A plethora of field goals and one rushing touchdown weren’t enough to get the job done for the Cowboys.
ARLINGTON, Texas — The Dallas Cowboys fell to the Washington Commanders 23-19 in their regular-season finale at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, despite a solid performance from Trey Lance in his first start as a Cowboy.
Lance completed 20 passes for 244 yards and led the Cowboy’s offense on a few long field goal drives, showing his ability to go through his reads and find open targets downfield. His first two passes of the day went for 31 and 33 yards to Jalen Tolbert and Kavontae Turpin, to burst his way into the football game and instill some early confidence.
Though some of Lance’s drives stalled out, they resulted in critical field goals from Brandon Aubrey that continued to build the Cowboys’ lead through each quarter of the game.
Halfway through the third quarter, Washington took the lead after Marcus Mariota came in for QB Jayden Daniels who rested the second half. Mariota led the Commanders on an eight-play, 70 yard drive that ended with a touchdown pass to Zach Ertz, putting them up 10-9.
However, the Cowboys would answer back as Brandon Aubrey hit a chip-shot field goal to regain the lead, 12-10.
Mariota wasn’t done though. He led the Commanders on another touchdown drive early in the fourth quarter that put the Commander back in control.
With under 12 minutes to go in the fourth quarter, Lance and the Cowboys offense marched down the field and refused to let the drive stall out. Three consecutive runs later and the Cowboys found themselves in the endzone behind the legs of running back Rico Dowdle, regaining the lead 19-16.
The Commanders got the ball back with under four minutes to play and went on an 11-play, 91-yard drive that ended in a touchdown pass to Terry McLaurin to put them back up 23-19 with just three seconds remaining.