Dallas City News

The Dallas Cowboys took care of business on Saturday night (kind of early Sunday morning!) against the Las Vegas Raiders in every single way. They shined on offense, defense and in special teams. Ultimately the final score was 27-12 in favor of the silver and blue in the house of silver and black.

You never want to overreact to a preseason game, but the Cowboys had quite the performance. It was a fun game that will hopefully serve as a positive launching point to the return to Frisco where maybe, just maybe, some contract extensions can be brokered.

Below you can find our quarter by quarter recap reorganized for clarity and to be read in chronological order.

---

First Quarter

The Raiders won the toss and elected to receive. Gardner Minshew was the starting quarterback for them, but notably Jordan Phillips started at defensive tackle for Dallas.

After getting just a little bit past midfield the Raiders were unable to convert on 3rd and 10 thanks to an excellent play by Marius Liufau. They went for it on fourth down, shout out preseason, but Willie Harvey denied them.

Dallas took over at their own 48-yard line and only managed 16 yards across 6 plays, although one of them was a tough Jalen Tolbert catch on the penultimate one. They settled for 3 from Brandon Aubrey from beyond the arc and took the lead.

The next Raiders drive featured a huge connection between Gardner Minshew and Tre Tucker, incidentally 48 yards so that number popped up again. The Cowboys slowed things down though, with Maris Liufau making plays early on, and forced a field goal.

Things continued in that back and forth nature and took us to the end of the quarter where the Cowboys were just beginning a possession with Trey Lance and Deuce Vaughn.

---

Second Quarter

Things began with Trey Lance and Deuce Vaughn front and center for the Cowboys, but ultimately they couldn’t get much of anything done. Lance tried to find Ryan Flournoy on third down, after an eight-yard run himself, and was unsuccessful. Back to Vegas. But not before a fun Deuce highlight!

The Cowboys defense did stand tall and forced a punt shortly after, but unfortunately Jalen Cropper fumbled the return and set the Raiders up at the Dallas 23-yard line. Amazingly the defense held again on four straight plays (the Raiders went for it) to take the ball back over once again.

Unfortunately the trend continued and the offense sputtered. Lance delivered a ball just a bit behind Jalen Cropper on third down (it was definitely catchable) but unfortunately the Cowboys had to punt.

Tre Tucker continued his strong game against the Cowboys and took the ball down inside the 30 on the return. Once again though! The Cowboys held! This time Vegas kicked a field goal and took the lead.

Apparently this inspired the Cowboys as they put together their most impressive drive not just of the night but of the entire preseason. It was literally the longest one to date.

AND IT ENDED IN A TOUCHDOWN!

Great moment for Trey Lance and Ryan Flournoy.

Amazingly the Cowboys were able to pull off one final drive and Trey Lance got the team into range for an insanely long field goal. But Brandon Aubrey is Brandon Aubrey.

66 yards!

What an end to the first half.

---

Third Quarter

Dallas began the second half with the ball and ultimately wound up punting. So much for the fireworks from the end of the first half rippling into the second.

The Raiders responded with their own drive of note as they drove 57 yards across 13 plays and made it to the endzone themselves. They went for two (likely to avoid any tie situations) and were unsuccessful which kept the good guys out in front.

Unfortunately the Cowboys could not do much and punted it back right away.

Las Vegas began a march and put themselves in position to threaten as the period came to a close.

---

Fourth Quarter

The first play of the fourth quarter was rather eventful! Kemon Hall took an interception all the way back to the house for a pick six.

Afterwards the teams traded possessions a few times and we got to see Trey Lance trot out for another one. This is easily the most comfortable that he has looked with a star on his helmet which makes the game a rather productive one.

The Cowboys put the game away just before the two-minute warning after another impressive drive where Trey Lance looked really smooth. Lance himself took care of the score.

Cowboys win!

---

Follow Blogging The Boys Everywhere

---

Notable Recent News

On Friday night it was reported that Mazi Smith suffered an allergic reaction earlier in the afternoon and did not travel with the team to Las Vegas. It remained to be seen how he would be feeling on Saturday, but the Cowboys announced earlier in the day that he would not travel from Oxnard and obviously would not be playing in the game.

Also, the Cowboys have made a variety of roster moves since we last saw them play in a preseason game:

• Signed OL Cohl Cabral
• Traded for DT Jordan Phillips
• Signed DE Carl Lawson

---

Injury Updates

Chuma Edoga suffered a toe injury and is expected to miss 4-6 weeks (that report was at the beginning of this week for what it’s worth). Also of note Earl Bostick Jr. headed back to Dallas for apparent surgery so it would stand to reason that he also will miss time.

---

Latest on CeeDee Lamb

It was reported as the work week came to a close that the Cowboys were offering Lamb south of $33M per year.

On Saturday NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo noted that that number (as in the APY) had to come up but that other things did as well. Garafolo noted that there is still “a lot” of work to do.

---

Up Next For The Cowboys

• Tuesday, August 20th: Practice in Oxnard (2pm ET)
• Wednesday, August 21st: Final practice in Oxnard (2pm ET)
• Saturday, August 24th: Final preseason game against Los Angeles Chargers at AT&T Stadium (4pm ET)