Two weeks down, two division wins in the Dallas Cowboys' pockets after they beat the Washington Redskins 31-21 at FedEx Field on Sunday.

The Cowboys started slow, going scoreless for the first 1 1/2 quarters, but caught fire toward the end of the first half and carried the momentum from that initial score all the way into the fourth quarter, reeling off five straight scores to put the game out of reach.

The defense had its lapses but still limited Washington to 255 total yards and just 4.6 yards per play, a lower mark than the 5 yards per play the team averaged last season (28th in the NFL in 2018).

Without further ado, let's dive into a few things gleaned from the Cowboys' stellar victory over a division foe.

Kellen Moore is hot right now

Another week, another dazzling display for the offense under the watchful eye of play-caller Kellen Moore.

Last year, the Kansas City Chiefs' 6.7 yards per play led the NFL. The Cowboys have averaged 8 (against New York) and 7.3 yards per play in their first two games this season, illustrating how efficient they have been so far.

After a sluggish start Sunday, the Cowboys rattled off five straight scoring drives to take the lead and build on it. Washington, a team with Case Keenum at quarterback, had no chance to keep pace with Dallas' dynamic offense.

Pre-snap movement, play action, alerts, run-pass options (RPOs), varied tempo and diverse formations -- the Cowboys carried over all the elements that enabled them to score 35 points on the Giants.

Moore has unlocked the true talent of the personnel, as the players are executing well given the advantages provided to them by his play-calling and design. Prescott's 51-yard touchdown pass to Devin Smith (more on him later) was a great example, as the play's design put the Cowboys in a spot to take advantage of Smith's speed to the deep middle with a cornerback leveraged outside:

On this play, the Cowboys are in a 3x1 single-back set (Blake Jarwin, Amari Cooper and Randall Cobb to the strong side of the formation with Smith isolated on the backside), using 11 personnel (one running back, one tight end, three receivers) against Washington's nickel defense (four defensive linemen, two linebackers and five defensive backs).

Before the ball is snapped, Cooper's short motion from out wide in toward the formation helps identify that Washington is in zone coverage, which is exactly what Dallas wanted.

The genius of this play design is that it put the deep middle safety in a conflict between two routes. With the Cowboys running a high-low concept with Cobb and Cooper's deep over routes, the strong safety (Landon Collins, No. 20) is forced to carry Cooper in coverage, leaving Cobb running open deep downfield.

Given that Washington is running a Cover 3 concept -- meaning the outside cornerbacks are playing press-bail technique, where they are in a press alignment with outside leverage before bailing to a deep-third zone -- the outside corners are taught to funnel vertical routes toward their help, the deep safety. So, Smith is able to easily gain inside leverage with the release and stem of his deep post route. This puts the free safety (Montae Nicholson, No. 35) in quite the pickle.

If Nicholson stays in the deep middle to give Josh Norman the helps he's expecting, Cobb would have been wide open outside the numbers for what would have likely been a touchdown. If he eschews his deep middle responsibility to pick Cobb up on the deep crosser -- which is exactly what happened -- he puts Norman in horrible position to cover the deep post.

With Norman playing outside leverage, his only shot to defend this pass is to outrun Smith to the spot of the throw -- given their 40 times (Norman, 4.66; Smith, 4.42), this is a huge mismatch in favor of the Cowboys' offense.

From there, it was up to Prescott to throw the ball to the deep middle of the field to allow Smith to get under it for the catch and run to the end zone, which is exactly what happened as Prescott unleashed a perfectly placed pass.

This play was also a great example of another advantage of using play action. Even if the run action in the backfield doesn't suck up the linebackers and safeties toward the line of scrimmage, it can still slow down a pass rush by forcing it to honor the run before transitioning to rushing the passer.

The play's design took advantage of Washington's coverage rules given the call. Putting defenders in conflict will always be a recipe for success for offenses, and it's one of the core tenants that has allowed Moore's offense to have so much success so far.

Moore is continually looking to take advantage of players in conflict to create easy throwing windows for Prescott, which is a huge reason he finished the game with 18 straight completions and has a career-high 82.3% completion rate through two games. Another example of this is on zone-read runs:

Zeke TD run - Ryan Anderson gets reached and sealed by Witten on the back side. Leaves him in Holcomb's gap, who couldn't get inside to make up for it. Zeke cuts it back quickly and runs in for the TD #Redskins pic.twitter.com/ILgfQ7pALg — Mark Bullock (@MarkBullockNFL) September 15, 2019

On this play, the Cowboys are running an inside zone read with Collins (No. 20) as the read man -- the player who is in conflict. If Collins attacks the running back at the mesh point, Prescott keeps the ball and likely walks into the end zone.

But since Collins stays home initially to defend the quarterback keeper off the read, Ezekiel Elliott has the space he needs to cut upfield and to the end zone. If Dallas ran a traditional inside zone here, Collins would have been able to chase Elliott down from the backside before he could reach the end zone. The hesitation caused by the threat of Prescott's legs is what allowed the touchdown run to come to fruition -- another great illustration of Dallas taking advantage of defenders in conflict.

Any play-action pass is a good example as well, since it causes linebackers' run and pass responsibilities to conflict. When a linebacker steps toward the line of scrimmage to defend a run, he opens up space behind him to be taken advantage of through the air.

The combination of Moore's play-calling and design with the talent of the offensive personnel makes this offense extremely tough to stop. The real test will come once defenses get enough tape on the Moore's offense to start combating the Cowboys' tendencies -- the best play-callers in the NFL separate themselves by their ability to adjust on the fly to defenses' counters.

Having said that, it's pretty difficult to top what Moore has done in his first two games as offensive coordinator. When you combine his play-calling and design with Prescott's technical improvements as a passer, you get what's been one of the most well-rounded and efficient offenses in the league so far.

DeMarcus Lawrence needs help

Given the offense's dominance through two weeks, the Cowboys' defense will receive more criticism than it deserves in the coming days. Nevertheless, it's become apparent that defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence needs up front in terms of rushing the passer.

In two weeks, the Cowboys have just two total sacks against offensive lines that are average, at best.

To his credit, Lawrence is doing everything he can to generate pressure on quarterbacks, displaying the same motor, quickness and hand technique that led him to back-to-back double-digit sack seasons. His fourth-quarter pressure, which nearly caused an interception, was a great example:

On this play, Lawrence is aligned at left defensive end opposite Washington right tackle Morgan Moses. When the ball is snapped, Lawrence explodes out of his stance and attacks vertically with his first two steps. On his third step, however, Lawrence aims toward Moses' frame as a means of shifting his weight inside and drawing out his hands.

From there, Lawrence Euro-steps to expand outside and attack Moses' edge, knocks down the right tackle's strike and then immediately dips to turn a tight corner and flatten to the quarterback.

Lawrence's hands may be the main course, but his footwork is certainly the appetizer and dessert, as the two work in cohesion to defeat opposing blockers with consistency.

If rushing the passer were akin to the culinary arts, Lawrence would be a Michelin Star chef. Still, even the best chefs need the help of line cooks to get through a service, and Lawrence needs some help in the pass-rushing department.

The Cowboys were able to scheme Tyrone Crawford free for a sack, but the non-Lawrence defensive linemen have struggled to win their one-on-one matchups to generate pressure on quarterbacks.

Maliek Collins has flashed disruptive ability up front, but he still hasn't been a consistent threat as a pass rusher to this point. Crawford, who appears to still be bothered by his injured hip, hasn't been as effective as he has in previous years. Dorance Armstrong, Kerry Hyder and Joe Jackson play hard but haven't been able to claim enough clean wins to generate pressure.

The lack of pass-rush effectiveness from the rest of the defensive line enabled both New York and Washington to send a ton of attention Lawrence's way, which has slowed his production.

The Cowboys need that other pass rusher to take advantage of all the one-on-one opportunities. Luckily for them, reinforcements are on the way with Robert Quinn scheduled to return from suspension this week.

If Quinn can prove capable of winning consistently one-on-one, he will force offenses to take some of their attention away from Lawrence, giving Dallas' best pass rusher more one-on-one chances. More of those for Lawrence means production for the Cowboys' pass rush as a whole.

Devin Smith makes most of his opportunities, continues to earn more

From a roster afterthought to a gameday contributor, Smith's journey back to NFL relevance has been one of the team's best stories up to this point.

After being drafted in the second round by the New York Jets in 2015 to be the league's next great deep threat, multiple serious injuries prevented Smith from producing on the field as he totaled just 10 receptions for 135 yards before he was released in July 2018.

Smith was signed to a reserve/futures contract by the Cowboys in January. It wasn't immediate, but he slowly started to flash the traits that made him a second-round pick after the first week of training camp. Even though he started slow, Smith took advantage of essentially every opportunity he was given from the first preseason game on.

He played so well that he earned a spot on the 53-man roster despite starting camp toward the bottom of the depth chart, earning that spot over draft picks and cheaper receivers.

Smith wasn't a factor Week 1, but with Tavon Austin out with a concussion Sunday, the opportunity opened up for him to be included in the game plan. And just like he did with previous opportunities afforded to him in Dallas, Smith took full advantage, catching three passes for a team-best 74 receiving yards.

Smith's 51-yard touchdown grab was obviously the highlight, as he showed off his deep speed to run away from a former All-Pro in Norman on a post route.

Smith also got open underneath on an alert bullet slant (above clip), where Prescott eschews the run call to take advantage of the defense's alignment and initial steps. Smith even showed off a little wiggle, making one defender miss in an effort to rack up some yards after the catch.

On top of his production, Smith also made an impact on plays where he didn't receive the ball. For example, on a third-down pass in the third quarter (above clip), Smith's stop route occupied Washington defenders, leaving Cooper open behind him for a chunk play.

Through his impressive play against Washington, Smith has earned more opportunities to be involved in the offense even once Austin returns from injury.

Enjoy this post? More film studies:

-- Inside Cowboys QB Dak Prescott's Week 1 performance, from all the good to the (very) little bad

-- 3 things we learned about the Kellen Moore-led Cowboys offense against the Giants

-- Breaking down a clever wrinkle that helped Cowboys' defense keep the Giants in check

Twitter: @JohnOwning