The latest Cowboys’ season of high expectations started with a thud on Sunday night, when Dallas lost to the Giants in the regular-season opener.
In a Friday appearance on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas, Cowboys owner and G.M. Jerry Jones acknowledged that the outcome had something to do with the opponent.
“They just did a good job all over,” Jones said regarding the Giants. “And I will tell you, they were better than we thought they were. I’m anxious to see how New York continues to play, but I really — combination of things. We didn’t play as well as we should play and can play, but they played better than I thought they could.”
Was it also a product of the Cowboys not being as good as Jones had thought they would be?
“Of course,” Jones said. “Well, and to say it that way, I’d rather say it more positively. We’re not at the level that we thought we would be.
“I can give you a lot of reasons, logical reasons. We’re dealing with a conceptually new coaching staff, dealing with a ‘new’ to a lot of people out there. The defensive scheme. And then you’re dealing with people who are fresh into that scheme. Now, you got some really veteran players out there. But still, they’re changing up some of the things that they’re doing. Are they capable of doing what we’re asking? Absolutely they are.
“But the bottom line is that the last time, frankly, the last time that, from my perspective, that we had as many changes on defense, we had as many changes with the coaching staff, had as much change with the personnel, and had as much change with the team was the first year Jimmy Johnson was our coach, and we won one football game.
“Now, things have changed, and you can come in with less experience than you could in those days. But having said that, it’s a challenge now to put it together and get it ready to go. We didn’t play well last week. I said — what I meant to say was, New York had really more to do with it than I thought they would. Than I thought they would. And so that’s a factor. But Washington could have a lot to do with it here Sunday, too, so we’ve got to be ready to step up the level of play. There’s no question.”
It’s a sensible explanation. But it cuts against the vibe that had been created before the season, when season tickets were being renewed and hype was being generated and fans were being persuaded that things would be different this year.
What should the real expectations be? With Jerry suggesting that the Cowboys undergone an overhaul they haven’t experienced since the year Jones bought the team, they perhaps should be a lot lower than they were a week ago.
Commanders Clips
The Commanders ruled players out for Week 2 on both sides of the ball on Friday.
Linebacker Frankie Luvu and tight end Chig Okonkwo will both miss the game in Dallas. Luvu was out of practice all week with a groin injury while Okonkwo has been off the field due to a hamstring injury.
Rookie Sonny Styles took over the green dot helmet from Luvu after he was hurt in Week 1 and will likely be communicating the signals from coaches again this Sunday. Leo Chenal will likely see an expanded role alongside him with Luvu out this weekend.
John Bates, Ben Sinnott, and Colton Yankoff are the team’s other tight ends.
The Commanders made a change to their defensive roster on Thursday.
They announced that they have waived defensive tackle Ricky Barber. They filled the open spot on their 53-man roster by signing cornerback Isaac Yiadom off of their practice squad.
Barber signed with Washington as an undrafted rookie last year and appeared in two games, but he did not play in last Sunday’s loss to the Eagles. He had five tackles and a sack in those appearances.
Yiadom signed to the practice squad after being released by the Saints at the end of August. He had 26 tackles in 14 games for New Orleans last season.
Apparently, an injury isn’t an injury if a team doesn’t know with certainty what the injury is.
That’s the story to which the Eagles are sticking, when it comes to the failure to put guard Landon Dickerson on the Week 1 injury report.
Via Zack Berman of The Athletic, coach Nick Sirianni told reporters on Wednesday that Dickerson didn’t appear on the report because the injury wasn’t determined until imaging was conducted after the game.
So is Sirianni saying the Eagles had no idea Dickerson was injured at all?
“A few weeks ago, [I] got rolled up on in practice,” Dickerson said Monday. “I thought as weeks went by it would get better. It didn’t, and we kind of went out there and finally got some imaging on it today, figured out what was wrong with it.”
Figuring out the specific injury seems to be different from knowing there’s an injury. And while it’s possible Dickerson kept it to himself, it’s hard to imagine no one noticing that Dickerson wasn’t 100 percent.
The real question will be whether Dickerson received treatment from the team. There will be records of whether that happened. If it did.
For now, all we know is that the Eagles (and Dickerson) didn’t know what was wrong until they took a look at whatever is going on inside his knee.
The Commanders are adding a veteran offensive lineman to the roster ahead of their Week 2 game in Dallas.
According to multiple reports, they are signing Lucas Patrick. Patrick was in camp with the Giants and missed time with a knee injury before being released at the end of the summer.
Patrick played in six games for the Bengals in 2025 and appeared in 107 games for the Packers, Bears and Saints earlier in his career. He has made 65 career starts while seeing time at guard and center.
The Commanders add experienced depth with the move. Nick Allegretti started at center in Week 1 with Chris Paul and Sam Cosmi next to him at the guard spots.
Commanders linebacker Frankie Luvu has a minor groin strain, according to multiple reports.
His availability for Sunday’s game against the Cowboys remains uncertain, but it is not expected to be a long-term injury.
Luvu totaled four tackles and a sack on 29 snaps before his injury. Leo Chenal replaced him, and rookie Sonny Styles took over the green-dot duties.
Tight end Chig Okonkwo (hamstring), safety Tyler Owens (ankle) and linebacker Jordan Magee (hamstring) also left Sunday’s game with injuries. Coach Dan Quinn did not provide injury updates Monday.
The Commanders worked out seven players on Tuesday, including four linebackers and two tight ends.
With Week 1 in the books, it’s time to start thinking about Week 2. There’s one game that stands out, mainly for where it has been tucked into the TV schedule.
The entire slate for the second week of the season has only two games pitting a pair of 2025 playoff teams against each other: Steelers-Patriots in the 1:00 p.m. ET cluster and Jaguars-Broncos in the late-afternoon window.
But Jaguars-Broncos isn’t one of the 4:25 p.m. ET games. It begins at 4:05 p.m., with a regional TV audience. The big window goes to Commanders-Cowboys on Fox (Raiders-Chargers and Seahawks-Cardinals are also in that spot.)
Yes, the Cowboys are the Cowboys. They continue to draw big TV crowds. But the Jaguars went 13-4 last year. They thumped the Broncos in Denver in Week 16, 34-20. This time around, it’s the home opener at Mile High Stadium. And, suddenly, the Broncos will be feeling more than a little antsy, after losing badly to the Chiefs on Monday night.
The scheduling decision fits nicely with Jacksonville coach Liam Coen’s belief that his team is being overlooked. It gives him extra grist for the “disrespect” mill. Which should make it easier to get the players ready for a repeat of last year’s underrated performance against the team that won the No. 1 seed in the AFC.
From a programming standpoint, it makes sense to go with the Cowboys. Still, Jaguars-Broncos should be a better — and more consequential — contest.
The message to Coen and the Jags is clear. To get more attention, you’ll have to command it. The best way to do that in the short term will be to send the Broncos to 0-2.
Cowboys linebacker DeMarvion Overshown will miss time with a hamstring injury, Brian Schottenheimer said Monday.
An MRI showed Overshown has a strain, which is expected to keep him sidelined 1-2 weeks.
With 11:40 remaining in Sunday’s loss to the Giants, Overshown pulled up and grabbed his right hamstring on Cam Skattebo’s 1-yard run that ended with Skattebo recovering his own fumble.
Overshown totaled seven tackles.
Dee Winters, Jaishawn Barham and Shemar James are options to replace Overshown at middle linebacker.
Safety Malik Hooker will undergo surgery on his fractured forearm on Tuesday, Schottenheimer said.
He, too, might miss only 1-2 weeks.
The Commanders drew within two points of the Eagles on a Stefon Diggs touchdown with 9:59 left to play on Sunday, but any thoughts of tying the game went away seconds after the wideout entered the end zone.
Diggs kept going and jumped up to wrap himself around the goalpost, which drew a penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct and forced the Commanders to settle for an extra point. They missed on a two-point try with a minute to play and lost 24-22.
After the game, Diggs said, via multiple reporters, that he took “full accountability” for the penalty and realized the moment he did it that he was going to draw a flag. Quarterback Jayden Daniels said he put “the onus” on himself to remind players of the rules in those situations and that they have to be more thoughtful in the future.
“You just gotta be smarter,” Daniels said in his postgame press conference. “We gotta know situations, situational football. That’s on me for not reiterating that in the huddle. We just gotta be smart. There’s a time and place for everything.”
Head coach Dan Quinn confirmed that the team would have gone for two without the penalty. There’s no way to know if the result would have been a better one for the Commanders without the penalty, but they would have liked to have the chance to try.
It took quite a while for the offenses to get going in Philadelphia on Sunday, but a flurry of points made for an exciting finish between the Eagles and Commanders.
After Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts’s third touchdown pass of the day put the Eagles up 24-16 with six minutes to play, Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels brought his team back down the field. Daniels found rookie wideout Antonio Williams for a one-yard touchdown with 1:01 left on the clock to set up a game-tying two-point attempt.
Commanders offensive coordinator David Blough opted for a shovel pass to tight end John Bates that was easily diagnosed and disposed of by the Eagles. DeVonta Smith recovered the ensuing onside kick and the Eagles had a 24-22 win in the bag.
The Eagles had a 17-9 advantage with less than 10 minutes to play, but the Commanders were able to cut the score to one on a Stefon Diggs touchdown catch. Diggs received an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for his celebration of his first Washington touchdown, which meant the Commanders had to settle for being down 17-16.
Hurts rallied the Eagles back down the field. He scrambled for a 22-yard gain to convert a third down and then found tight end Dallas Goedert for a first down on another one. Goedert stopped on a dime after the catch and reversed field through the Commanders for a 43-yard score. That led to the final Commanders drive, which finally saw wide receiver Terry McLaurin get involved. McLaurin had no catches before an eight-yard gain early in the drive and then caught his second on a fourth down.
It was Goedert’s second touchdown catch of the night and Hurts finished the game 14-of-25 for 203 yards. He hit wide receiver Dontayvion Wicks for the other score and also had a 64-yard connection with the new Eagle. Smith had a 31-yard catch and running back Saquon Barkley broke off a 42-yard run, but three straight three-and-outs to start the second half kept the Eagles from creating breathing room over Washington.
Daniels and the Commanders had five three-and-outs of their own over the course of the afternoon, but the fourth quarter showed what better days might look like later in the season. Daniels wound up 18-of-34 for 164 yards and two scores, but was 6-of-16 in the first half as the Eagles built their lead.
The Eagles will go to Tennessee with hopes of finding more consistency in their second game with offensive coordinator Sean Mannion while the Commanders will head to Dallas for another divisional matchup.
