{"id":1116758,"date":"2025-12-25T19:29:37","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T00:29:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/?p=1116758"},"modified":"2025-12-25T19:29:37","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T00:29:37","slug":"cowboys-vs-commanders-first-half-recap-dallas-leads-24-10-on-christmas-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/cowboys-vs-commanders-first-half-recap-dallas-leads-24-10-on-christmas-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Cowboys vs. Commanders first half recap: Dallas leads 24-10 on Christmas Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

Second Quarter<\/h2>\n

The Cowboys converted yet another fourth and short in the opening minute of the second quarter and this kept them alive and threatening for another score on the day.<\/p>\n

Like the first possession, the aggression was rewarded with a touchdown for the Cowboys. This one came by way of Javonte Williams.<\/p>\n

\n

JAVONTE TD! pic.twitter.com\/nz97lCDraT<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Blogging The Boys (@BloggingTheBoys) December 25, 2025<\/a><\/div>\n

SCORE: COWBOYS 14, COMMANDERS 3 (Javonte Williams touchdown)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The next possession was interesting from a broadcast perspective as Emmitt Smith joined to provide commentary. He noted that he is a fan of how Brian Schottenheimer seems to be changing the culture of the Cowboys and also discussed various holiday-related things.<\/p>\n

As the game was going on so was the Washington offense by way of Deebo Samuel again. The Cowboys buckled though and forced the first punt of the afternoon.<\/p>\n

Washington\u2019s punt worked out very nicely for them as they put the Cowboys on the Dallas 3-yard line. That did not seem to be a huge issue though as 5 plays later the Cowboys were the endzone once more thanks to a huge connection from Dak Prescott to KaVontae Turpin on a free play thanks to an offsides call.<\/p>\n

\n

DAK. TURPIN. GOODNESS. pic.twitter.com\/FiqtJ3YyFL<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Blogging The Boys (@BloggingTheBoys) December 25, 2025<\/a><\/div>\n

SCORE: COWBOYS 21, COMMANDERS 3 (Dak Prescott to KaVontae Turpin touchdown)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Unfortunately for the Commanders their next drive saw former Cowboys center Tyler Biadasz get hurt. Hopefully he is alright.<\/p>\n

Washington looked to be denied inside of the redzone after a third down play, but things were kept alive for them by way of pass interference. Shortly after Bill Croskey-Merritt punched it in for their first touchdown.<\/p>\n

SCORE: COWBOYS 21, COMMANDERS 10 (Bill Croskey-Merritt touchdown)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Cowboys moved very well and managed bleeding the clock as the first half was coming to a close. Finally they reached a 3rd and 5 and it was clear that the result was going to be important before teams went their separate ways for halftime.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately Dak Prescott was sacked, but that left Brandon Aubrey with \u201conly\u201d 42 yards to go which he was good from.<\/p>\n

SCORE: COWBOYS 24, COMMANDERS 10 (Brandon Aubrey field goal)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

That was that. Halftime. <\/p>\n

First Quarter<\/h2>\n

The Commanders won the toss and deferred which put the Cowboys on the field first.<\/p>\n

Early in the drive things looked sluggish for the Cowboys, but a penalty on the first third down they faced that was called against Washington seemed to wake them up. In fact, they were so alert that when they reached a fourth and short soon after while still on their side of the field they went for it and got it to keep things moving.<\/p>\n

It was a stellar drive when it was all said and done as Dak Prescott found Jake Ferguson for a fun touchdown to start the day off right.<\/p>\n

\n

FERG!!! pic.twitter.com\/Q5YxzDZn4C<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Blogging The Boys (@BloggingTheBoys) December 25, 2025<\/a><\/div>\n

SCORE: COWBOYS 7, COMMANDERS 0 (Dak Prescott to Jake Ferguson touchdown)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Getting off to a lead was certainly ideal, but it hardly guaranteed anything. Washington seemed pretty intent on having their own offensive success in quarterback Josh Johnson\u2019s first start since 2021.<\/p>\n

Deebo Samuel did his best to help out. He had a huge catch and run that saw him pop Donovan Wilson\u2019s helmet off at the end.<\/p>\n

\n

DEEBO!pic.twitter.com\/GgrAgwzATv<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 COMMANDERS FOOTBALL (@HogsHaven) December 25, 2025<\/a><\/div>\n

Thankfully the Cowboys defense held right after this. In fact, Jadeveon Clowney got a sack on Johnson on third down to force a field goal that was good.<\/p>\n

SCORE: COWBOYS 7, COMMANDERS 3 (Jake Moody field goal)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The first quarter ended with the Cowboys driving after having just converted another fourth and short. <\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/cowboys-vs-commanders-first-quarter-183332959.html<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Second Quarter The Cowboys converted yet another fourth and short in the opening minute of the second quarter and this kept them alive and threatening…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1116758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1116758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1116758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1116758\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1116758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1116758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1116758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}