Outside the Star: Dak’s Big Day Changes the Cowboys Conversation

A week can be an awfully long time in the NFL.

Seven days ago, the Cowboys walked out of MetLife Stadium with an 0–1 record and enough questions to keep the Dallas sports-talk industry employed indefinitely. The offense had stumbled. The rebuilt defense had hardly inspired confidence. And, as inevitably happens after Week 1, conclusions were beginning to arrive considerably faster than evidence.

Then Dallas played Washington.

Thirty-seven points, four Dak Prescott touchdown passes and one franchise record later, the conversation sounds a little different.

Welcome to Outside the Star, a weekly look at what writers and analysts around the NFL are saying about the Cowboys — good, bad and occasionally contradictory.

Because if there’s one thing more predictable than the NFL being unpredictable, it’s all of us trying to explain it afterward.

The offense changed the conversation

NFL.com’s Dan Parr saw Sunday’s 37–20 victory primarily as the offensive response Dallas needed after its opening loss. Prescott completed 26 of 31 passes for 279 yards and four touchdowns as Dallas scored on seven of its eight possessions. CeeDee Lamb caught eight passes for 153 yards and two scores.

Parr’s takeaway was straightforward: “Cowboys’ offense bounced back.”

That’s difficult to argue with. Dallas didn’t merely accumulate points against Washington. The Cowboys controlled the game offensively in a way that looked much more like the unit people expected entering the season.

Prescott added a little history along the way. His fourth touchdown gave him 249 career touchdown passes, moving him past Tony Romo for the most in Cowboys history. Prescott finished with a 143.8 passer rating, while Lamb supplied the kind of explosive receiving performance conspicuously absent from Week 1.

The Cowboys’ own game recap documents the record-setting afternoon. Read the Cowboys recap.

But nobody seems ready to declare the defense fixed

This is where the outside view becomes more interesting. A 17-point victory normally produces plenty of optimism. Yet several postgame analyses arrived at roughly the same conclusion about the Dallas defense: better isn’t necessarily good.

Washington outgained Dallas 389–332 and rushed for 182 yards. Before leaving at halftime, Jayden Daniels had already rushed seven times for 69 yards while throwing for another 96. Dallas did not record a sack.

NFL.com noted that Washington generated 203 yards in the second quarter alone and concluded that Dallas’ defense “still has work to do.”

Todd Brock’s postgame analysis for Cowboys Wire was similarly cautious, pointing to missed tackles, the lack of sacks and the yardage Dallas surrendered. That’s worth remembering. The scoreboard says 37–20. The underlying numbers tell a somewhat messier story.

One rookie gave them something to like

Not everything on defense produced concern. Jaishawn Barham, starting at middle linebacker with DeMarvion Overshown unavailable, finished with seven tackles, a tackle for loss, a quarterback pressure and — most importantly — a forced fumble that Dee Winters recovered with Dallas protecting a 20–13 lead.

The Cowboys turned that takeaway into another touchdown and a two-score advantage. DallasCowboys.com highlighted Barham’s performance.

That’s precisely the sort of contribution we’re tracking separately in The Rookie Ledger, but it belongs in this conversation too. A defense doesn’t have to play brilliantly for an individual defender to make the play that changes a game. Barham did.

And then there’s the running game

If the offense earned praise Sunday, there was one fairly obvious exception. Dallas ran 21 times for only 66 yards, an average of 3.1 yards per carry. Javonte Williams managed 30 yards at 2.5 per attempt. Through two games, NFL.com noted that Dallas has only 135 rushing yards, placing the Cowboys near the bottom of the league.

It didn’t matter much Sunday because Prescott and the passing game were exceptionally efficient. There will be afternoons when it matters very much.

And that’s part of what makes the reaction to this victory more measured than the final score might suggest. The Cowboys demonstrated that one of their biggest perceived strengths — the passing offense — can still overwhelm an opponent. They haven’t demonstrated that they can consistently run the football.

The view from Outside the Star

So what are they saying about the Cowboys this week? Something considerably different from what they were saying seven days ago.

Dak Prescott looks like Dak Prescott again. CeeDee Lamb remains capable of taking over a football game. The offense that stumbled through Week 1 suddenly looks dangerous.

But the defense still misses tackles. Mobile quarterbacks remain a problem. Pressure isn’t becoming sacks often enough. And the running game hasn’t provided much reason for opponents to fear it.

Perhaps that’s the real lesson from Week 2. The Cowboys didn’t answer every question against Washington. They simply reminded everyone of the danger in answering those questions too early.

Because two weeks into an NFL season, certainty is usually just another word for something we’ll have to explain next Sunday.