Explosive! Cowboys paths to Week 2 victory revealed

The Dallas Cowboys and Washington Commanders are both 0-1, coming off division losses. Each team will be desperate to avoid falling into a 0-2 NFC East hole, especially the Cowboys as they are at home. The Commanders have a mobile quarterback in Jayden Daniels , similar to Jaxson Dart . Otherwise, they aren't comparable to the New York Giants roster, so the issues New York created for the Dallas defense won't be the same.

The Dallas defense was the main issue in Week 1. Whether it was a matchup problem or they're just a bad unit, but a win for the Cowboys in Week 2 will be more about all three phases than the defense. The offense has to be better facing a poor defensive opponent and the special teams must resolve their field-position issues. Here are the keys to a Dallas victory over the Commanders.

The lack of explosive plays against the Giants might have been the biggest shock from that contest . An explosive play is a 10-yard rush or a 20-yard pass. With options like CeeDee Lamb , George Pickens , and Ryan Flournoy for Dak Prescott to throw to, explosive passes should be regular for them, but they didn't have a single reception for 20 yards.

The rushing attack had minimal explosive plays last season, so not having many isn't surprising, but the running backs had zero. The only explosive play for the Cowboys in Week 1 was a 10-yard scramble by Prescott. Dallas has to attack the Washington defense with a downfield passing attack, and hopefully explosive runs can develop as they wear down the Washington defense.

The Cowboys' offense had the second-best third-down conversion rate of opening week, but the problem is the only team ahead of them was their opponent, the Giants. New York was 9-for-10 on third-down conversions before a kneel-down on a third down at the end of the game. They weren't thought of as a juggernaut, but the Cowboys defense made them look like one.

The Giants converted four plays of third-and-9 or longer, and the only unsuccessful play of that kind was the kneel-down to end the game. This is as obvious as it can get for any team, for any week, but if Dallas allows anywhere close to the same success rate on third down to the Commanders, they'll end the game 0-2.

Last season, the Cowboys had the worst starting field position of any team in the NFL, and the issue continued in game one of 2026. Dallas kick returns went for 25, 17, 31, 24, and 25, for an average of 24 yards per return. They also had a penalty on the second return of the game. The punter had a good game, averaging nearly 50 yards per punt, and both punts landed inside the 20. Brandon Aubrey missed one of his three extra points.

The kickers are both All-Pro players and should continue to perform well, but the return game falloff is a significant problem. KaVontae Turpin is a multiple-time All-Pro, but since John Fassel left and Nick Sorensen took the job, the return game has been awful. Putting the offense behind in the field position battle has to be limited. The Cowboys defense and special teams set up their offense to require perfection, and that isn't possible for 17 games a year.

You can find Mike Crum on Twitter @cdpiglet or on YouTube at Across the Cowboys podcast