Dak Prescott Passes Romo After a Call Washington Cannot Undo

Dak Prescott threw his 249th career touchdown pass in Dallas’ 37-20 win over Washington on Sunday. The throw was a 24-yarder to CeeDee Lamb with 3:13 left at AT&T Stadium.

The play that will follow both clubs out of Arlington happened earlier. With 3 seconds left in the first half, the Commanders snapped the ball from the Dallas 1-yard line, and Jayden Daniels went down with a left elbow dislocation.

What Happened on Jayden Daniels’ Injury Play

Washington trailed 17-10 and had already spent all three timeouts in the red zone. The Commanders reached first-and-goal at the 1 with 12 seconds left and no timeouts remaining. Two incompletions left them with one snap and a choice: kick and go to the locker room down 17-13, or play for the tie.

Coach Dan Quinn kept the offense on the field. Daniels took the snap on third-and-goal, started to turn right (likely toward running back Rachaad White in the flat), and got his feet tangled with left guard Chris Paul, who the club had listed Chris Paul as left guard on the Week 2 depth chart. Daniels put his left arm down to break the fall. The elbow bent the wrong way. He flung the ball underhand, stayed down, got up, then went back to the turf.

THE LAST 12 SECONDS

1. 12 seconds, first-and-goal at the 1: Washington is out of timeouts, trailing 17-10, and still has a field-goal unit on the sideline.
2. Two incompletions: The clock stops after each throw, and the Commanders stay at the 1-yard line.
3. 3 seconds, third-and-goal: Daniels is stepped on by Paul, braces with his left arm, and the elbow dislocates as time expires.

Teammates knelt around him. Trainers put the arm in an air cast. He left on a cart with a towel over his head, long after most of both teams had gone inside. Fox analyst Tom Brady swore on the air when the replay rolled. The club posted the ruling a few minutes later.

QB Jayden Daniels (left elbow) has been ruled out

— Washington Commanders (@Commanders) September 20, 2026

Quinn said after the game that X-rays showed no fracture and that Daniels would fly home with the team for more imaging on Monday, Sept. 21. The quarterback later walked out in a sling and hugged family. The Commanders had outgained Dallas at that point and had just watched Daniels run the Cowboys ragged. They still went to halftime down 17-10, and without him.

249 Touchdowns, and Romo Is No Longer First

Prescott entered Sunday already the Cowboys’ leader in passing yards (36,164), completions (3,206), attempts (4,793), passer rating (98.2), and completion percentage (66.9%). Touchdown passes were the last counting stat Tony Romo still held. Romo threw 248 of them from 2006 to 2016. Prescott, a fourth-round pick in 2016 who took the job when Romo hurt his back in camp, needed four scores to pass him and got all four.

He opened with a 3-yard toss to Lamb, hit Jake Ferguson from 10 yards in the second quarter, then tied Romo on a 12-yard strike to Ferguson in the third. The record ball was a slightly underthrown fade that Lamb ripped away from cornerback Mike Sainristil. Lamb handed him the ball after the play. Prescott finished 26 of 31 passes for 279 yards, four touchdowns, no interceptions, and a 143.8 rating. He also ran four times for 26 yards. It was his fifth four-touchdown game against Washington and his 79th career multi-touchdown game, tying Romo there too.

COWBOYS CAREER PASSING TOUCHDOWNS

Lamb caught eight passes for 153 yards and two scores, his ninth career multi-touchdown game. Those two touchdowns ran his career total from Prescott to 37, most of any teammate. Ferguson caught all four of his targets for 43 yards and two scores, the third two-touchdown game of his career. Prescott is 33 and in his 11th season. He still trails Aikman (94) and Staubach (85) in regular-season wins, and Dallas has not been to an NFC title game since the 1995 Super Bowl season.

That made me emotional. There’s tons of guys that aren’t in that locker room that I think about when I break this record. To see my teammates act that way, to see guys that only have been together for five, six months, have the joy, have the cheers that they do, it was emotional.

Dak Prescott, Cowboys quarterback, postgame

He had been thinking about his late mother hours before kickoff. On the record throw itself he was blunter. “It was definitely fitting and it wasn’t a great ball,” he said. “Always one-on-one, I put it out there and I’m like, ‘CeeDee, please just get this over with,’ and he did.” Coach Brian Schottenheimer said you cannot talk about Prescott the player without starting with the man. Dallas is now 8-0 at home against the Commanders in the Prescott era.

Why Quinn Left the Kicker on the Sideline

The injury was not a linebacker landing on the quarterback. It was a teammate’s foot and a fall onto a joint that had already failed once. That is why the decision, not the contact, is the part that does not wash off. A field goal from the 1 is almost automatic. Quinn did not want three points.

We needed touchdowns, and so I don’t regret the call. Obviously, anytime someone’s injured, you play the ‘what-if game.’ I don’t think this is one of those times for me.

Dan Quinn, Commanders head coach, postgame

Marcus Mariota, who took over to start the third quarter, backed him. “I love how aggressive we were there,” Mariota said. “I loved the call.” The math Quinn was playing is real enough: Dallas had already scored 17, Brandon Aubrey was going to keep kicking, and a 17-13 halftime deficit still asks you to score touchdowns after the break. The cost of being wrong sat on a cart.

Going for the tie with no timeouts is the choice a coach has to own even when the hurt is a freak step. Paul did not mean to step on his quarterback. The snap still did not have to happen. That is the argument that will ride with this staff to next Sunday, because the play cannot be run back and the quarterback cannot be rewound.

The Elbow Washington Already Knew Too Well

Daniels, 25, looked like the 2024 Offensive Rookie of the Year again before the half. He scrambled for a 20-yard gain on the drive that ended with a 4-yard touchdown to Stefon Diggs, cutting the deficit to 17-10 with 6:37 left in the second quarter. He finished 11 of 17 for 96 yards and that score, plus 69 rushing yards on seven carries (9.9 a try, long of 20). Quinn said he thought Daniels was “really playing his ass off.” A 34-yard throw to Terry McLaurin that was first ruled a touchdown had already been overturned, with McLaurin ruled out of the back of the end zone.

THE SAME LEFT ELBOW

• Week 9, 2025, vs. Seattle: Daniels dislocates the left elbow, avoids a fracture, and is not placed on injured reserve.
• Four weeks later: He returns, then reinjures the joint at Minnesota in Week 14 while trying to make a tackle after an interception.
• Rest of 2025: He does not play again, and Mariota starts eight games.
• Sept. 20, 2026, at Dallas: The elbow dislocates again on the last play of the first half. X-rays show no fracture. More scans are set for Monday, Sept. 21.

The joint is his non-throwing arm, which is the only mercy in the report. A second dislocation is still a second dislocation. Ligaments that have already given out once do not get tighter on their own, and Washington already spent the back half of 2025 learning what this offense looks like when Daniels is in street clothes. He was carted off in Week 2 of the next season with the same arm in a cast.

Marcus Mariota Inherited More Than a Second Half

Mariota, 32, last held a full-time starting job in 2022 with Atlanta. In 2025, when Daniels kept getting hurt, he started eight games and went 2-6, completing 61.2 percent for 1,695 yards, 10 touchdowns, and seven interceptions. On Sunday he went 11 of 16 for 111 yards and a 20-yard touchdown to Diggs that made it 30-20 with 9:09 left. Diggs finished with five catches for 47 yards and two scores, one from each quarterback.

The backup’s first drive of the third quarter reached the end zone on paper. Mariota’s throw to Dyami Brown was ruled incomplete after review, Brown appearing to gather the ball as his knee came down. That series ended in a 47-yard field goal, cutting the deficit only to 17-13. Brown later lost a fumble on a screen, with rookie linebacker Jaishawn Barham knocking it out and Dee Winters recovering near the Washington 13. Two snaps after that, Ferguson was alone in the end zone and Dallas led 27-13.

Center Nick Allegretti said he has no doubts about Mariota’s ability to run the huddle. McLaurin called him a complete pro and a leader even when he is not the starter. Those are the right things to say on a Sunday night. They do not change an 0-2 start in the NFC East, or the fact that Seattle visits next Sunday, or that Sam Cosmi (concussion protocol), Javon Kinlaw (shoulder), and Brandon Coleman (finger) joined a list that already included Frankie Luvu (groin) and Chig Okonkwo (hamstring). Third-stringer Athan Kaliakmanis, a seventh-round pick from Rutgers, is the emergency option. Sam Hartman is on the practice squad and has never thrown a regular-season pass.

Aubrey’s 60-Yard Kick Closed the Night Early

Dallas led 10-0 after a 3-yard Lamb touchdown and a 25-yard Aubrey field goal, then 17-3 after Ferguson’s first score. Washington answered with a 27-yard kick from Drew Stevens and the Diggs touchdown. After the injury, the Cowboys did not need a shootout. They needed the next mistake.

HOW THE POINTS LANDED

Aubrey’s 44-yarder in the third made it 20-13. Ferguson’s 12-yard catch, the one that tied Romo’s mark, made it 27-13. Washington missed from 51 as the third quarter died. Aubrey then hit from 60, his seventh career kick from that distance or longer, and the first 60-yarder of the 2026 season, for 30-13. Diggs’ second touchdown was noise. Prescott answered with the 35-yard shot to Lamb and the 24-yard score that ended the counting.

Washington actually won the tape in the dull columns. The Commanders outgained Dallas 389 to 332, held the ball 31:29 to 28:31, and ran for 182 yards against 66. Javonte Williams had 12 carries for 30 yards. Dallas still left 1-1 because Prescott was 26 of 31 and because the red zone, the fumble, the overturned throw, and the last snap of the half did not care about total yards. The Cowboys’ defense was already thin (DeMarvion Overshown, Malik Hooker, and James Houston were out before kickoff; P.J. Locke and Cobie Durant left with a foot and a hamstring), which is how Daniels found 69 rushing yards in one half. Once he was gone, Dallas could live with the rest.

Rio and a Short Week for Two NFC East Teams

The Eagles sit 2-0. The Giants are 1-0 heading into a Monday night game against the Rams. Dallas is 1-1 and flies to Rio de Janeiro to play the Ravens next Sunday. Washington is 0-2, at home against Seattle, and waiting on Monday’s scans. Prescott, talking about the bounce-back, said the Cowboys could not start 0-2 in the division and that they would take the win with them to Brazil.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The diagnosis: Quinn confirmed a left elbow dislocation. X-rays showed no fracture.
• The next test: Daniels was set for more imaging on Monday, Sept. 21, after flying home with the team.
• The stand-in: Mariota will run the offense until Daniels is cleared, with Kaliakmanis as the emergency third quarterback.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• Return date: No timetable has been given for Daniels, and a Week 3 status against Seattle is not yet known.
• Ligaments: Sunday’s X-rays do not settle whether this dislocation damaged the joint the way the 2025 injury did, or worse.
• Injured reserve: Washington has not said whether he will be placed on IR.

Prescott has the franchise passing record and a ball Lamb put in his hands. Washington has an 0-2 record, a backup quarterback, and a snap from the 1-yard line that it can still see. Seattle arrives next Sunday either way.