Week 7 Takeaways - Washington Commanders at Dallas Cowboys

By: Sam Myer 10/19/2025

The Washington Commanders travelled to Dallas for a week 7 division showdown that turned into a blowout early in the third quarter with a final score of 44-22 Cowboys. The Commanders struggled in all the same areas as previous weeks on defense and were unable to get more than a few stops. Additionally, the Washington offense was unable to get their ground game going for the second week in a row making everything difficult for Jayden Daniels. Speaking of Daniels, he left the game early in the third quarter after suffering a right hamstring injury and did not return. An MRI will be conducted on Monday to determine the extent of his injury and how much time he could potentially miss. Regardless of Daniels’ injury, this Washington team has legitimate problems defensively that will require significant changes to get corrected.

The issues for Washington defensive are equally schematic problems as well as personnel problems as they were torched up and down the field on Sunday. This was one of the worst defensive performances we’ve seen under Dan Quinn’s Commanders. Javonte Williams rushed for 116 yards and averaged over six yards per carry, marking the second week in row Washington has allowed the leading opposing rusher to average over 6 YPC. While the run defense wasn’t good, the pass coverage was even worse against Dallas. Dak Prescott didn’t face much pressure all afternoon and was able to sit back and find his receiving options with ease. The secondary struggled for the Commanders all across the board, but Marshon Lattimore had potentially his worst performance since arriving in Washington last November. He was called for multiple pass interference penalties and gave up several explosive plays against George Pickens and CeeDee Lamb. Quan Martin also had a rough game with a big-time blown coverage on Lamb’s 74-yard touchdown in the first quarter and more missed tackles. Dan Quinn did not rule out the possibility of significant personnel and scheme changes before next Monday’s game in Kansas City.

On offense, Washington is missing its top three wideouts in Terry McLaurin, Deebo Samuel, and Noah Brown and defenses are game planning for these absences. This marks two games in a row where the opposing defenses have committed to stacking the box against Washington, forcing them to throw the ball to their fill-in wide receivers. This offense functions at its best when they’re able to establish their identity on the ground and unfortunately, they’ve been unable to do this for two straight weeks. Washington will need McLaurin and Samuel back on the field together before this offense can reach its full potential.

In the meantime, while it certainly feels like the sky is falling in D.C., there are still 10 games left with the last 7 of these looking winnable. Getting healthy is going to be paramount for the Commanders heading into their Monday night matchup in Arrowhead against the red-hot Chiefs. Even if the Commanders are able to get Daniels, McLaurin, and Samuel back on the field in Kansas City; their defense will need to be the driving force behind a victory. Right now, there are more questions than answers in D.C. and we can certainly expect some changes moving forward.