In a game that felt like the Dallas Cowboys season could ride on, they played the most complete game of the season on both sides.
Yes, I was more impressed with this win than the Jets for many reasons. The main one being the Jets do not have a win, and the offense has been awful.
Nonetheless, the game this afternoon started exactly like we thought it would.
The offense took the ball first and scored a touchdown on five plays, but after the defense got only their second opening drive stop of the season, the Commanders punt pinned them deep and Washington got a safety and suddenly gained all the momentum back.
DaRon Bland made the biggest play of the first half when he saved a two-point conversion after a Commanders touchdown, which left Dallas in an 8-7 early hole.
After Dallas took a 20-8 lead, both offenses decided they did not want to score again until about two minutes left in the first half, and let me just say something, okay.
You can hate Dak Prescott all you want, but that drive to end the half with a dime to George Pickens is MVP level stuff.
Right when you thought, here we go again, the offense went 72 yards on 4 plays in 35 seconds to take a 27-15 lead into the half.
Defense?
Give credit to the defense. Even though the Commanders were down their top two pass catchers, they only gave up 22 points.
On the first drive of the second half, they made the biggest play of the game when it was still within reach. They forced a fumble on Jayden Daniels, setting the offense up in perfect position.
After Dak connected with Jake Ferguson on a five-yard touchdown, the defense followed it up with a DaRon Bland pick-6, that broke the game open 41-15.
You know how the rest of these games go, Washington got a couple garbage scores to make the score look better than it was, but what we saw today from the defense was good.
An evergreen statement: DaRon Bland pick-six pic.twitter.com/7EdptnqLX6
— Nick Harris (@NickHarrisFWST) October 19, 2025
If they can at least be AVERAGE for the rest of the season with this offense, they can make the playoffs. We saw more man coverage and blitz, this is exactly what everyone has been asking for and look what happened!
Yes, they did not have Terry or Deebo, and Jayden got hurt, but this team was eating him up before he got hurt, so I do not care.
This team now sits in full control of second place in the NFC East, trailing only the Eagles, and yes, they did lose to them, but the Eagles have the same record against the division because they lost to the Giants last week.
People wondered how it would look when CeeDee Lamb came back, and it looks even better with him and George Pickens. Both of them had awesome games and this offense is the best in football.
Dak Prescott continues the best start to his career. He ended the game 21-for-30, 264 yards and three touchdowns.
In the last four games, Prescott has 13 touchdowns and 0 interceptions.
Again, if this defense can play average football, they can make the playoffs. Let’s see how the defense plays next week against the Broncos, who scored 30 in the 4th quater against the Giants today, and then we can truly make the call about them.
Let me first say, I was dead wrong about this game, I knew they would score points, but I did not think it would be 40 and the defense would get enough stops to win.
One week at a time, but this was the best game I have seen from them on both sides of the football.
Cowboys are now 3-3-1.
DP is playing some of his best ball in this early part of the season. He has developed a great rapport with Pickens, who is playing great. DP just has to throw the ball up in his catch radius and he pushes the defender just enough without extending his arm(s) to get a little separation, like he did with Lattimore, who had good coverage. CD, JW, DB, JF all had nice games.
Defense came to play, which was good to see Washington was down WRs, so maybe this win should be tempered a bit. But nonetheless a big win to get to .500. Big game coming up at Denver and agree it should be a good test. BTW, Shane, Denver won that game vs Giants.