NFL Preseason Recap: Cowboys' defense stellar again, Trey Lance steadies to beat Raiders 27-12

The Dallas Cowboys did a lot right on defense last week, despite giving up a game-winning drive at the end. Mike Zimmer, coaching his first game in Dallas since the early 2000s, saw his backup defenders convert on four errant Stetson Bennett passes and turn them into interceptions. Dallas’ offense, mostly led by Trey Lance, was only able to turn them into 3 points.

On Saturday night in Las Vegas, the Dallas defense was only able to corral one, but they didn’t rely on the offense. Kemon Hall, signed off waivers from the 49ers roster at the start of camp, took his nice pick 69 yards to the house for a Pick-6. Combined with Lance settling down after his first few throws, finding rookie Ryan Flournoy for a score and running another in, the Cowboys were able to earn a preseason win, 27-12.

Dallas had a plethora of positive performances from individuals in the game, most noteworthy was Lance starting to look more comfortable under the bright lights. His first couple of passes were high, late, or high and late, but once they stopped trying to push the ball down the field and took check downs, he seemed to find his accuracy.

Lance went 5-for-5 for 34 yards on a six-minute drive to almost end the second quarter, the final throw a 1-yard throw to the back of the end zone to Flournoy. He finished the game 15 of 23 for 151 yards through the air with the score, plus another 36 yards on the ground with the second TD.

Lance was hardly the only positive on offense. Cooper Beebe, starting after getting first-team reps at center during the week, looked the part. The third rounder didn’t have any snap issues and opened holes in the run game.

Speaking of the run game, Deuce Vaughn was rather electric on the evening, showing a ton of wiggle en route to 34 yards on five carries. Dallas’ run game in general was strong, with Royce Freeman averaging 4.6 yards on his seven carries.

The Dallas defense was once again the story of the contest, however. The pressure they lacked against the Rams was there on this evening, with Marshawn Kneeland looking like a potential impact player both against the pass and the run.

New addition Jordan Phillips made a handful of plays at the line and behind it, and last week’s goat Albert Huggins turned things around and routinely broke into the backfield to pressure the Raiders QBs.

In the back seven, Hall’s big play came on the heels of his competition for CB5 or CB6, Andrew Booth. Burned early on a deep pass, he bounced back to make several key open-field tackles among his eight takedowns and looked the part of a rotational backup.

Juanyeh Thomas looked ready for the regular season as well with two pass breakups, one at the LOS and one in deep coverage and Dallas looks deep in the secondary.

Rookie Marist Liafau shook off his first-game jitters and was making plays on the evening as well.

Throw in Brandon Aubrey nailing a 66-yard field goal that may have been good from 72 and it was a complete day.

All in all, it was a positive performance for most of the club and most importantly the team seemed to avoid any major injuries. The team will return to Oxnard for two more practices before returning to Dallas to host the Los Angeles Chargers in the final exhibition game next Saturday.