New-look defense, offense’s old ways return as Cowboys overwhelm Raiders, 33-16 – K.D. Drummond, The Cowboys Wire
The Cowboys got positive contributions in all three phases against the Raiders.
The Cowboys had a catharsis of sorts, getting every phase of their team working in unison and earning a 33-16 victory.
Quarterback Dak Prescott threw for four touchdowns including one to George Pickens who caught nine passes for 144 yards. Meanwhile WIlliams turned in a 1.5 sack, 1 TFL performance in his Cowboys debut. The defense had four sacks on the night as they held the Raiders to just one touchdown drive and got on the scoreboard with a safety by rookie Donovan Ezeiruaku.
The victory improves Dallas to 4-5-1 on the year as they return home to host the world champion and NFC-best 8-2 Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday night.
CeeDee Lamb, George Pickens absent to start Cowboys game due to ‘coach’s decision’ – RJ Ochoa, Blogging The Boys
This game got off to a weird start on offense, as the Cowboys went three and out without CeeDee Lamb or George Pickens on the field the first series.
The ESPN broadcast showed the team’s top two offensive weapons on the sideline as Joe Buck and Troy Aikman speculated what was going on. After the Cowboys went three and out it was reported by Lisa Salters that Lamb and Pickens were absent from the possession not for any sort of injury reason, but a “coach’s decision” which sparked all sorts of intrigue.
It appeared as if Lamb and Pickens were being punished for something, but the exact reasoning is obviously unknown at this time.
Both Lamb and Pickens were on the field to start the second possession of the game for the Cowboys so their punishment was a short one.
Stargazing: Cowboys who plundered the Raiders – Patrik Walker, DallasCowboys.com
Whether it was the early discipline or just taking advantage of a bad Raiders defense, the Cowboys pass offense didn’t take long to get going.
Dak Prescott
His yardage won’t blow you away, but his efficiency might, as should his effort in battling through early pressure allowed by the offensive line to toss four touchdowns on the evening and owning a passer rating of 145.2 as the game neared its conclusion. Prescott’s 18-yard touchdown pass to CeeDee Lamb at the top of the second quarter rewarded the defense for James Houston’s sack against Geno Smith to give the Cowboys a 10-6 lead, and he then used both Lamb and George Pickens to beat the Raiders into submission for much of the contest thereafter.
CeeDee Lamb + George Pickens
That was by far not the only highlight delivered by Lamb in this game, several big gainers reeled in and despite taking a hit or two doing so. And when it wasn’t Lamb getting the best of the Raiders, it was Pickens, the latter dominating Las Vegas at every turn and racking up first-down conversions, yardage and ankles on his way to another stellar outing for the Cowboys. As a matter of fact, his two consecutive first downs were on the same drive that ended with Lamb’s touchdown — the Terror Twins™ were on demon time in Week 11 … and despite being benched the first drive by Brian Schottenheimer for disciplinary reasons.
5 takeaways from Cowboys’ big win: Lamb, Pickens turn discipline into production – Nick Harris, Fort-Worth Star Telegram
The Cowboys put distance between themselves and the Raiders on the scoreboard by finishing drives in the red zone.
Red zone emphasis pays off
After the team’s bad loss to the Arizona Cardinals before the bye week, Schottenheimer and Prescott talked about how the team’s inefficiencies on both sides of the ball in the red zone had to be a priority during the bye. Well, it paid off. The offense scored touchdowns on three of its four trips to the red area, and the defense allowed just one touchdown on Las Vegas’ four trips inside the 20-yard line. Call that a win in an area where improvement was much needed going into the break.
Dak Prescott knocking on the door of history
After a two-game stretch going into the bye that saw the first-team offense average just 13.5 points per game and Prescott throw for just 438 yards and one touchdown, the first-team unit responded with a sound passing attack that saw Prescott finish with 268 yards and four touchdowns. With his yardage total, Prescott sits just 179 yards from becoming the franchise’s all-time leading passer. But if you ask Prescott, he is prouder of the offense getting back on track with a gauntlet of opponents — the Philadelphia Eagles, Kansas City Chiefs and Detroit Lions — upcoming.
It’s been a long time since a Cowboys defense pushed the middle of the pocket as much as they did Monday night against the Raiders, with Quinnen Williams making his debut.
Dak is back. Although the Cowboys have struggled as a team, Dak Prescott was compiling a legitimate case for NFL MVP by mid-October. That’s precisely when the wheels fell off, leading to two ugly showings that not only torpedoed his hopes of winning the award but also directly contributed to the Cowboys’ two most recent losses. Prescott got back on the right side of the ledger in a big way Monday night, dicing up Las Vegas’ beleaguered defense with a healthy dose of targets for George Pickens and CeeDee Lamb, powering a Cowboys aerial attack that appeared unstoppable for most of Monday night. Such a performance only counts for one win but was desperately needed for a Cowboys team that has relied heavily on its offense to remain competitive.
Same trench issues plague Raiders. Las Vegas lost Jackson Powers-Johnson to injury during the Raiders’ Thursday night loss in Denver during Week 10, prompting the Raiders to slide starting center Jordan Meredith out to guard and replacing Meredith with undrafted Clemson product Will Putnam on Monday night. The changes came from a place of necessity and predictably didn’t produce encouraging results from a team that already had problems up front. Dallas’ defense — a unit that has endured plenty of its own struggles in 2025 — harassed Geno Smith often Monday night, sacking him three times in the first half. Rookie first-rounder Ashton Jeanty had absolutely nowhere to run, wiping out any ambition of establishing the ground game and forcing Smith to lean on checkdowns to Jeanty just to get him the ball. Their struggles hit rock bottom in the fourth quarter when Jeanty was hit behind the line of scrimmage (again) in the end zone for a safety, perfectly capturing how the Raiders’ deficiencies up front have kneecapped this entire offense.
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