Javonte Williams — Week 1: Two Touchdowns, One Reversed First
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 14
Williams carried 12 times for 41 yards and caught all five of his targets for 31 yards, and scored twice: a one-yard run on second and one with 0:41 left in the third quarter, and a 17-yard catch on first and ten with 5:26 left in the game. A one-yard touchdown run in the second quarter was reversed on review, in a 28–20 loss to the Giants.
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21 to seven, Giants, 41 seconds left in the third quarter, second and one at the New York one. Javonte Williams went over right tackle for the touchdown. +0.9 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and two points of win probability, the chance of winning the game after the play against before it. It was the second time he had crossed that goal line from that yard line. The first, second and one at the one with five 59 left in the second quarter, down seven to nothing, was ruled a touchdown on the field and reversed on review to no gain; Dak Prescott threw to CeeDee Lamb for the score on the next snap.
The line: 12 carries, 41 yards, one rushing touchdown, two first downs, seven of the 12 successful, +1.4 expected points on the carries; five targets, five catches, 31 yards, one receiving touchdown, two more first downs, +1.6 on the targets. The longest run was eight. Nine carries before halftime for 25 yards, three after for 16, and all five targets came after halftime — the first with four 53 left in the third quarter. The receiving touchdown was first and 10 from the 17 with five 26 left, down 28 to 14, short left, +2.5 expected points and 2.7 points of win probability; a taunting penalty on him was enforced between downs, and the 48-yard extra point that followed was missed wide right. His one third-down carry, third and two in the first quarter, converted. One catch went backward: −5 on second and seven at the New York 12, which turned a third and seven into third and 12.
The split: Williams 12 designed runs, Emari Demercado two, Hunter Luepke one, Lamb one on a left-end handoff for no gain, and two Prescott scrambles. 16 designed runs on the night, 12 before halftime and four after, against 17 17 pass plays. Dallas ran for 69 yards on 18 rush plays counting the scrambles, worth +1.1 expected points. Five targets were third on the team behind Lamb's eight and George Pickens's six.
Back in June the preview leaned overpriced on Williams — the sixteenth back at pick 34 after an RB11 season built on 11 touchdowns from a year-five back, with the rate faded and the role not — and named two things to watch: whether the goal-line touchdown rate repeats, and whether the receiving role grows. Sunday answered both in his favor: two touchdowns, one of them from the one and one that would have been three had the review gone the other way, and five catches on five targets, every one of them after halftime. One game does not un-fade a regression call, and the preview's argument was about a season's worth of touchdowns, not one night's. It is the first data point, and it landed above the line. The Cowboys are home to Washington on Sunday the twentieth.
_Data via nflverse._
When Javonte Williams's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
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