The Cowboys Won. Now Comes the Real Test.

Dallas found its footing against Washington. Baltimore will tell us whether it found something more.

There are wins that make you feel better.

And then there are wins that tell you something.

The Cowboys’ 37–20 victory over Washington certainly accomplished the first.

After an opening-week loss, Dallas needed a Sunday when the offense looked comfortable, the quarterback looked in command, and everyone could spend Monday talking about something besides what had gone wrong.

Dak Prescott provided exactly that.

Four touchdown passes. No interceptions. CeeDee Lamb looking like CeeDee Lamb. Jake Ferguson finding the end zone twice. And, almost as an aside, Prescott threw touchdown pass No. 249 and moved past Tony Romo for the most in franchise history.

Not a bad afternoon.

But Cowboys history has taught us to be careful about confusing relief with revelation.

Because Washington answered one question.

Baltimore is about to ask several more.

A Win That Didn’t Fix Everything

The final score against Washington looked comfortable.

The statistics were considerably less comfortable.

Washington finished with 389 yards of offense compared with Dallas’ 332. The Commanders rushed for 182 yards. And before Jayden Daniels left the game with an elbow injury, his legs were creating exactly the kind of problems Dallas had hoped its rebuilt defense would eliminate.

Daniels ran seven times for 69 yards.

That’s nearly ten yards every time the quarterback decided he’d rather stop being a quarterback.

And that matters because the next quarterback Dallas sees is Lamar Jackson.

There may be easier ways to determine whether you’ve solved your problems defending mobile quarterbacks.

Unfortunately, Baltimore isn’t bringing one of them to Brazil.

The Cowboys deserve credit for what they did Sunday. The defense produced an important turnover when rookie Jaishawn Barham forced a fumble that Dee Winters recovered, setting up another Dallas touchdown. And after Washington threatened to tie the game immediately before halftime, Dallas kept the Commanders out of the end zone.

Those plays matter.

But so do the plays that came before them.

Cowboys History Has Seen This Movie Before

Early-season football has always been dangerous territory for conclusions.

The great Cowboys teams weren’t great because they never struggled. They were great because eventually you could tell which problems were temporary and which ones were structural.

Tom Landry’s teams could look surprisingly ordinary one week and clinical the next. Jimmy Johnson’s young Cowboys had to learn the difference between being talented enough to win and being disciplined enough to keep winning.

That distinction hasn’t disappeared.

The 2026 Cowboys don’t need to resemble the 1970s Cowboys or the 1990s Cowboys. That’s an unfair standard and, frankly, those guys aren’t coming through the tunnel.

What Dallas needs is evidence that its weaknesses can be corrected.

Washington provided some.

Baltimore should provide more.

Because when an opponent attacks the very thing you’ve been struggling to stop, there isn’t much room for hiding.

And Then There’s Dak

Prescott’s afternoon deserves its own place in the story.

Passing Tony Romo doesn’t settle every argument that has followed Prescott throughout his Cowboys career. It shouldn’t. Franchise records and postseason accomplishments measure different things.

But 249 touchdown passes in a Cowboys uniform is not a footnote.

Roger Staubach threw touchdowns here.

Troy Aikman threw touchdowns here.

Danny White threw touchdowns here.

Tony Romo threw a whole lot of them here.

Now nobody has thrown more than Dak Prescott.

That’s Cowboys history whether somebody happens to like the quarterback or not.

And perhaps the more important part of Sunday’s performance was how Prescott looked while setting the record.

He wasn’t chasing it.

He was running the offense.

That’s what Dallas needs from him against Baltimore.

The record can go on the shelf.

The season can’t.

Rio Changes the Scenery, Not the Question

Sunday’s setting will make this game unusual before anybody takes a snap.

Dallas and Baltimore will meet at Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, with both clubs arriving at 1–1.

There will be plenty written about Brazil, the stadium, the spectacle and everything surrounding an NFL game being played thousands of miles from Texas.

But once the ball is kicked, Dallas’ question becomes remarkably simple.

What did we actually learn against Washington?

If the offense moves the football against Baltimore, Sunday’s performance starts looking less like a favorable afternoon and more like the beginning of an identity.

If the defense contains Jackson better than it contained Daniels, then maybe Christian Parker’s new defense really is beginning to settle in.

If Dallas can run the football more effectively after managing only 66 rushing yards against Washington, another concern begins to shrink.

None of those things will define the season in Week 3.

But they will give us considerably more evidence.

The Real Test

Maybe that’s the lesson Cowboys history provides here.

Don’t ask September to tell you what a team will become in January.

Ask whether it is getting better.

Washington gave Dallas something it badly needed: a win.

Baltimore offers something potentially more valuable.

A measuring stick.

Because beating a division rival at home can restore confidence.

Going halfway across the hemisphere and showing that the problems from the first two weeks are actually being corrected?

That begins to build belief.

And there is a difference.