Cowboys hand Commanders, former DC Dan Quinn 3rd straight loss in wild NFC East battle

The 26 points allowed by the Dallas Cowboys in their Week 12 visit to the Washington Commanders would have been enough to lose all but their season opening 33-17 win at the Browns. The final six of these 26 could have very well been seven to tie the game with 33 seconds left after Terry McLaurin’s 86-yard touchdown, but Austin Seibert missed his second PAT of the game to preserve a one-point Cowboys lead. With the Commanders down to a final onside kick attempt, the Cowboys special teams group came up with one more game-changing play as safety Juanyeh Thomas not only recovered the kick but returned it up the middle of the field for a touchdown. While this gave the Commanders the ball back still within striking distance down by eight, they had time for just two plays with the game ending on another down-the-roster safety Israel Mukuamu intercepting Jayden Daniels’ last heave of the game.

There hasn’t been much to smile about for the Cowboys this season, who came into this divisional matchup on a five-game losing streak, but playing their closest thing to a complete game in a while to earn their fourth win and hand former defensive coordinator Dan Quinn his third straight loss is one of them. They will continue NFC East play in just four days on Thanksgiving against the New York Giants after improving their division record to 2-1 with a wild 34-26 win over the Commanders. Still far outside of the NFC playoff picture, McCarthy’s team is looking for any signs of positivity over the final months of the season. They now have a resilient win sparked by plenty of depth players that gives them a real chance to improve to 3-1 against their closest rivals by the end of Week 13. In a division that is going to have a non-repeat winner for the 20th season in a row this year, the Cowboys can try to stake their claim that they’ll be the team to extend this streak to 21 next season.

The Cowboys won this game without Zack Martin, Trevon Diggs, and Tyler Smith who all played last week, as well as Brandin Cooks and DeMarcus Lawrence who continue to be key missing pieces on both sides of the ball. Dallas did so by scoring 31 points in the second half, which is more than they scored in all of the second halves combined over their previous three-game losing streak. Jalen Tolbert’s third quarter touchdown was the first third quarter offensive touchdown of the season for the Cowboys, and their first points of any kind in the second half of a game in three weeks.

The Cowboys may not be playing the complementary style that won them 12 games and the NFC East just a year ago, ignited heavily by now-Commanders head coach Dan Quinn’s opportunistic defense. Like it or not though, the 2024 Cowboys version of complementary football was on display in this win to reach 4-7. The Cowboys more than doubled Rico Dowdle’s touches with 19 carries and three catches after having just ten against the Texans, won the time of possession battle by over ten minutes, and played defense with the lead for eight possessions in the second half – forcing three three-and-outs, a forced fumble, and the game-sealing interception on five of them.

The range of opinions that come out of this win may be the only thing more wild than the game itself. Many Cowboys followers have found themselves rooting for “organic tanking” in what’s felt like a lost season for a while anyway. This is not only for improving draft position, but to drive home the issue that the team’s front office will need to change their approach drastically after seeing a potentially historic amount of losses pile up in a contract season for the majority of the coaching staff including McCarthy. Now at 4-7 with another winnable game on deck, do not adjust your monitor or phone volume. That sound you hear is just GM/owner Jerry Jones using this win, the sixth in seven games for Dallas against Washington and second over that stretch won by backup QB Cooper Rush, as fuel to completely spin the direction of this season.

The Cowboys did see their core players continue to play with full effort and lead the way for other depth players to follow suit and make a real claim for future roster consideration. It was yet another reshuffled cornerback group for Mike Zimmer’s defense that forced Daniels into the first multi-interception game of his career. DaRon Bland made his season debut, and was solid enough in coverage to force throws to the side of practice squad call up Josh Butler. After a mixed performance against the Texans in just his second game of the season, Butler was more ready for the challenge as he played tough at the catch point and trusted his help in coverage. This help from the safety position didn’t just come from the expected starting group of Donovan Wilson and Malik Hooker, who both did play with Wilson forcing a fumble that led to Luke Schoonmaker’s touchdown, but also Juanyeh Thomas and Israel Mukuamu who got looks in the secondary.

The Micah Parsons effect was again felt on the defensive line, with the players around him like Osa Odighizuwa, Mazi Smith, and Chauncey Golston all flashing throughout the game. The Cowboys did well to, at bare minimum, not embarrass themselves like at other points this season, and along the way won the game by returning two kickoffs for touchdowns in the fourth quarter of a game. Where Thomas’ was more superficial, KaVontae Turpin made an electric play for the second week in a row by taking a fumbled kickoff that needed to be scooped up with one hand at the one-yard line 99 yards for a touchdown that pushed the Cowboys lead to ten.

This was a backbreaking play for a Commanders team that will now be questioning their bid to win the NFC East, already coming into this game with extra rest off a Thursday night loss at the Philadelphia Eagles. To date, the Commanders best win appears to be a 42-14 win at the Cardinals all the way back in week four.

With a quick turnaround before the Cowboys next kickoff and chance to win a home game for the first time all season on Thursday, here are a few further notes on this memorable chapter in the Cowboys-Commanders rivalry that went Dallas’ way for their 79th win in franchise history in the series.

The fact the Cowboys made positive special teams plays in the most crucial moments of this game was miraculous. In the first half they had a field goal blocked, punt blocked, and missed another field goal. It felt like the Cowboys were inventing yet another new way to reach a still-familiar conclusion, falling behind and making the game an uphill battle just to avoid a blowout loss. The Commanders turned the Cowboys’ promising opening drive that yielded no points after the blocked field goal into a field goal of their own for an early 3-0 lead. Unlike in recent weeks though, the Cowboys settled in and made this the only Commanders score of the first half, eventually drawing even on Brandon Aubrey’s 46-yard field goal in the second quarter.

It’s hard to believe in retrospect, but the score at halftime of this game was just 3-3. For a Cowboys team that hadn’t won since early October, this was far from a worst-case scenario. On the other side, the even more elusive halftime lead the Cowboys haven’t had since week eight was easily within their grasp if they simply cleaned up just some of the season-long issues that have set them back to third in their division. On the opening drive specifically, Dallas moved into the red zone with relative ease, staying out of third downs entirely.

The Cowboys were only faced with a third-down attempt when a second-and-one sweep to CeeDee Lamb lost four yards. Former Cowboy Dorance Armstrong, from his stand up defensive end position, made the tackle in the backfield on Lamb.

The play prompted FOX analyst Greg Olsen to point out that McCarthy “again” called a sweep play into a defender in a two-point stance, making it an easier play for Armstrong to blow up. This was a flashback to the exact same play the Cowboys ran against this exact same look three weeks ago at the Falcons, with Lamb getting stopped short of the line to gain on fourth down. Olsen was also on the call for this Cowboys loss. When a former player that hasn’t played a down of football in four years is instantly recognizing the tendencies of McCarthy’s offense and it’s shortcomings, that is a problem.

On the very next play, Rush’s third down attempt for Jalen Tolbert was dropped on a contested try in the middle of the field. The Cowboys have found better ways to target the middle of the field in recent weeks, this game included, by finding tight ends Luke Schoonmaker and Brevyn Spann-Ford on more creative looks. Both made big plays on scoring drives against the Commanders. Examples like this compared to the Cowboys’ self-inflicted setbacks on the opening drive and 2-11 conversion rate on third downs for the game show why McCarthy’s play calling this season has left a lot to be desired. Blaming lack of offensive line continuity after this win is even harder, as the Cowboys did mitigate the absence of both Zack Martin and Tyler Smith at guard, and stuck with a head-scratching rotation at left tackle between rookie Tyler Guyton and Asim Richards. Dallas did so by getting the ball out of Rush’s hands, moving the spot for him at times, and marrying their run looks to play-action attempts by establishing Dowdle as a downhill, physical runner doing what he does best between the tackles.

The Commanders had a chance to repeat the all-too-common sequence of stopping the Cowboys on the game’s opening drive after receiving, and then converting third downs of their own to put them in an early hole on their first drive. Faced with a third-and-12 at the Cowboys’ 42, Daniels took advantage of the Cowboys’ aggressiveness in pass rush and got around the corner on Carl Lawson for a 16 yard run against the blitz. Three plays later, Dallas would hold Washington to a field goal try after another third-down attempt. This time from the pocket, Daniels floated a pass out of the reach of running back Austin Ekeler. Juanyeh Thomas, a player that always seems to make the most of his chances to play in any defense, was in coverage on Ekeler.

The veteran running back posed a serious game-breaking threat against Zimmer’s defense coming into this game, given the Cowboys struggles to set the edge or tackle in space. Dallas did a good job corralling him, trusting their front led by Parsons to keep Daniels in the pocket and commit numbers to coverage, and once again being timely with when to bring pressure.

Outside of McLaurin’s late touchdown that officially filed this game in the wild and wacky category, the longest pass play of the game for Washington was Dynami Brown’s 20-yard catch in the fourth quarter. It came with the Commanders in hurry up mode down 11 late in the fourth, and needing 16 yards to gain a first down.

The Zimmer and Al Harris effect is starting to be realized for the Cowboys defense, with the goal still being having both Bland and Trevon Diggs on the field at the same time. This group forces opposing offenses to take the long way downfield, maximizing their chances to play with effort, swarm to the ball, and make plays.

The Cowboys did all of these things well with Dan Quinn having a unique view of it, having instilled some of these same principles for the Cowboys defense over his time as their coordinator. Chauncey Golston made one of the effort plays of the year in the second quarter, intercepting an errant throwaway by Daniels under pressure from both Parsons and DeMarvion Overshown. Coming all the way over from the weak side defensive end spot to be in position to intercept a pass intended for Brian Robinson in the backfield, Golston ended the best starting field position drive for the Commanders. He also negated a sequence that could have been another disastrous turning point, with Washington getting this field position by way of a blocked punt.

The Cowboys punted after an ill-advised third-and-one handoff to Ezekiel Elliott, just his second of the game. Prior to this play, Dowdle had nine carries for 35 yards, but also a fumble that took the offense off the field in just one play at the end of the first quarter.

As mentioned, a clean slate to start the second half in a tie game was better than the Cowboys could have hoped for as ten-point underdogs, but nothing about their recent second half performances would inspire confidence this game still couldn’t get away from them. The Commanders promptly scored the first touchdown of the game on the opening drive of the third quarter with a ten-play, 70-yard march. The key to this drive was Washington moving the chains three times on the ground, the last of which was Daniels’ 12-yard touchdown.

The first sign that this game could go differently for the Cowboys was when they answered with a touchdown of their own on the very next possession. Jalen Tolbert redeemed himself from the early drop by drawing a pass interference penalty on a corner route at the two and then catching the touchdown from Rush. Tolbert sold another corner route to the pylon before settling in front of his defender and making a strong hands catch. With Tolbert and Luke Schoonmaker leading the team in targets behind CeeDee Lamb’s 12, the Cowboys need to see their receivers win on these types of underneath routes and make contested catches if they are going to continue sustaining anything on offense and continue to stay in games this season. Jalen Brooks had the team’s longest reception of the game for 41 yards down the sideline, battling through an illegal contact penalty to make the catch that led to Aubrey’s first field goal.

In the context of the game, there were so many things amazing about KaVontae Turpin’s kickoff return touchdown in the fourth quarter. In its simplest form though, this was the second week in a row where Turpin had an abundance of open field ahead of him to show off his top-end speed, and it was a thing of beauty for Cowboys fans. Turpin was off to the races on a simple slant route for a 64-yard touchdown on Monday Night Football against the Texans last week.

His speed is a rarity in today’s game, even with the overall speed and athleticism of every player in the league increasing over time. It is interesting to see the Cowboys rely more on run-after-the-catch opportunities compared to pushing the ball downfield to make explosive plays, and watching for Turpin to have more of a role in opening up the offense down the stretch of this season will be key. It hasn’t always felt like it since he arrived a year ago, but this is a player that can change the entire outlook of the receiver position going into the offseason. The Cowboys will still have work to do here no matter what, especially considering the impending scheme change that is anticipated with new coaches, but keeping this position off the very top of the roster needs list given the youth Dallas has paired with Turpin’s untapped potential would be very beneficial.

Turpin has gone from a player the Cowboys were throwing desperation go routes to a few times a game to one that has slightly more of a route tree, and now created one of the plays of the season on a kickoff return. One role he hasn’t been used in enough is the perimeter run game, where it feels like Dallas is close to going to the well on Lamb jet sweep attempts one too many times. Lamb’s next carry will match his career high of 14 from a season ago. Turpin averaged 10 yards per attempt on 11 carries last season.

Coming into this game, we mentioned how a loss would have the Cowboys in real danger of finishing with their worst record since 1989. By pulling off a significant NFC East upset, they now have room to play with having matched their 2015 win total. It’s well documented that was also a lost QB season for Dallas, but mostly as a cautionary tale that this 2024 team is even worse than the average squad down to a backup QB. By playing well enough in flashes over the last two weeks to evaluate a large pool of players honestly, and come out on top in Landover on Sunday, the Cowboys are at least doing some of the things bad teams need to do to get better. Thanksgiving against the Giants will be telling as it is the last chance for the Cowboys to play a team with a losing record at home, looking to get the AT&T Stadium curtain-sized monkey off their back of being 0-5 at home so far this year.

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