FRISCO, Texas – For the first time since 2019, the Cowboys will go on the road to face the Chicago Bears at the NFL's oldest stadium, Soldier Field.
Dallas will look to move to 2-1 on the year and get their defensive coordinator, former Bears head coach Matt Eberflus, a victory in his first trip back to the Windy City after a tough three-year stretch where he amassed a 14-32 record in Chicago in his first NFL head coaching stint.
Now, it's Brian Schottenheimer who is in his first role as a head coach, and he hopes that Eberflus and his defense can rebound from a performance that "was not the standard" against the Giants last Sunday.
How can they do that? Let's talk about it in this weeks' edition of "Here We Goooo:"
Keep it rolling on play action
The Cowboys' running game has gotten off to a stronger start than many expected, and we'll cover more of that later. For now, the threat of Dallas having success in the ground opens a door that Dak Prescott has had a lot of success walking through: The play action passing game.
For his career, Prescott has thrown for 8,692 yards, 55 touchdowns, 13 interceptions and a 67% completion percentage on play action. That's the seventh most yards on play action in the NFL during that time span, and sixth most among active quarterbacks. In 2025 thus far, he's gone 16/18 for 168 yards.
Chicago's defense is both banged up and young, especially at the cornerback position. Tyrique Stevenson and former Cowboy Nahshon Wright will likely get a bulk of the workload on the outside with Jaylon Johnson out and Kyler Gordon's status in the air. That should be a welcome sign for Prescott, CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens.
It certainly was a welcome sign for Jared Goff and the Lions' offense last week as they faced their former offensive coordinator and now Bears head coach Ben Johnson. On play action passes, Goff completed 12 of his 14 passing attempts for 198 yards and two of his five passing touchdowns en route to a 52-21 blowout victory.
Dallas certainly has the weapons in place to replicate that kind of performance and is coming off a week where they scored 30 points in the second half and overtime.
Be ready for Caleb Williams on the move
Jalen Hurts was a problem when outside the pocket for the Cowboys' defense in Week 1, rushing for 62 yards on 14 carries and two touchdowns.
Second-year quarterback Caleb Williams isn't quite the runner that Hurts is, but has a strong ability to use his legs as a double-edged sword: To make throws on the run and turn up field and pick up yardage with his legs.
Let's start with the first half of that sentence. Going back to his days at USC, Williams has the rare ability to contort his body, change arm angles and rifle passes all over the field while on the run outside the pocket. At times, it results in throws that make you say "wow." Other times, it doesn't end so well.
Thus far in his young career, Williams has completed 47.3% of his passes on the run (measured by when he is 8 MPH or faster) for 572 yards, four touchdowns and three interceptions. When he's thrown while scrambling, his completion percentage falls to 36.4% for 320 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions. If the Cowboys can get him on the run and he throws the ball, their secondary will have opportunities for takeaways.
The second half of Williams' ability outside the pocket is when he turns up field and runs for yardage, something he's done a lot more of this season so far compared to last. Williams has scrambled to run on 11.3% of his drop backs, up from 7.1% last season, and has gained 85 rushing yards. That puts him third amongst NFL quarterbacks this season, behind Patrick Mahomes (123) and Josh Allen (87).
How does that affect the Cowboys? Dallas' defense has allowed the highest scrambled run rate in the league this year at 12.8% of drop backs, and they've given up six first downs on scramble runs. Williams is tied for the second-most first downs gained on scramble runs this year with six. In comparison, Bears running backs have combined for only seven first downs through two games.
It's a tall task to cover the former first overall pick, but Williams still has a lot of young quarterback moments which means the Cowboys will have to try and create more of those.
Pound the rock with Javonte Williams
Since the hiring of Brian Schottenheimer and Klayton Adams, it was clear that the Cowboys would increase their commitment to running the football. That's been the case so far in 2025, and Dallas isn't afraid to turn away from the run game late in games through two weeks of action.
One of the biggest question marks coming into the year was whether or not the Cowboys had a running back that could be enough of a difference maker to make the ground game at the very least respectable for opposing defenses. So far, Javonte Williams has surpassed those expectations.
Through two weeks, Williams is third in the NFL in rushing success rate amongst running backs with 25 or more carries (60.6%). He's seventh in the league in rushing yards with 151, and tied for the most rushing touchdowns with three. If Williams scores on the ground against Chicago, he'll be the first Cowboys running back in franchise history to score a touchdown in each of their first three games with the franchise.
And he'll have an opportunity to do so, as Chicago's defense has given up the sixth most rushing yards in the NFL so far this season (297). They've also allowed the fifth most yards per carry (5.3) to opposing running backs. If Chicago is without veteran defensive tackle Grady Jarrett on the defensive line, the Cowboys' offensive line could be in for a big day.
