​ARLINGTON, TX – OCTOBER 19: Donovan Ezeiruaku #41 of the Dallas Cowboys lines up before the snap during an NFL football game against the Washington Commanders at AT&T Field on October 19, 2025 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images) | Getty Images The 2026 Dallas Cowboys were supposed to find themselves in better positions to compete in all phases compared to the 7-9-1 campaign of a year ago. Instead, after one game, they find themselves in eerily similar position ahead of a week two divisional game at home.Last season began with a primetime road loss by one score to a NFC East rival, putting the Cowboys in a bit of a “prove it or lose it” spot back in their home stadium against another division opponent, the Giants, in week two. The Cowboys won that game ugly in overtime, and it felt ominous for how this team would play against better competition.If things were at least slightly optimistic following last year’s close week one loss to the reigning Super Bowl champions, this week has been a category five hurricane that has fans ready to jump ship if the Cowboys do anything less than beat the Commanders handily. Yes, a Commanders team that was just within a few plays of beating the Eagles on the road in their first outing. Luckily, the Cowboys have used recent games against the Commanders in this way before, as Sunday will be the fifth time they go up against their former defensive coordinator Dan Quinn since he became the Commanders’ head coach in 2024. Dallas is 3-1 in these games scoring at least 30 points in each win, and the one loss was Week 18 of 2024 when Trey Lance started for Dak Prescott. That game was also the Commanders’ first win in Arlington since Thanksgiving of 2020.Last season, the Cowboys came into the home game against the Commanders off a deflating, one-score road loss to the Panthers. The defense was bad, wasn’t even put in position to succeed if they wanted to in critical moments of the game, and the offense made costly mistakes. Sound familiar?The Cowboys responded with a 44-22 win against the Commanders, a season high for points. Dak Prescott had his second highest yards per attempt of the season, completed 70% of his passes, and threw two touchdowns to Jake Ferguson plus another to CeeDee Lamb. The approach on offense was balanced with 31 rushing attempts, 19 from Javonte Williams for 116 yards and a touchdown, and 30 pass attempts for Prescott. The Cowboys got points on drives that started at their own 34 yard line to start the game, own 40, 46, 45, and 33 to win the battle of field position. As a season long trend the Cowboys were very poor in this area, and that was among the long list of concerns after last week’s Giants game for the current Cowboys too, but taking the ball away from the Commanders twice while also making two stops on fourth downs went a long way. The Cowboys will know what they’re seeing in the Dan Quinn defense, one that remained aggressive but had it’s struggl