Cowboys Winners & Losers From 37-20 Win Over Commanders

The Dallas Cowboys beat the Washington Commanders 37-20 Sunday afternoon in Arlington to move to 1-1 on the early season.

Though it was a cleaner start than the Week 1 contest at the New York Giants, there remained some points on defense to keep an eye on as the season unfolds.

Offensively, the Cowboys' pass game was much more effective, but there, too, were some shortcomings that you expect the "greatest offense there is" to correct.

Before Dallas trips south for a "home" international game against the Baltimore Ravens in Rio de Janeiro, here's a look at the top winners and losers from Week 2:

READ MORE: Cowboys Top 10 Takes: Dak Prescott's 'Just Getting Started' with Record-Breaking Win

The Cowboys quarterback officially moved past his predecessor, Tony Romo, to the top of the franchise's all-time passing touchdowns list.

Prescott's favorite target, All-Pro wide receiver CeeDee Lamb, caught the record-breaking 249th touchdown. Lamb gifted the ball to Prescott in the winning locker room as he shared the moment with current and former teammates.

"I'm just happy for him. No one is more deserving of that achievement than he is," Lamb said postgame. "I know we have many more to go."

How many?

"God's great. I'm not taking it [the record] lightly, but as I told y'all, it's just the beginning," Prescott said. "I want to double it. I plan to play for a while, so I'm just getting started." 

The opposing quarterback was on the wrong side of his own history.

Daniels suffered a second gruesome dislocated left elbow in the last year. He missed nearly the entire second half of last season after sustaining a similar injury in early November. That injury-plagued 2025 season was a year removed from Daniels' Offensive Rookie of the Year campaign that helped the Commanders reach the NFC championship game.

Initial X-rays showed no signs of a fracture, but Daniels - and the rest of the Commanders franchise - waits anxiously for further ligament testing to determine the extent of this year's injury.

The middle of the Cowboys defense struggled to contain the elusiveness of Daniels in the first half, but the group still played considerably better than last week, specifically rookie Barham and newcomer Winters.

Dallas' third-round pick earned his first career NFL start in the home opener and also relayed the play-calls from coordinator Christian Parker. He forced a fumble in the third quarter that led to the Cowboys taking control of the game for good.

"He's a guy I had a conversation with [when] he first came in, and when he first got to training camp; and it was a short conversation, but when I walked off, I'm like 'Oh, he's wired the right way for defense,'" Prescott recalled about Barham.

"So, I'm not surprised at all that he went out there and played this kind of game. ... He's gonna be a great player for us."

Winters, a TCU grad, returned to the DFW by leading the Cowboys in tackles with nine (seven solo) and was flying around the field. Though he was shaken up at one point, Winters was played with a fiercer punch that should bode well for Dallas while starting linebacker DeMarvion Overshown (hamstring) is injured.

Speaking of injuries, Dallas lost two more starting defensive backs in the game against Washington.

Starting in place of an injured Malik Hooker, safety P.J. Locke needed help off the field with a foot injury in the first half, and later on, cornerback Cobie Durant was a victim of friendly fire when a teammate stepped backwards onto his rear end. Durant would eventually leave the game with a hamstring.

The Cowboys have expressed a plan of easing first-round rookie Caleb Downs into the system by strictly playing him at nickel cornerback, and that was evident after Locke's injury when Downs stayed in his normal position and Markquese Bell filled in deep.

At corner, Shavon Revel Jr. was first off the bench to replace Durant. These setbacks are worth monitoring as Dallas faces another mobile quarterback in Ravens star Lamar Jackson, who has more arm talent than Daniels to go with his elite running ability.

Cowboys left tackle Tyler Guyton has been Dallas' most productive offensive lineman through two weeks, and that shouldn't go unnoticed given the uncertainty Guyton entered the league with two seasons ago.

"I see someone who is maturing, [and seeing] consistency with his confidence, probably as just as anything else," said offensive coordinator Klayton Adams. "When you’re confident in what you’re doing, you see it show up in the fundamentals and everything else."

Guyton's initial Pro Football Focus grade in Week 2 came out to 76.3, which joins right guard Tyler Booker's 76.7 as the best lineman marks and some of the best overall grades on the roster.

That protection is crucial while the Cowboys are without star left guard Tyler Smith until Week 5 at the earliest.

And still, the offensive line could be even better. Prescott was sacked several times against the Commanders (though, surprisingly, he was not against the Giants), and the Javonte Williams run game was quiet for a second week in a row.

The Cowboys rushed just 66 yards on 3.1 yards per carry. Williams finished with 30 yards on 12 carries (2.5 yards per).

That won't cut it long term. You could argue that the Cowboys are aware of this by how frequently they threw the ball late in the game to extend possessions with a double-digit lead.

As we've seen thus far, the Cowboys' defense is nowhere near reliable enough to completely lean on an imbalanced offense.