The Cowboys are 2-2, but the questions around them haven’t gone anywhere.
Dallas escaped Houston with a 34-30 win over the winless Texans, and the final score did not hide the messiness underneath it. The defense had too many rough stretches.
The run game outside the red zone never really found a rhythm. And now, on a short week, the Cowboys are right back in it with another 0-4 team in front of them: the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Thursday Night Football.
What makes this one tricky is that the Cowboys are still very much alive in the NFC East. The Giants are somehow sitting atop the division without Jaxson Dart, the Commanders are trailing the pack but hope to have Jayden Daniels back this week, and the Eagles just had what can only be described as a meltdown against the Rams.
Dallas is not buried by any stretch. But the margin for comfort is thin, and the next step has to be more convincing than what we saw against Houston.
A lot of the conversation around this team starts with the offense, and for good reason. The preseason buzz around the “Greatest Offense There Is” never looked all that sturdy, especially when it was built on work against a defense that was simply pitiful last season.
The first four games have done nothing to calm those doubts. Against the Texans, the attack still leaned heavily on Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb, and that connection carried the day.
Javontae Williams scored three touchdowns, but the ground game still didn’t exactly announce itself as a reliable answer. He averaged just 3.3 yards per carry, which is the kind of number that keeps the pressure on the passing game to be nearly perfect.
That’s where the Cowboys have to be careful. A formula built around one hot connection and a few timely plays can win a game here and there, but it is hard to trust over the long haul.
There was still plenty to like about how Dallas closed out Houston, though. Prescott said he expected a blowout win, and that didn’t happen, but the offense delivered when it had to. CeeDee Lamb had a historic day, and the Cowboys found enough answers in crunch time to leave with the win.
There were other encouraging pieces too. Schottenheimer made the right calls when the game tightened up.
The defense generated some key pressure. Dallas absorbed two missed field goals, climbed out of a deficit, and still finished strong.
That matters, even if it came with plenty of scars.
Still, it’s fair to ask how much a close win over a winless opponent really tells you. Beating the Texans kept Dallas in the race.
Beating the Buccaneers would help even more. But if the Cowboys don’t handle Tampa Bay with more control, the concern only grows when the schedule stiffens again.
That’s the real test here. Dallas has to show it can do more than survive.
It has to show it can put a team away, especially one that is also 0-4 and desperate for a spark. A comfortable win would mean more than style points.
It would give the Cowboys something sturdier to build on and a little more credibility as a division contender.
But if the offense sputters again, if the defense bends too often, if the game turns into another one-score grinder, then the doubts will only get louder.
And Todd Bowles’ defense is waiting with pressure and a little recklessness of its own. The Cowboys will need poise again.
They’ll need consistency again. And they’ll need more than just another escape act.
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Even before the final score settled in, the game had already drawn attention for a different reason when Instagram influencer Ene, better known as @truly.ene, went viral for her custom Houston Texans outfit. The look added another layer to a matchup that already had plenty of edge, and it turned the night into one of those crossover sports moments where the football result and the scene around it both got people talking. [Read more 🡒]