Watch: The Dallas Cowboys stuff Washington on the goalline

The highly-criticized Dallas defense came up with a huge fourth-down stop on the goalline.

Fourth-down stops are harder and harder to come by in today’s NFL. Perhaps the toughest might be stopping an offense on fourth-and-goal inside the one-yard line.

But for the beleaguered Dallas Cowboys’ defense, they did just that early in their rivalry game against the Washington Football Team:

Dallas stuffs this quarterback sneak attempt from Washington’s Kyle Allen. It begins right at the point of attack. Watch what veteran nose tackle Dontari Poe does to the center. Off the snap Poe drives Washington’s Chase Roullier into the backfield, which forces the quarterback to take a wider berth. Instead of knifing into the A-Gap between the center and the right guard, Allen has to widen his path behind the right guard into the B-Gap. That delay allows the rest of the Cowboys’ front, including the second-level defenders, to arrive for the stop.

Sometimes an early defensive stand can fuel a team to victory. This might be the case for Dallas on this afternoon.