HOUSTON — Javonte Williams ran for three second-half touchdowns Sunday as the Dallas Cowboys came back from 16-6 at halftime to beat the Houston Texans 34-30 at Reliant Stadium. Williams finished with 19 carries for 62 yards and 3 touchdowns, a career high for touchdowns, and caught 5 passes for 21 yards.
Williams was the first Cowboys running back to run for three touchdowns in a game since Tony Pollard did it against Chicago in 2022, according to DallasCowboys.com. He has seven touchdowns through four games, and the team said the last Cowboys player to score seven times over four games was Emmitt Smith in 1995.
His first score was an 8-yard run off left tackle that made it 16-13, four plays after KaVontae Turpin returned the second-half kickoff 48 yards. The second came after a 53-yard catch by George Pickens and two penalties on cornerback Kamari Lassiter near the goal line. Jadeveon Clowney stuffed Williams for a 3-yard loss on the first try, but Williams scored from the 1 to make it 23-20. His 2-yard run up the middle early in the fourth quarter gave Dallas its first lead at 27-23.
Brian Schottenheimer Praises Javonte Williams’ Goal-Line Instincts
At The Star on Monday, Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said Dallas has always felt good about its red-zone plans and that every week is game-plan specific. Williams’ nose near the goal line is something he showed last season and this one.
“We’ve always felt really good about our plans in the red zone. Sometimes it’s different based on personnel groupings and what we see. Are they going to go big? Are they going to go little? Are they going to single us up on the outside? It’s very game-plan specific,” Schottenheimer said. “So we’re very comfortable that if we have to throw it in, we’re going to throw it in. If we can run it in, we will.”
“But I do think the nose that Javonte has down there is something that he’s shown this year and last year. You get down inside that area, you don’t need to block the run perfectly because he has a unique way of getting skinny and turning his shoulders and finding a way to get in the end zone,” Schottenheimer continued. “That’s one of the things we loved about him coming out of Denver.”
Terence Steele Says Cowboys Run Game Is Building Chemistry
Right tackle Terence Steele felt the run game coming together over the last two weeks. It has to develop over plays and over weeks, and Dallas wanted it going sooner.
“I think you just hit on it, like that chemistry. It’s harder to get the run game going. That’s something that has to develop over plays and over weeks,” Steele said. “Obviously we wanted to get going a lot sooner, but we’re starting to see some progress and there’s still a lot more room to grow within the run game and I’m just excited to do that.”
Cowboys Used Tempo To Put Houston Defense Under Pressure
Dallas left a lot of points on the board in the first half, in Steele’s view, before the first drive after halftime changed the momentum.
“Really just make a choice, but the choice was already made that we got to come out and play Cowboys football,” Steele explained. “I feel like we left a lot of points on the board in the first half and we just capitalized off the momentum that we had right off that first drive after halftime.”
The Cowboys went to more tempo after halftime. That kept Houston from making substitutions, Steele said.
“We just started playing Cowboys football. We put the pressure on them. I feel like we went tempo a lot more,” Steele said. “That helped us keep them from making a lot of subs and really just having a lot of success on our own, really dictating the style of play to them.”
“I think we really just set the tempo. A little bit more tempo, just a lot more on the ball, and that forced their hand to leave some guys on the field and take advantage of some personnel mismatches,” Steele continued.
Cowboys Say Williams Helps Open Entire Offense
Williams runs as hard as he can, according to wide receiver Ryan Flournoy, and the receivers and the run game open things up for each other.
“That’s what we wanted to be in. Like, even in our run game, we got Tay. Tay is going to run the ball as hard as he can and open it up for us,” Flournoy said. “And if we open it up for him, and I open it up for GP, GP opens it up for me, CeeDee opens it up for us, it’s like we could come together as an offense and we just dominate.”
Steele Says Dallas ‘Righted The Wrongs’ From Rio
Dallas lost in Rio de Janeiro a week earlier after reaching the Baltimore 2 in the final minute and kicking a field goal. Steele called Houston a chance to right the wrongs.
“No, definitely. It was very similar to Rio. We had an opportunity to win that game last week, and we didn’t,” Steele explained. “It was just good to right the wrongs of last week. So it just shows that improvement that we made as a program, top to bottom.”
Every game is a must-win for the Cowboys, according to Steele. Losing is never acceptable.
“I’m not going to lie. Every win is a must-win game for us. You never know how things could work out in the back end. You never know how things could work out in the playoff end. Oh, this team beat this team. But every game is a must-win for us,” Steele said. “Like losing is never acceptable. And we never go into a game thinking like, oh, we could drop this one and still be fine. Like, no. Every week is a one-week season and we just give our all to that week.”
A 2-2 record is a big difference from 1-3, as Steele sees it. Dallas can take the momentum forward but not the win itself.
“Big difference. Huge difference. I mean, we just got to continue to capitalize and build off the victory,” Steele said. “We can’t take this victory and just tag it on the next week. But we can take the momentum that we have and move forward with it.”
Schottenheimer Challenges Cowboys Tight Ends To Block Better
Schottenheimer asks his tight ends to do hard things as blockers, including full-speed motions back across the formation and kick-outs on elite defensive ends. He wants them to block better, and he called the room one of the team’s deepest.
“Yeah, unfortunately they get some tough matchups at times. I do think that they flash. We ask our tight ends to do a lot of really hard things. We put them in motion, full-speed motions and movements, and ask them to stay frontside and kick out elite defensive ends. Then we ask them to do full-speed motion and come back the other way,” Schottenheimer explained. “So it’s not where they’re standing in one place and able to get their feet and stuff in the ground. It’s definitely something that we can improve and get better at. But it’s a level-400 operation that we’re asking them to do.”
“It’s not what I remember tight ends doing when I was coming up in high school and even in college. It’s very different. The level of difficulty is hard,” Schottenheimer added. “But at the same time, it’s one of our strongest, deepest rooms, and they need to block better.”
Dallas is 2-2 and hosts the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Thursday, Oct. 8, at AT&T Stadium, with kickoff at 7:15 p.m. CT on Prime Video.
