Commanders vs. Cowboys: 3 things to watch, including Jayden Daniels settling in and danger in the secondary

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In the opening week of the regular season, Dan Quinn queued up a video for the team meeting room and hit the lights.

Clips of tennis star Frances Tiafoe, a Prince George’s County native, rolled across the screen. It was from his marathon U.S. Open quarterfinal match, which lasted just over 4 1/2 hours.

Quinn wanted an example of stamina and grit. To win divisional games early in the season, the Commanders need to be students in outlasting their opponents, he said.

Washington nearly pulled it off in Philadelphia in Week 1, hanging on against the Eagles. The Commanders were a 2-point conversion away from forcing overtime in a game they trailed for over 40 minutes.

And now, against Dallas, the Commanders are again the underdog. Quinn is hoping they can get over the top. The Commanders are undermanned against the Cowboys’ star-studded roster, with a dozen players missing practice or limited this week due to injury. But Dallas looked shaky in an opening night loss to the Giants, particularly with a leaky secondary.

Here are three things to watch Sunday.

1. Measuring up to the Cowboys’ star receivers

You can point to the failed 2-point conversion as a reason the Commanders lost to the Eagles. It was the most salient play on a day when the offense couldn’t get out of its own way.

But the explosive plays the defense allowed were the main culprit. Washington gave up a 64-yard completion that set up a touchdown. It surrendered a score on a third-and-goal from the 17. And it let Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts scramble for 22 yards on a third-and-18.

If Washington had stopped even one of those plays, it might have been a different result.

The problem is, the Cowboys offense is even more equipped to push the ball down the field with star receivers CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens.

They also have a significant size advantage on the Commanders’ secondary. Pickens and Lamb are both over 6 feet tall. Washington’s top two corners, Mike Sainristil and Amik Robertson, are under 5-10.

The Commanders are less worried about the height differential. They want players across all levels of the defense to follow their assignments so Lamb and Pickens can’t break free.

“They’ve shown that they’ve dominated defensive backs in this league regardless of the size,” defensive coordinator Daronte Jones said. “That’s not a one-man job in terms of how we want to handle that. That’s a team effort, collective effort. That’s [defensive] disguises, that’s the back end, that’s the linebacker, that’s the rush.”

2. Will Jayden Daniels settle in?

Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels admitted it took time for him to ease into the game last week. He hadn’t played in a real game in over nine months and didn’t surpass 100 yards passing until the fourth quarter.

Part of the late success, it seemed, came from Washington letting him go up-tempo in the fourth quarter, a cadence at which he has flourished for most of his career. He also started running, a point of worry for the Commanders after his injury-riddled 2025.

New offensive coordinator David Blough wanted to implement a system in which Daniels played from under center more and stayed in the pocket. He looked much less comfortable in those situations against the Eagles.

Still, Blough thinks that was more a product of the Eagles defense than anything systemic. He doesn’t think Daniels needs to run to be successful.

“There’s some times where you feel that [he needs to run], and there’s some times where he comes out and he starts a game 18-for-18 passing,” Blough said. “Each game has a different flow to it, and we’ll do whatever we gotta do to have success as a unit.”

3. A new option emerges

Terry McLaurin was inexplicably absent from Washington’s season opener. He had two receptions for 14 yards after running 35 routes. But the good news is Daniels may have found another option.

That is where rookie Antonio Williams came in. The third-round pick had four catches for 64 yards and a touchdown against the Eagles. Blough said he will continue to put more responsibility on him.

“I think as we have seen the things that he’s done well, call it from rookie minicamp, into OTAs, into training camp, there’s things that you try to implement into your plans. That normally tends to grow as you make the most of your opportunities in the game,” Blough said.

Williams emerging as a legitimate third option alongside McLaurin and Stefon Diggs could help the Commanders exploit a Dallas secondary that looked lost at times against the Giants.