week 2 - Win Through The Air!
Dak Prescott took the career Cowboys TD Record and made the passing attack look easy.
Bob SturmSep 21, 2026
We would like to welcome you to a week of Dallas Cowboys football where the sky appears to not be falling quite as fast and as hard as it was. The Cowboys have won a football game and did so with some relatively easy coasting down the stretch. They did not need a whole lot of drama or magic to secure the first victory of the season by beating Washington, 37-20.
In fact, you might find that the victory seemed to follow the recipe of what a young team with a poor defense might require. It makes sense. You have a top-five offensive attack with veteran confidence and swagger attempting to protect a young and inexperienced defense that will take a bit to fully develop into something that we hoped was league average. Not elite, but just blend in with the other defenses in the league and allow your offense to do the heavy lifting.
Now, sure, there are significant circumstances and talking points to digest as these next couple of days of analysis will uncover, but if you thought that weeks 1-2 on the schedule allow the Cowboys to dip their toes in the new waters of 2026 with the idea that the offense should do most of work so that the defense can play in more preferred situations as it all figures things out, well, at least the home opener went better than the events of New York from Week 1.
This time, the offense did not need until almost halftime to show life. They did not ever ask the defense to play from behind and they never let Washington dictate terms or set the pace. Instead, as you would hope because you are paying a great deal to get it, you would like your best players to be your best players and make the Commanders never feel in command in the slightest way. Hit them early and hit them often. By the end of the day, the offense was able to score on seven of the eight drives they touched the ball, including one touchdown drive for each quarter of the game.
That is what they need to do and that is what they went and did.
Specifically, the tandem of Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb made life easy on their offensive line, running game, and yes, defense, so that the team could catch their breath and head to Brazil knowing that they have another week to acclimate to their new normal.
We have seen this type of aerial display to know it happens often and when it does, it is often at home and in a divisional game. This is not new or uncommon and because of that, there is a certain baseline that Dallas will always achieve with those two doing what they can do. Dallas can always be competitive and in the mix for the playoffs. They have special players and that has been enough to at least make football season interesting on those days where they can go up and down the field without a full deck. The best players on this roster have established their credentials.
The issue, of course, is that winning football will require much more than that over the course of a season if you wish to contend for a league title. We know with no uncertainty that this is the goal around here, so we do know that the events of this fairly easy win over Washington will only go so far. The defense was better than last week, but still far from where it needs to be. Same with so much of the team right now, but as we always say in this space on Monday: There are no apologies for wins, especially those where you score 37 points, never are even tied or trailing, and put the game away with over a quarter to play.
They followed the recipe that they have available at the moment and until further notice. Score early and often and hope your defense can make a play or two to get a few stops and maybe even a takeaway that can give the offense a short field and easy points. When and if Christian Parker and his side of the ball can do some of the heavy lifting, things might change and the team can win without the offense scoring a touchdown every quarter, we will adjust properly. But, quite clearly, we aren’t to that point yet.
Washington’s offense caused a lot of issues on Sunday and the game could have had a much different outcome if Jayden Daniels was available all day. We certainly have always admired his ability going back to his prolific college days, but the snake-bitten nature of his last 13 months of football show what life can be like in the NFL when things start going wrong.
Daniels was hurt early in 2025 and missed a few weeks, but those were pretty normal situations that are from damage done in the pocket. But, this new rash of poor fortune is a result of his left elbow which initially dislocated against Seattle in Week 9 last year, re-injured in Week 14 at Minnesota in December, and now dislocated yet again in Dallas in Week 2 of the following season. That means he has basically injured his same elbow with roughly the same injury in three of his last four games. I cannot tell you how demoralizing that last sentence is to even consider. It certainly makes you wonder how or why this keeps happening and what steps must be taken to end this cycle of gruesome situations for a number of reasons.
He was so good in Philadelphia in the second half last week and in the first half here in Dallas he was a threat the entire half. His runs were both damaging and safe as he made sure to slide early to save punishment. To see that fluke situation where his left guard stepped on his foot right before halftime trigger the situation again just is one of the gross realities about this incredible sport. Things happen to special players that are actually quite bothersome. If it was your QB1 and your franchise hope, I imagine your search for answers would be all you think about.
I'm as far from a doctor as it gets, but I am not sure I would let Jayden play again without a pretty heavy-duty elbow brace on that non-throwing arm - like the sort of thing Tyron Smith wore all those years. Enough is enough and three times in four starts is ridiculous. I know it might be cumbersome and limit his athleticism a bit, but for that to happen 10 months after it last happened is the worst possible scenario for that franchise.
Obviously, the game changed at that moment right before halftime. It also changed when Daniels missed on a wide-open touchdown to Treylon Burks a few minutes earlier. It probably changed when Dyami Brown appeared to get his knee in the end zone on a close call, as well. In other words, there are plenty of scenarios where Washington makes this outcome closer than 17 points and maybe even requires a 60-minute day from the Cowboys.
In fact, there are many days where this defense is still not nearly good enough. Too many big runs right into the teeth of this defense and too many missed tackles. Coverage was better but far from where it needs to be and the pocket had pressure but no sacks. But, I retain a lot of faith in this defense because I see a lot of young pieces starting to emerge.
Caleb Downs was around the ball plenty on Sunday and when we break it down, I am certain we will find good and bad, but the point is his presence was felt. I thought Jaishawn Barham was really impressive and I am not sure they will be able to get him off the field as long as that continues. He looks like a force at linebacker. I was very impressed with Donovan Ezeiruaku’s pocket pressures again as he is a very nice pass rusher. Malachi Lawrence flashed and Shavon Revel had some real mixed moments, but seemed to grow into the game.
That is five different pieces to this defense that Revel is the only one who is older than 23 years old. There is your story of this defensive growth as young Christian Parker has that many players who are basically still college-age and they all look like starters or even plus-starters in the very near future.
There is where we hope they can find solutions and growth. Those are your key pieces and if you can get all of them performing, you have a very bright future. But, it won’t happen in a day. Some of them played Rutgers and Purdue last season and there are no Rutgers or Purdue games on this NFL schedule.
Of course, those teams also didn’t have Dak Prescott or CeeDee Lamb on your own sideline and that is the takeaway from this game.
There was an intent to come out of the gate firing the ball and Dallas did exactly that. I loved this obvious idea and we talked about it in our game preview on Friday:
Dak hit CeeDee Lamb five different times on Sunday for 15 yards or more and four of those time were the four explosive plays of over 23 yards on the day.
They did go get points in each quarter and it was done because these two hooked up over and over again. They definitely said that the coverage was focused a lot on the threat of George Pickens, so Dak was quick to use his eyes to confirm that plan and then fire the ball to where Lamb could go make a play. They definitely are hunting matchups where they can isolate the weak link in a secondary and they went after young Mike Sainristil on this day, as we knew they probably would.
It is an unreal level of resources that a guy like Pickens can serve as a decoy some weeks and Lamb can return the favor in others, but Sunday was just awesome in how they were able to have this supply line of fireworks where Washington could get only one stop of the Dallas offense all day long. That is how this is supposed to look.
And how it is supposed to look is exactly what we saw from Dak Prescott. It was one of his cleanest and most explosive days he has had in this league. He has had quite a few, but based on the feedback, I gather that very few people realize how many four TD games he has had where he also had no turnovers.
The number is now 11 and includes the playoff game at Tampa Bay that is best known as Tom Brady’s last NFL game. Brady is second in career games of 4 TDs and 0 INTs with 28 of them and Aaron Rodgers has 29.
Prescott is now 10th all time in this list and trails Russell Wilson, Ben Roethlisberger, and Lamar Jackson in 7th who have done it each once more than he has. Of course, he also plays Lamar next and Jackson’s biggest issue remains his playoff resume – something Dak can relate to very well.
But, to be on that list, you have had to play in this league a long time at a very high level. And now we see Dak has thrown more touchdown passes than any Cowboys QB ever. It is hard to believe and it certainly should not be translated as he is the best Cowboys QB ever because he isn’t. But, the list of accomplishments that he has knocked off his list is growing and growing and he still appears to have many years left.
They need him to be sensational in these situations as they try to get their defense to raise its level and now with Baltimore next, we know they have a very tall task in front of them.
But, they also know that with this QB and these weapons, they do have a way to win these games. They must start fast and attack regularly down the field. They must out-score the growing pains on the defense and the somewhat feeble ground attack, too.
We have plenty to analyze and review this week, but doing it with a 1-1 record is far superior to the alternative. No, this defense is not substantially better yet from what we have seen and what has cost this franchise the prime of its weapons. But, progress is being made and solutions are being found, as the train is speeding down the tracks.
It is the toughest league in sports to win games and the Cowboys have a few ways to put wins in the bank right now.
Luckily, the most obvious one is QB1 and his top target running through secondaries. They may have to score a touchdown every quarter to win right now. So be it.
We see that they can do just that on days like Sunday.
