Week 1 has a way of making everyone lose their mind, and the Cowboys’ opener was a perfect example. Dallas went into New York and came away with an ugly loss to the Giants, and the reaction around the league got loud fast. But after what unfolded in Week 2, that result doesn’t look nearly as dire as it did in the moment.
The biggest reason is simple: the NFL keeps reminding everyone how quickly things can flip. The Eagles were one of the heaviest favorites on Sunday and still needed a last-second touchdown to escape the Titans. Tennessee, the same team that got bullied by the Jets in Week 1, had Philadelphia on the ropes until Jalen Hurts put together a nine-play, 65-yard drive with nine seconds left in regulation.
That kind of finish is exactly why one bad Sunday shouldn’t turn into a season-wide panic. The Cowboys’ loss to a vastly improved Giants team was rough, no question. But it was also the kind of early-season mess that becomes easier to understand when you remember how much sloppy football shows up in Week 1, especially for teams like Dallas that don’t play their starters in August.
Week 2 only hammered the point home. The Ravens lost at home to the Saints one week after rolling the Colts on the road.
The Browns, a team many have already written off, went into Tampa and beat the Buccaneers. The Chargers dropped a home game to the Raiders by two scores after opening the year with a loss to the Cardinals, and the Jaguars followed a Week 1 demolition of Cleveland by losing to the Broncos.
It was one of those Sundays that makes the whole league look unstable. Teams that looked sharp in one game fell apart in the next.
Teams that looked dead suddenly found life. The Raiders are 2-0.
The Browns got their first win. The Broncos bounced back after a rough opener.
Nothing in this league stays tidy for long.
That’s why the Cowboys’ Week 1 defeat deserves more context than it got at the time. Dallas still has to clean things up, and there will be more losses ahead. But after the Eagles nearly got tripped up and the rest of the league spent Week 2 turning expectations upside down, that road loss to New York looks a lot less like the end of the world and a lot more like the kind of early-season stumble the NFL delivers every year.
In Other News...
Cowboys Already Have One Clear Winner In A Concerning 2027 Trend
The Cowboys 2027 free-agent picture is already starting to take shape through the early performances of players who are still building their cases. Dee Winters has stood out on the defensive side even while dealing with injury, giving Dallas at least one encouraging sign in a group that has otherwise been harder to assess. George Pickens, meanwhile, has not yet produced the kind of receiving impact the Cowboys were hoping to see, and the line play on both sides has remained a concern as the season has unfolded.
For a team that is always weighing value and future flexibility, those early returns matter. Strong play now can help a player strengthen his market before the next round of contract questions arrives, while inconsistency can make those decisions even trickier. Dallas still has time to sort through who is trending up and who is slipping into a more uncertain role, but the contrast already gives the front office plenty to monitor. [Read more 🡒]
Cowboys Face Early Pressure As Ravens Test What This Team Really Is
The Cowboys head into Week 3 with a road trip that is unusual even by NFL standards, as they get set to meet the Ravens in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It will be the first NFL game played in Rio, adding another layer to a matchup that already carries plenty of weight for Dallas, which is trying to sort through injury reports while dealing with an early-season test against one of the leagues most dynamic offenses.
Baltimore brings Lamar Jackson and the kind of quarterback-driven pressure that can expose a defense quickly, and Dallas will have to answer that challenge while also looking for more from a running game that has lagged through the opening stretch. With both teams working through health concerns and the stage expanding beyond the usual September spotlight, this matchup feels like an early read on what the Cowboys really are. [Read more 🡒]
Lamar Jackson Just Added Extra Heat To Ravens-Cowboys In Brazil
Lamar Jackson added a little edge to a cross-continental matchup that already had plenty of intrigue, taking a pointed swipe at the Cowboys long-held Americas Team label ahead of their meeting with Baltimore in Brazil. The Ravens quarterbacks remark leaned into the obvious geography of it all, a small but notable jab as Dallas gets ready for an overseas showcase far from the usual spotlight at home.
For the Cowboys, it only sharpens the backdrop to a game that comes after Baltimores recent loss and arrives with Jackson carrying a winning record against Dallas. The setting is unusual enough on its own, but a comment like that gives the trip a little more bite, turning a neutral-site opener into something that feels a bit more personal before the teams even take the field. [Read more 🡒]