Cowboys at Jets historical notes: Javonte Williams’ huge day

Sunday was a ton of fun for the Dallas Cowboys as they spent most of the second half relaxing with the game on ice. Hopefully your fantasy teams and what not also played to that standard to give you a full day of relaxation.

It was a highly productive and successful outing for Dallas at MetLife Stadium, hopefully the first of two this season.

There were several elements of what we saw that jumped out and do so against the test of time. We know this thanks to resources like Pro Football Reference and Stathead that allow us to literally measure things against both franchise and NFL history at large.

We do this every week and it is so much more fun after a big week. Let’s get into this week’s historical notes.

Dak Prescott had a very clean and efficient game

On Sunday, Dak Prescott surpassed 230 passing yards with a completion percentage north of 60%. He had four touchdowns and no interceptions on the day. Again, it was very clean.

Using these specific filters, this was only the 17th game in franchise history where a quarterback has done it all. Prescott leads the group with eight total, although Troy Aikman did it in Super Bowl XXVII which kind of counts more!

Only two of these games were losses for the quarterback in question, by the way. Tony Romo deserved better.

Dak Prescott has made it a habit of tossing four touchdowns

As noted Prescott threw for four touchdowns on the day. This was the 13th time he has done this in a single contest.

Prescott has the most games of such kind in franchise history.

Javonte Williams’ 66-yard gain was impressive

Late in the first half Javonte Williams took a handoff 66 yards before going out of bounds just shy of the goal line. It felt like one of the longer runs that the Cowboys have had in some time. That feeling and instinct (shout out to myself) was correct.

The last time that a player took one at least that far for Dallas was Alfred Morris against the Rams in 2017. Prior to that, the last time someone reached at least 66 yards in a Cowboys uniform was DeMarco Murray who went 91 yards, also against the Rams (although the St. Louis version).

Williams’ overall day was impressive

Williams finished Sunday at MetLife with 135 rushing yards and a touchdown on the ground, but he also had a receiving touchdown to go along with it (plus four yards through the air). Consider that Williams is the first player since 2022 (Tony Pollard) to amass 130 rushing yards and have multiple scores in the same game.

Prior to that Pollard game in 2022 it had been a minute. We are talking about this phenomenon (these are arbitrary numbers to be clear) only having happened twice from 2018 through 2024. Needless to say Williams has been a breath of fresh air.

MetLife Stadium has seen some deep Dak Prescott touchdowns lately

Dak Prescott threw a 43-yard touchdown to George Pickens on Sunday and that was a ton of fun. It marked the longest Cowboys play to go for a touchdown since Cooper Rush connected with KaVontae Turpin last season.

Interestingly the last time that a touchdown thrown by Dak Prescott traveled that far it was to CeeDee Lamb and also occurred at MetLife Stadium. It was early in last season and against the Giants though, not the Jets.

George Pickens is off to quite the start

Through his first five games with the Cowboys, George Pickens has surpassed 350 receiving yards while reeling in five touchdowns. He is one of just 17 players since 1970 (technically Randy Moss is on here twice, but you get the point) to reach these marks in his first 5 games with a team. Current Buccaneers rookie Emeka Egbuka is also making waves.