Cowboys at Redskins: Highlights, score and recap
By Matt Couden
A look at the Cowboys at Redskins game from Week 2 of the 2016 NFL schedule including highlights, score and recap of the matchup at FedExField.
On Sunday afternoon, the Cowboys and Redskins played for the 113th time in the history of these NFC East rivals. The game, which was a back and forth affair into the final quarter, featured top play from Dallas’ rookies and Redskins QB Kirk Cousins slowly finding last year’s playmaking abilities.
Early on, Cowboys QB Dak Prescott continued to impress, going 8-for-11 in the first quarter including 138 yards. While the rookie was sacked once, he led two strong scoring drives, the second of which saw his fellow rookie, Ezekiel Elliott, score the touchdown for a 10-0 lead.
Washington would answer back with a touchdown from running back Matt Jones in the first half. Kirk Cousins finally showed his stuff, despite earlier inconsistency, with a pass to Jamison Crowder in the third quarter. That gave the Redskins a 17-13 lead. However, Prescott showed his athleticism. After finding Dez Bryant on a third down, the rookie rushed in for the score.
It was even at 20-20 in the late part of the third, but Josh Norman came up with a huge place to force Elliott to fumble the ball. That gave Cousins and the offense the ball right back in scoring territory. A field goal would come later, but as the fourth quarter was about five minutes away from completion, Dallas found the end zone. Since the rookie Elliott had coughed up the ball twice, it went into the hands of veteran Alfred Morris for the touchdown. That put Dallas ahead 27-23.
The Dallas defense came up big several times when needed. There were several late defensive stops against Washington which prevented touchdowns, including an interception in the end zone. There were also key stops on late third and fourth down plays. They Cowboys stuffed the run on the quick third down snap and then prevented a reception on fourth and a few yards with just over two minutes remaining.
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Cousins managed to get the ball back with over a minute to go and tried to orchestrate a late scoring-drive down the field. However, an attempt to stop the clock with 18 seconds to go ended up being a snap infraction on the Redskins. That cost them another 10 seconds and led to a failed Hail Mary attempt by Cousins. The Cowboys behind Dak Prescott and their defense were able to grab the victory 27-23 in an entertaining contest.
Highlights
https://twitter.com/NFL/status/777561608839045124
Three Stars
1. Dak Prescott
It’s hard to argue against Prescott being amongst the early offensive Rookie of the Year candidates. Just two games in, he’s played remarkably well in place of the injured Tony Romo. He finished today’s outing with 292 yards on 22-for-30 passing. He was sacked three times, but also found the end zone himself.
The rookie showed his athleticism in today’s game, with a pump fake pass at a Washington defender as he rushed it into the end zone himself. Prescott also seems to have found a favorite target in Beasley and was finding Bryant more often. He still has yet to go up against an elite defense, but so far there haven’t been those rookie jitters many people may have expected.
2. Kirk Cousins
Cousins looked rather shaky in his first game against Pittsburgh and that led to concerns he was just “off.” He had a slow start Sunday against Dallas in this second-straight home contest, but got things going in the second half. On a key play, Cousins found rookie Josh Doctson on a huge pass down the field in the fourth for 57 yards. The Washington QB was picked off once but threw for 362 yards including a touchdown. He’s still questionable with some of his decisions, but fans are hoping he’ll be back on track like he was a season ago.
3. Dez Bryant
Even though he didn’t score in today’s contest, Bryant was looking much better after a subpar performance in Week 1. It helped that the star receiver was targeted much more by his rookie quarterback. Bryant had seven receptions on 12 targets leading to more catches and over 100 yards receiving. Bryant helped set up key drives for Dallas, as Prescott looked to be more comfortable with he and Beasley during today’s game.
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Odds
The Redskins were favored by a field goal at many sports books during the week leading up to this game.
Next Week
The Redskins visit the Giants in East Rutherford at 1 p.m. Eastern Time. The Dallas Cowboys will be back at home to host the Chicago Bears for the Sunday Night Football game at 8:30 p.m. ET.