After last weeks season-opening win against the New York Giants, the Dallas Cowboys moved to 2-0 on the season notching a 31-21 road win over the Washington Redskins. For the second straight week, the offense looked good and the defense showed more improvement. Here are the four biggest takeaways from today’s game.
1. Kellen Moore
Two for two. That’s offensive coordinator Kellen Moore’s record of strong playcalling. The offense rolled up 474 yards of offense and 25 first downs controlling the clock for over 33 minutes and didn’t punt once in the second half. Not only that new wrinkles were added. A jet sweep, read option and speed option was all used today showing more willingness to open things up. On top of that, the offense was nearly balanced with quarterback Dak Prescott attempting 30 passes while the offense ran it 34 times. With more performances like this, the offense will be hard to stop.
2. Dak Prescott
For the second straight week, Prescott looked as good as ever. He finished 26-of-30 for 269 yards with three touchdowns to one interception while also rushing for 69 yards on five carries. He finished the second half 14-of-14. Not only are the numbers good but he looks confident and seems to have more control over the offense. This version of Prescott will carry the Cowboys a long way and make owner Jerry Jones open his checkbook sooner rather than later.
3. Connor Williams
The second-year guard from Texas struggled to hold Redskins defensive tackle Da’Ron Payne getting pushed back when pass blocking and standing still during run blocks. This was a problem last year but improvements were expected after a full season at guard after moving from tackle and an offseason to bulk up and add more strength. While he had a good game last week against an underwhelming Giants team, Williams showed today that he has a long way to go getting called for a holding penalty and a false start along with the same struggles he had last year.
4. Defense
Despite only notching one sack the defensive pressured Redskins quarterback Case Keenum the whole game and was the reason why he only had 221 yards on 26 completions. The line along with the linebacker trio of Leighton Vander Esch, Sean Lee and Jaylon Smith limited the Redskins to 47 rushing yards on 17 carries with 25 of them coming from Adrian Peterson who finished with a paltry 2.5ypc. While the secondary struggled at times especially against budding rookie Terry McLaurin they made enough plays to help the unit allow 255 yards on 55 plays and 2-of-9 on third downs. More performances like this are needed if the Cowboys are to take the next step.
