The Dallas Cowboys took the NFL world by storm in Week 1 with their dominating, 35-17 chopping down of their division rivals. the New York Giants. The thunderous offensive performance, constructed by coordinator Kellen Moore, and executed by the pristine passing of quarterback Dak Prescott, put the league on notice the Cowboys were no longer one-dimensional on offense, and would no longer lean on an elite defense to win games.

With the new-found confidence in the offense attacking through the air, a look ahead to their Week 2 opponent presents provocative, tantalizing options.

In an attempt to look forward to how Moore can attack the Washington Redskins defense, let’s look back at how Washington’s Week 1 opponent, the Philadelphia Eagles, were able to create explosive touchdown passes and tilt the game in their favor.

Example 1

This is a beautiful play-call from Philadelphia head coach Doug Pederson on 3rd-and-long.

Washington is playing a Quarters-Match coverage concept, with a Tampa drop from the middle linebacker, putting 5 defenders behind the sticks and the 3 underneath defenders all drop to the sticks as well. Their goal was to force Wentz to throw it underneath so they could rally and make the tackle.

With four routes taking place in front of the defense, four of Washington’s five deep defenders matched those routes but because of their design, the only player left to match the vertical route by Desean Jackson out of the slot, is corner Josh Norman.

The Cowboys can capture this dynamic in their offense like this:

With the motion on the outside by Michael Gallup (13) creating the 3-man bunch, Moore can force the Washington defensive backs to adjust their depth.

The goal here is to get Tavon Austin(10), and his 4.27 40 speed, with a running start against Norman, who ran a 4.66, and will have to start from a standstill.

The deep-in route from Gallup should occupy any middle of field defender, and leave Prescott plenty of room to let Austin run away from Norman.

If Austin is unavailable Sunday due to injury, Randall Cobb, Tony Pollard, or Amari Cooper could easily be placed into that spot, and would have the pure speed to run past Norman.

Ed. Note: Austin missed his second straight day of practice with concussion symptoms Thursday.

Example 2

This time, Washington is playing Cover-3 on 3rd-and-long, and just like on the prior score, the Eagles are running a concept designed to manipulate a middle-of-the-field defender to create room for Jackson deep down the field.

Moore can “steal” this play in Week 2 like this.

The key to this idea, is the two vertical routes from Cooper (19) and Cobb (18).

The design is for Cooper to cross in front of the middle of field safety to draw his eyes and attention, while allowing Cobb to run up the numbers.

In the game against Philadelphia, the corner bit on the in route from the outside wide receiver which opened up more space, and the curl route from Blake Jarwin (89) on the backside keeps the defender on that side from rotating over.

If they get a split-safety coverage look, Cooper’s route in the middle of the field should be wide open.

Conclusion

My belief is opposing teams will continue to value stopping the run first against the Cowboys until Moore and Prescott put several games together where they beat up on opponents who do so.

I also believe the Cowboys pass catchers are far more talented top to bottom than the Redskins coverage players. Because of that talent advantage, Moore should be able to find mismatches, and as he showed poor Deandre Carter in Week 1, he is willing to attack those opportunities relentlessly.

As a result, there will be big plays-a-plenty on Sunday afternoon for the Cowboys offense. through the air.