The Cowboys are now one of the hottest teams in the NFL with Cooper Rush as their starting quarterback, winners of three consecutive games, after their 25-10 victory against the Washington Commanders in the comforts of AT&T Stadium. Rush became the first quarterback in franchise history to win each of his first four career starts after completing 15 of 27 passes for 223 passing yards and two touchdowns.
The Cowboys have won eight straight games against NFC East teams dating to last season with today's win coming thanks to timely plays by wide receivers CeeDee Lamb (six receptions, 97 receiving yards, and one receiving touchdown) and Michael Gallup in his first game back off of a torn ACL in his left knee (two catches, 24 receiving yards, one touchdown). Cornerback Trevon Diggs (three passes defended and one interception), chipped in as well on the defensive side.
This game started slowly with five punts on the contest's first seven drives, but after the Cowboys took a 6-0 lead following Brett Maher's second of a career-high four made field goals, Carson Wentz (25 of 42, 170 passing yards, one passing touchdowns, and two interceptions), commanded the Washington offense down the field. He capped a seven-play, 65-yard drive with a perfectly placed over-the-shoulder pass to rookie Jahan Dotson, his fourth receiving touchdown in as many career games. Dallas proceeded to finish the game on a 19-3 run with Gallup's 9-yard receiving touchdown coming just before halftime, and Lamb's 30-yard walk-in receiving touchdown off a smooth double-move extending the lead to 22-10 on the first play of the fourth quarter. Rookie fifth-round draft pick DaRon Bland, playing his first defensive snaps of the season in Week 4, intercepted Wentz on a third-and-9 deep in Washington territory that set up Maher's final field goal from 29 yards out with just under four minutes left in the game.
For a more detailed breakdown of how this game unfolded, check out our main takeaways.
Why the Cowboys won
What Rush did against the Washington Commanders on Sunday is what he has done in each of his four career starts for the Dallas Cowboys: Play steady, controlled football while limiting turnovers and finding his playmakers at the right time.
He got Gallup, playing in his first game since Week 17 against the Arizona Cardinals last season, involved early by targeting the pass catcher on the first Dallas pass play of the game. Rush and Gallup showcased high-level chemistry on the Cowboys' first touchdown of the day. The quarterback sprinted toward the right sideline, and Gallup remained in line with Rush across the back line of the end zone, hauling in Rush's laser through the Commanders secondary to take a 12-7 lead into the break. Rush hit Lamb for a touchdown for the second straight game, this week on a wide-open toss for 30 yards after needing to place the ball perfectly in the back corner of the end zone on "Monday Night Football" against the Giants. Rush has yet to throw an interception this season and has been sacked only four times in three starts. Rush either gets the ball out to his intended target quickly or throws the ball away, managing the game the exact way head coach Mike McCarthy and offensive coordinator Kellen Moore have drawn it up.
Even though the Cowboys defense pressured Wentz on just 17.8% of his dropbacks and recorded only two sacks as a team, the Cowboys secondary was glued to the Commanders pass catchers all afternoon, making Wentz work hard on every throw. Diggs is playing the best football of his career, either deflecting or intercepting all three of the passes in his vicinity when he was the intended target's primary defender. Outside of linebacker Micah Parsons and defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence each not recording a sack, the defense played about as well as it could have. Only the most diehard of Cowboys fans could have predicted this team would win every game Prescott has missed this season with a fractured thumb. The Cowboys are now in the thick of the very early NFC playoff picture at 3-1.
Why the Commanders lost
Everything seems hard right now on both sides of the ball of Washington. The Commanders receiving corps had difficulty separating from the Dallas secondary, leaving their defense in a spot where it needed to hold the Cowboys under 20 for a chance to win. A season-high 11 penalties didn't help either, including an ill-timed intentional grounding penalty by Wentz that killed a Commanders drive and resulted in a punt as well as an illegal contact flag that erased what would have been a Rush interception. Losers of three in a row, the Commanders have some soul-searching to do.
Turning point
Midway through the second quarter and trailing 7-6, Rush uncorked a deep ball down the field toward receiver Noah Brown. However, the football was underthrown thanks to pressure applied by the Commanders defensive line, and second-year cornerback Benjamin St-Juste undercut the throw for what appeared to be Rush's first interception of 2022.
However, an illegal contact penalty wiped away the turnover after St-Juste gave Brown a slight hug at the beginning of the play before the takeaway. That ended up being critical since it allowed the Cowboys to continue their drive, which concluded with their first touchdown of the game: Rush's scrambling scoring strike to Gallup with 1:04 remaining in the first half. Dallas took a 12-7 lead into the break, and Washington never got closer than five points throughout the rest of the game.
Play of the game
Lamb's double-move on this post route was the kind of route running Cowboys owner and GM Jerry Jones expected to see from the former first-round pick when he decided to trade away the established Amari Cooper to the Cleveland Browns for multiple late-round draft picks. The fluidity and ease of Lamb's cut upfield after gliding off the line of scrimmage are the natural qualities that make it easy to project the 23-year-old as their long-term, top wide receiver. The touchdown catch gives the third-year wideout consecutive games with a receiving touchdown for the first time since Weeks 5-6 of last season against the Giants and Patriots.
The score extended the Cowboys' lead to 22-10, providing Dallas a double-digit lead it would not relinquish.
What's next
From here, the Cowboys will head west for their first game of a coast-to-coast road trip, facing the defending Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams in Week 5. This could potentially be the game where Prescott returns under center. As for the Commanders, they'll return home to play host to Derrick Henry and the Titans.
