RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Aug 15, 2026; Seattle, Washington, USA; Dallas Cowboys running back Israel Abanikanda (30) carries the ball against the Seattle Seahawks during the second half at Lumen Field. Mandatory Credit: Steven Bisig-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
The Dallas Cowboys were officially back on the field for the first time in 2026 on Saturday, and so too were the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks. There were certainly some moments that reminded us all this is just the first appetizer towards the main course of week one regular season football.
The Cowboys won this appetizer of a game 17-7, falling behind 7-0 after the Seahawks went down the field with a 13-play scoring drive that proved to be their biggest offensive highlight of the night. The Cowboys were the only team to score the rest of the game, with 14 of these points coming on insane highlight reel catches for touchdowns by UDFA wide receiver Camden Brown, one from Sam Howell and one from Joe Milton.
As we’ll do after every single Cowboys contest this season, let’s get to a few scouting notes on everything that went down between the Cowboys and Seahawks on Saturday night at Lumen Field.
On Dallas’ first defensive possession to start the game, Caelen Carson and Shavon Revel Jr. were the two outside cornerbacks. Revel is technically a carryover from the failed Matt Eberflus defensive experiment of a year ago, but with so much missed time, he is primed to take to the coaching of Christian Parker and be the latest cornerback that takes leaps and strides under his secondary-focused coaching.
On the other hand, Carson is a carryover going all the way back to Mike Zimmer’s defense in 2024, has not made as much noise at training camp, and it showed in this Seahawks game how making yet another coaching adjustment with multiple schemes already behind him is proving difficult for the former fifth-round pick.
As a duo though, Carson and Revel combined to show what should be one of the overall strengths of Parker’s defensive game planning, and that is the flexibility to put individual players in the best position to win. On the very first snap of the game, Carson was in more of an off-coverage position compared to Revel being in press, and it helped Carson have the angle to make a strong tackle against the run towards the boundary. One play later, the Seahawks dropped back to pass for the first time, and targeted Revel – still in this press technique – who nearly intercepted the Drew Lock attempt.
Unfortunately, one of the things that even good coaching and great individual plays can’t overcome on defense is free yards awarded to an offense, and that ended up being more of the story of the night for Carson. Two third-down penalties, first pass interference then a facemask, extended Seattle’s opening touchdown drive, and Carson had a third holding penalty later in the night.
The Cowboys had strung together some good practice runs on offense in the red zone, but settled for a field goal on their first trip against the Seahawks. The big plays on the drive were a 13-yard screen pass to Jaydon Blue to get it started and two third-down conversions by Jonathan Mingo. Dallas went back to the screen to Blue in the red zone and it was not as effective, leading to the Brandon Aubrey 29-yard field goal.
When it comes to Blue and Mingo, both provided insight into the roster battles at running back and wide receiver respectively with their play. Blue led the team in carries with eight, but gained just 19 yards with a long of four on these eight attempts compared to 39 yards on seven rushes for Malik Davis and 36 yards on the same number of attempts by Israel Abanikanda. Mafah ended the night with four carries for nine yards and was ruled out for futehr action after suffering a chest injury.
The eye candy when it comes to all of the ways the Cowboys can use Blue is tempting, but his considerable lack of juice between the tackles compared to everyone else in the backfield right now is glaring as well. Many Cowboys fans have wanted Blue to gain the edge in the RB2 competition behind Javonte Williams because Williams is already that reliable power option between the tackles, but time and time again the offense is proving they work best when committing to those types of runs even more – even without Williams on the field. Davis and Abanikanda ran hard on the interior, with Davis having the longest run of the night for 14 yards.
Both of these teams ran for the same 3.8 yards per carry in aggregate on the night, but the Cowboys running 11 more total plays with an over five minute advantage in time of possession and outrushing the Seahawks 137-107 tells the story of how they reclaimed control of the game and got a preseason opening win for the first time in a long time . The Cowboys using their experienced offensive line depth to run the ball physically was the difference here.
As for Mingo and the WR battles, the star of the night at this position was easily UDFA Camden Brown. He made waves twice for circus catch touchdowns that will be played on every highlight show all week. On the first touchdown from Sam Howell, Brown was running a one-man route to his side of the field with safety help over the top, and still beat both defenders to the catch point and held on through contract and traffic to put Dallas ahead 10-7. The other touchdown was thrown by Joe Milton, a fade pass that Brown tracked towards the back pylon and could only get one hand on, but held on and got the feet in for another eye-popping score.
Brown should easily be the favorite of the dark-horse receivers at this point to make the team. The best news from his performance is he was part of a bigger picture in the pass game that showed how efficient the Cowboys can be controlling games with their offense on the field. Brian Schottenheimer’s team did so while keeping things perfectly vanilla enough to not show the Seahawks (a team they’ll see again) any tips either.
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