Game recap

Commanders @ Cowboys

2026 Wk 2 · DAL 37, WAS 20

Three straight incompletions from the Dallas 1 ended the half, cost Washington Daniels, and turned the game.

FanIQ Research · September 21, 2026 · 5 facts, every one from the play-by-play

First and goal at the Dallas 1, three straight incompletions, zero points, and Jayden Daniels hurt on the third. The tenth such sequence since 1999.

Rare

Trailing 17-10 with 12 seconds left in the half, Washington had first and goal at the Dallas 1 after a Rachaad White run. Daniels threw incomplete to Terry McLaurin, incomplete to Dyami Brown, and incomplete on third down with 3 seconds showing; he was injured on that play and did not take another snap. The half ended on that throw, and Washington went to the locker room with nothing from the 1 yard line. Since 1999 an offense has thrown three consecutive incompletions from first and goal at the 1 only ten times, and this is the first since Tennessee at Detroit in 2024.

Washington's final seven plays of the first half

Clock (Q2)	Down	Ball at	Play	Result
0:51	1st and 10	DAL 28	Daniels scramble right	14 yards
0:29	1st and 10	DAL 14	Daniels scramble right	1 yard
0:21	2nd and 9	DAL 13	Daniels pass to Diggs	8 yards
0:17	3rd and 1	DAL 5	White up the middle	4 yards
0:12	1st and goal	DAL 1	Daniels pass to McLaurin	Incomplete
0:08	2nd and goal	DAL 1	Daniels pass to Brown	Incomplete
0:03	3rd and goal	DAL 1	Daniels pass	Incomplete, Daniels injured, half over

Three consecutive incompletions from 1st and goal at the 1, every instance 1999-2026

Season	Wk	Game	Offense	Qtr	Score before	Final
2012	3	PHI @ ARI	PHI	2	PHI 0, ARI 17	ARI 27, PHI 6
2013	11	DET @ PIT	DET	2	DET 24, PIT 20	PIT 37, DET 27
2015	16	HOU @ TEN	TEN	4	TEN 0, HOU 34	HOU 34, TEN 6
2017	12	CAR @ NYJ	NYJ	4	NYJ 17, CAR 18	CAR 35, NYJ 27
2018	14	DEN @ SF	DEN	4	DEN 7, SF 20	SF 20, DEN 14
2019	4	PHI @ GB	GB	4	GB 27, PHI 34	PHI 34, GB 27
2020	16	MIN @ NO	MIN	4	MIN 27, NO 45	NO 52, MIN 33
2023	7	CLE @ IND	CLE	4	CLE 33, IND 38	CLE 39, IND 38
2024	8	TEN @ DET	TEN	2	TEN 14, DET 35	DET 52, TEN 14
2026	2	WAS @ DAL	WAS	2	WAS 10, DAL 17	DAL 37, WAS 20

Why it matters. A touchdown there makes it 17-17 at the half with Washington getting the ball back to start the third quarter. Instead the deficit stayed at seven, Daniels was gone, and Marcus Mariota's first drive of the second half ended in a fumble at the Washington 18 that Dallas turned into a touchdown two plays later. Ten instances in 28 seasons is roughly one every three years, and only one of the ten offenses (Cleveland in 2023) went on to win. The rarity is the play calling as much as the outcome: three throws from the 1 with the game's most productive runner, Daniels himself, under center.

Dak Prescott: 26 of 31, four touchdowns, no interceptions. Four of his ten career games like this have come against Washington.

Comparison

Prescott completed 83.9 percent of his throws for 279 yards, hit CeeDee Lamb 8 times for 153 yards and two scores, and found Jake Ferguson twice in the end zone. Since 1999 a passer has thrown four or more touchdowns with no interceptions while completing 80 percent or better on 30 or more attempts 33 times; this game ranks 12th of the 33 by completion rate. It was also Prescott's tenth regular season game with four touchdown passes and no interceptions, and Washington has been the opponent for four of the ten. Across 16 regular season starts against Washington he has 36 touchdown passes and 5 interceptions.

4+ TD, 0 INT, 80%+ completion, 30+ attempts since 1999, top of the list plus Prescott

Season	Wk	Passer	Opp	Comp	Att	Pct	Yards	TD
2019	15	Drew Brees	IND	29	30	96.7	307	4
2011	7	Drew Brees	IND	31	35	88.6	325	5
2020	1	Russell Wilson	ATL	31	35	88.6	322	4
2015	14	Eli Manning	MIA	27	31	87.1	337	4
2021	5	Lamar Jackson	IND	37	43	86.0	442	4
2026	2	Dak Prescott	WAS	26	31	83.9	279	4

Prescott's regular season games with 4+ TD passes and 0 INT

Season	Wk	Opp	Comp	Att	Yards	TD
2018	17	NYG	27	44	387	4
2019	1	NYG	25	32	405	4
2019	17	WAS	23	33	303	4
2021	4	CAR	14	22	188	4
2021	16	WAS	28	39	330	4
2021	18	PHI	21	27	295	5
2023	12	WAS	22	32	331	4
2025	5	NYJ	18	29	237	4
2025	11	LV	25	33	268	4
2026	2	WAS	26	31	279	4

Why it matters. The 279 yard total is modest for a four touchdown game, and that is the point: Dallas did not need explosive plays because Prescott almost never put the ball on the ground or in a defender's hands. Only five incompletions in 31 attempts means Washington's pass defense, which allowed the third most EPA per pass in the league in 2025, got very few stops. The Washington concentration in his four touchdown list is partly schedule (two meetings a year) and partly matchup; his 36 to 5 touchdown to interception ratio against them is the clearest read on how this rivalry has gone from the Dallas side.

Washington outgained Dallas by 57 yards, had more first downs, and lost by 17. That combination has happened 89 times in 6,980 games since 1999.

Anomaly

The losing side ran 13 more offensive plays (67 to 54), gained 389 yards to 332, converted 8 of 14 third downs to Dallas's 7 of 11, and threw no interceptions. It lost by 17. In decided regular season games since 1999 the loser has outgained the winner by 50 or more yards 1,153 times, and lost by 17 or more in only 89 of those, about 1.3 percent of all games. The gap is explained by three plays: the goal line stand before halftime, Mariota's fumble at the Washington 18, and Aubrey's 60 yard field goal, worth up to 17 points between them and none of it visible in the yardage.

This game, both offenses (pass and run plays)

Team	Plays	Yards	First downs	3rd down	EPA/play	Turnovers	Points
WAS	67	389	22	8 of 14	+0.069	1	20
DAL	54	332	19	7 of 11	+0.227	0	37

Losers who outgained the winner by 50+ yards, regular season 1999-2026

Decided games	Loser outgained winner by 50+	And lost by 17+	Share of all games
6980	1153	89	1.3%

Most recent instances

Season	Wk	Loser	Yards	Winner	Yards	Margin
2026	2	WAS	389	DAL	332	17
2026	1	GB	419	MIN	244	17
2025	11	ARI	488	SF	284	19
2025	8	NO	275	TB	212	20
2025	7	JAX	358	LA	275	28

Why it matters. Yardage measures how far an offense moved; the score measures where the drives ended. Washington's drives ended at the Dallas 1 with no points, at its own 18 with a fumble, and on 2 red zone touchdowns in 11 red zone plays, while Dallas scored on 3 of 10 red zone plays and added a field goal from 60. That is why a 0.16 per play efficiency gap turned into a three score margin. Five such games in all of 2025 and already two in the first two weeks of 2026 says the pattern is rare but not a fluke of this one afternoon.

Jayden Daniels ran for 69 yards in one half, more than any Washington back managed all game. The offense went from +0.12 EPA per play with him to 0.00 without him.

Split

Daniels carried 7 times for 69 yards before the injury, six of them scrambles, while Jacory Croskey-Merritt (12 for 43) and Rachaad White (7 for 43) split the designed runs. Washington's 38 first half plays with Daniels produced +0.124 EPA per play and 13 first downs; its 29 second half plays under Marcus Mariota produced -0.003 and 9 first downs. Mariota's passing line (11 of 16, 111 yards, a touchdown) was close to Daniels's (11 of 17, 96, a touchdown), so the drop came from the run threat and the fumble, not the throwing.

Washington offense by quarterback (pass and run plays)

QB on field	Plays	EPA/play	Success%	Yards	First downs	Fumbles
Daniels (Q1-Q2)	38	+0.124	47.4%	225	13	1
Mariota (Q3-Q4)	29	-0.003	55.2%	164	9	1

Washington rushing and passing lines

Player	Comp	Att	Pass yds	Pass TD	Carries	Rush yds
Jayden Daniels	11	17	96	1	7	69
Marcus Mariota	11	16	111	1	1	3
Jacory Croskey-Merritt	0	0	0	0	12	43
Rachaad White	0	0	0	0	7	43
Kaytron Allen	0	0	0	0	5	24

Why it matters. The two scrambles that moved the ball from the Dallas 28 to the 13 in the final minute of the half were the kind of play Washington lost when Daniels went out; Mariota scrambled once for 3 yards the rest of the way. Success rate actually rose in the second half, which means Mariota kept the offense on schedule but without the chunk gains that had driven the first half number. The first half fumble in the table was an aborted Daniels snap that Washington recovered itself; the one that mattered, Mariota's at the 18, is the second half row.

Dallas has now scored 37 or more at home against Washington seven times since 1999, more than against any other opponent. Six of the seven came in the last ten seasons.

Milestone

The 37 points make it three straight Dallas wins in the series, following a 44-22 result at AT&T Stadium last October and a 30-23 win in Washington in Week 17. In home meetings with Washington since 2017 Dallas has put up 38, 47, 56, 45, 44 and now 37; only the 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2024 home games fell short of that bar. No other visitor has absorbed as many 37 point games in Dallas: Philadelphia is next with six, the Giants with five.

Dallas home games of 37+ points by opponent, 1999-2026

Opponent	Games	Seasons and points
WAS	7	1999: 38, 2017: 38, 2019: 47, 2021: 56, 2023: 45, 2025: 44, 2026: 37
PHI	6	2008: 41, 2012: 38, 2019: 37, 2020: 37, 2021: 41, 2022: 40
NYG	5	2007: 45, 2020: 37, 2021: 44, 2023: 49, 2025: 40
ATL	3	2009: 37, 2020: 40, 2021: 43

Washington at Dallas, every meeting since 2015

Season	Wk	WAS	DAL	Margin
2015	17	34	23	WAS by 11
2016	12	26	31	DAL by 5
2017	13	14	38	DAL by 24
2018	12	23	31	DAL by 8
2019	17	16	47	DAL by 31
2020	12	41	16	WAS by 25
2021	16	14	56	DAL by 42
2022	4	10	25	DAL by 15
2023	12	10	45	DAL by 35
2024	18	23	19	WAS by 4
2025	7	22	44	DAL by 22
2026	2	20	37	DAL by 17

Why it matters. Division opponents visit every year, so the raw count partly reflects opportunity, but Philadelphia and the Giants get the same number of trips and trail by one and two. The more telling read is the recent cluster: since 2017 Washington has left this building having allowed 37 or more in six of ten visits, and two of the four exceptions were the only two Washington wins in that span. This one fits the pattern in shape as well as score, with Dallas leading from its first drive and never trailing.

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