{"id":101114,"date":"2025-12-26T05:23:20","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T05:23:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/101114\/"},"modified":"2025-12-26T05:23:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T05:23:20","slug":"what-we-learned-from-dallas-30-23-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/101114\/","title":{"rendered":"What We Learned from Dallas’ 30-23 win"},"content":{"rendered":"

FULL BOX SCORE<\/a><\/p>\n

Dallas goes full throttle over Washington. The Cowboys weren’t playing nice on Christmas Day against their storied rival, scoring touchdowns on their first three possessions while converting four fourth downs in the process to build an early lead that saw Dallas come one first down short (17) of matching Washington’s total plays (18) in the first half. \ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeffDak Prescott<\/a>\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff led the efficient charge, connecting with \ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeffJake Ferguson<\/a>\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff for the game’s opening score before finding \ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeffKaVontae Turpin<\/a>\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff for an 86-yard TD bomb midway through the second quarter. Dallas throttled down in the second half but was faced with a big fourth down midway through the final frame with a seven-point lead. Prescott found \ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeffJalen Tolbert<\/a>\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff to make it 5 of 5 on fourth down for Dallas on the day, which helped make it a two-score game after a \ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeffBrandon Aubrey<\/a>\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff field goal. Prescott, who finished 19-of-37 passing for 307 yards and two TDs, was sacked six times on the day but helped ice the game with a clutch 21-yard strike to \ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeffGeorge Pickens<\/a>\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff on the final possession. A few plays later, Prescott would move the chains for a final time with a QB sneak that made it 6 for 6 on fourth down for the Cowboys. Thursday’s win ended a three-game skid for the Cowboys, who were eliminated from playoff contention last week.\u00a0Johnson leans on Deebo in return as a starter. Making his first start since 2021, \ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeffJosh Johnson<\/a>\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff accounted for himself well, keeping the injury-riddled Commanders afloat despite falling into an early deficit. \ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeffDeebo Samuel<\/a>\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff provided a spark with a 41-yard catch and a 29-yard run, but it was \ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeffJacory Croskey-Merritt<\/a>\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff who got Washington back into the game with a 72-yard TD run in the third quarter that accounted for most of his 105 total yards on the ground. Johnson completed 15 of 23 passes for 198 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions. The journeyman third-string QB didn’t take Washington out of the game but was unable to help the offense find pay dirt enough against the Cowboys. On the defensive side, defensive tackle \ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeffJer’Zhan Newton<\/a>\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff had a career day with 3.0 sacks (eight QB pressures); a silver lining for the future as the Commanders dropped their 12th loss of the season.\u00a0Davis steps up for Cowboys. \ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeffJavonte Williams<\/a>\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff was fed early and often (54 rushing yards; TD)\u00a0before a shoulder injury knocked him out of the game in the first half. \ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeffMalik Davis<\/a>\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff went on to set career highs in rushing yards and carries in his absence, helping balance a Cowboys passing attack that grew stagnant in the second half. Davis generated 103 yards off 20 carries for a 5.2 average, highlighting his day with a 21-yard scamper. The second-year RB displayed great vision in finding holes and a great burst to get to the second level. Fullback \ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeffHunter Luepke<\/a>\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff\ufeff also chipped in with 30 rushing yards and a 14-yard catch that helped extend a scoring drive in the second half. In a season that began with a whole new backfield, Dallas has certainly found a solid one-two punch.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Next Gen Stats Insight for Cowboys-Commanders<\/a> (via NFL Pro): Jacory Croskey-Merritt reached a top speed of 21.62 miles per hour on his 72-yard TD run.<\/p>\n

NFL Research: The Cowboys’ six fourth-down conversions versus the Commanders is tied for the most conversions in a game since 1991 and the most while going 100%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FULL BOX SCORE Dallas goes full throttle over Washington. The Cowboys weren’t playing nice on Christmas Day against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101115,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[11431,9952,102,113,104,103,223,9953,9954,7683,11430],"class_list":["post-101114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-analysis","tag-around-the-nfl","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-cowboys","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-news","tag-no-minute","tag-regular-season","tag-washington-commanders","tag-what-we-learned"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}