LANDOVER, Md. – Go ahead, just smile. Laugh if you want.

In all my 41 years of covering these Dallas Cowboys, I’ve never seen anything like this.

I bet if you were among the thousands of Cowboys fans who filled the 64,955 people here on a beautiful fall afternoon at Northwest Stadium, this would make you all jump out of your skin. The ups, the downs, the re-ups, the near-downs. The excitement.

And tell me, did these presumptive sad Cowboys, against all odds – and the odds were stacked by double digits for this road game, and missed even more so at kickoff with so many starters – bring you off the bench? Maybe even dance a little? Probably text a few times or, god forbid, go crazy calling to actually talk to someone, anyone.

Of all things, Cowboys an improbable 34, Commanders a humiliating 26, right before your eyes, causing a stir.

Look here, these 3-7 Cowboys, who came into this NFC East game on a five-game losing streak, were playing without starting quarterback Dak Prescott, still without No. 2 receiver Brandin Cooks and now for the first time without No. 1 tight end to Jake Ferguson.

They played without their two Pro Bowl starting guards on the offensive line, and at times they had three backup offensive linemen playing at the same time. Plus, add in a rookie under center and only one veteran lineman on the field.

They mysteriously left an injury to cornerback Trevon Diggs late in the week that was labeled “questionable.” I didn’t even bother taking him to the game, just in case. And the other starting corner, DaRon Bland, who had been inactive the past 11 weeks after surgery to repair his broken fifth metatarsal, played for the first time this season.

If you score at home, they may have been playing without their top five most experienced and best players: Dak (9th season), Zack Martin (11^e), DeMarcus Lawrence (11^e), Cooks (11^e) and Diggs (5th). If you add it all up at home, that’s 47 years of experience.

Head coach Mike McCarthy said of what he said to the team before the game: “This game should be about who’s playing and the things we have to do to win. This game isn’t about who’s not there. Take advantage of your opportunity. ”
Well said, but take this.

The Cowboys started this game on their first possession by smothering a Brandon Aubrey field goal attempt, of all things. On the second possession, Aubrey missed from 42 yards out from the right upright. When he lost on Rico Dowdle’s third possession, he lost one of the season. And on the fifth possession, Bryan Anger’s kick is partially blocked, just 23 yards.

Well, they only scored three points during the halftime period, and even if they had a 65-yard lead over the Commanders in those two quarters, they managed to come out of that disastrous half tied at 3-3.

Won because, as CeeDee Lamb noted, “we scratched and clawed.”

Won because backup quarterback Cooper Rush had the best game of his now three-game streak, throwing for 247 yards by completing 75 percent of his passes, including two for touchdowns, and earning a QB rating of 117.6 .

They won because Lamb played his heart and soul, catching 10 passes for 67 rushing yards. They won because backup tight end now starter Luke Schoonmaker caught his first touchdown pass of the season. They won because Dowdle ran like a man with his hair on fire for 85 yards against former Cowboys defensive coordinator and now Washington head coach Dan Quinn’s defense.

They won because former practice squad cornerback Josh Butler, starting in place of the remaining Diggs, showed why he was signed to the 53-man practice squad roster, with the commanders bullying him endlessly, but the first year corner finishing with a team- high of 12 tackles, one sack and three passes defensed, the most PBUs by an undrafted Cowboys free agent since 1994. They won because Micah Parsons was the Micah Parsons of way back in his third game back after missing four games with that high ankle sprain, finishing with eight tackles, two sacks, two tackles for loss, three QB hits and what must have been half a dozen QB pressures, if not more .

They won because this much-maligned defense held the Commanders to just nine points in the third quarter, while the Cowboys maintained their first three-quarter lead, 10-9, since a 17-12 lead over the Giants in Week 4, and only the second . of this season. This defense finished with four sacks, five TFLs, eight QB hits, and seven PBUs.

And the Cowboys actually scored their first third-quarter touchdown of the year, a six-yard Rush to Jalen Tolbert throw. Plus, thanks to this defense, with Donovan Wilson forcing a fumble. Eric Kendricks recovered at the Washington 44-yard line, and the Cowboys were ready to take a 20-9 lead on Schoonmaker’s 22-yard TD grab. He was so wide open in the end zone that when asked if he was surprised, he said, “Wow.”

I can’t make all this up.

And then came the “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” part of this improbable game after the Commanders cut the lead to 20-17 on a Jayden Daniels touchdown pass and his two-point conversion run.

KaVontae Turpin struck, as if one of the first Candid camera moments: “When you least expect it,” fumbling the ensuing kickoff but still picking up the loose ball at the 1-yard line, deliberately running to the 10, making a spin move – “It was just a reaction,” he said – and then, as Cooper notes, “He just stepped on the gas.” And I mean no one, not a soul, would catch the man. Just a lightning bolt who hit a top speed of 34.25 mph from a standing start, nearly surpassing Monday’s NFL-high speed of 36.36 mph on his touchdown grab from a running start.

What a spectacle to watch, Turp goes 99 yards for a touchdown, his first career kickoff for a score, prompting him to invoke his ‘Houdini’ breakout act. Get out of here. Including the fumble from the 5 to the 1, he did it all in 13 seconds.

“He’s special, a special young man,” said McCarthy in a postgame, who would have been excused if he ran into the interview room shouting, “What about the Cowboys.”

But the Cowboys weren’t quite clear yet, even though they now led 27-17 with 2:41 to play, with a suddenly awakened rookie quarterback in Daniels leading the Commanders to a field goal and what looked like the tying touchdown until the kicker. Austin Seibert missed the extra point on a low snap, now down 1 with 21 seconds left, 27-26.

Now let Juanyeh Thomas raise his hand high in the air, not only recovering the onside kick on the run, but driving straight for a 43-yard touchdown return, 34-26, in seven seconds. Combine that with Turpin’s 13-second touchdown romp, and this was perhaps the most electric 20 seconds in the Cowboys record books, as this marks the first time in their 65-year history that multiple kickoffs were returned for touchdowns in the same game .

Ball game, right? But not until Israel Mukuamu intercepted Daniels’ Hail Mary at the goal line, a pass he miraculously completed for the game-winner against the Bears four games ago.

So as was noted on Friday, these young people are growing up. Meet the names Asim Richards, TJ Bass, Brock Hoffman, Cooper Beebe, Schoonmaker, Jalen Brooks, Chauncey Golston, and so on. And so does Turpin, only in his third year, but now tied for the team’s touchdown lead with four, matching CeeDee’s, and has become the first Cowboys player to score touchdowns rushing, receiving and on punt and kickoff returns in a career.

And get it. It’s just one game. One win, and against a Washington team (7-5) that has now lost three straight games and beaten just one of seven teams with a winning record. Once again a warning to those who want to deal with absolutes in mid-season, as the commanders are already the textbook example of how to run an organization, how they have it all figured out. Remember, they now tipped Hail Mary because they were a 6-6 team playing in last place and still had to play Philadelphia and Dallas.

Put on the brakes a little.

As for the Cowboys, I never want to hear about how McCarthy lost the locker room, or how this team gave up, or how they should wave the white flag. Just play the game. Remember, the Giants are next on Thanksgiving, falling to 2-9 with Tommy DeVito starting, followed by the 4-7 Bengals, the 3-7 Panthers and 4-6 Buccaneers, 2-5 in their past seven games.

This is the NFL. Hey, the Cowboys, the losers of five straight games go on the road to beat Washington, Seattle beats Arizona, Tennessee beats Houston, Cleveland beats Pittsburgh, The Chiefs need another walk-off field goal to beat Carolina 30-27, and the Vikings had to go to overtime to beat the Bears, who scored 11 straight points to tie the game at 27 after four quarters, but lost by a field goal in OT.

That’s three teams finishing in first place. Another first-place team that needs to win with a walk-off field goal and a second-place team that needs one in overtime to beat the 4-6 Bears, who are now losers of five straight goals. Oh, not to mention the Commanders’ second-place losers on a team on a five-game losing streak.

Hey, it’s easy to stack. To chuckle. To make fun of the Cowboys. But these guys won a game with a shorthanded team that few, if any, ever dreamed they could win.