It felt like Trey Lance’s future as a Dallas Cowboy was on the line Saturday night against the Las Vegas Raiders. That may sound exaggerated — and it may feel like putting a lot of weight on a single preseason game — but the circumstances created that mood.

Lance’s inconsistent performances on the practice fields in Oxnard, Calif., have raised more questions than answers. His performance at SoFi Stadium in the season opener last week was more pessimistic than optimistic. If Lance had blown out in Vegas, he might have gotten out of the hole too deep, with just a few protective gear practices and a home game left. Jerry Jones falling victim to the sunk cost fallacy could have saved Lance, but the promise of his potential power likely wouldn’t have done it.

Luckily for Lance, his potential was showcased enough in the Cowboys’ 27-12 win over the Las Vegas Raiders to keep things exciting.

“Two 14-play drives, that’s incredible for the preseason,” Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy said of Lance’s performance. “It just shows his understanding and his confidence, and he just needs to keep playing. He just needs reps. He needs to play in live games, especially in the drop-back phase because he’s got everything else very well under control. I think he definitely took a step forward today.”

Threesome for 6️⃣

📺: #DALvsLV To @NFLNetwork
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/WXsiTj4IxA

— NFL (@NFL) 18 August 2024

One of the criticisms of Lance was his difficulty working through his reads after the snap. At times, it felt like Lance was running his progressions too quickly, causing him to miss primary reads. At other times, it felt like he was taking too long on his reads, causing defenders to not have enough time to recover against open receivers. Lance’s running ability helped him in some of these situations, making the end result of the game not look as bad as it could have, but it’s hard to completely hide that.

Against the Raiders, Lance performed better in that area, especially as the game wore on. His running decisions — Lance led the Cowboys with seven rushing attempts for 34 yards — seemed calculated rather than simply a crutch. He spread the ball around, targeting 14 players and completing at least one pass to eight of them. His touchdown to rookie Ryan Flournoy was a nice touch pass on a smooth route from Flournoy — the kind of pass Lance couldn’t complete to Jalen Cropper last week.

GO DEEPER

Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy on the performance against the Raiders: “That was a good night for us”

“I just tried to take everything one step at a time,” Lance said. “I definitely felt more comfortable. I think that was a big part of it. I’ll just try to build on that next week.”

Lance’s first touchdown drive of the game – and of the preseason – began midway through the second quarter. On five of the first seven plays, the Cowboys got productive runs from Royce Freeman and Deuce Vaughn. That seemed to calm Lance down and give him more confidence. Four of the final seven plays of that drive featured Lance – three passes and a scramble to convert a third-and-1. It ended with the 1-yard touchdown pass to Flournoy.

Trey Lance throws a touchdown and puts Dallas in the lead 🙌

📺: #DALvsLV To @NFLNetwork
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/6VTfH7jAs2

— NFL (@NFL) 18 August 2024

Another criticism of Lance was his accuracy. Last week against the Los Angeles Rams, he regularly threw too far over his receivers. To say that Lance’s accuracy issues were resolved against the Raiders would be an exaggeration. He had a few missed throws, including an inside throw on third-and-5 to Cropper on his second drive. Cropper had a chance to catch it, but the throw was too far back and resulted in a punt.

However, Lance was better at delivering balls that receivers could catch and still do damage afterward. Lance completed 15 of 23 passes for 151 yards. More than half of those yards came after the catch, with receivers gaining 78 yards after the catch, according to TruMedia. That’s thanks to Lance’s ability to deliver passes that allowed receivers to show off their skills with the ball in their hands. Lance still needs to improve his deep passing, but overall his passing game has taken a step in the right direction.

Lance is unusually in the spotlight for a third-string quarterback. Many of those reasons are beyond his control. Lance didn’t ask to carry all the burden the San Francisco 49ers gave up to select him third in the 2021 draft, but he does. The Cowboys gave up a fourth-round pick to get him, a decent price for a young quarterback with untapped potential who looked a bit more expensive due to subsequent quarterback trades around the league.

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Lance can’t control those perceptions. He also can’t control that, because of Dak Prescott’s contract situation, some people will evaluate his performance based solely on his potential as a QB1. His natural next step – should he progress – is to be a QB2 on game day.

Preseason games have a very subjective meaning. For many players, they are just small steps on the way to the real tests when the regular season begins. For others, these games are personal Super Bowls.

Lance didn’t shine against the Raiders, but he didn’t need to. He just needed to do enough to buy time until his next Super Bowl, which takes place Saturday at AT&T Stadium in the final preseason game against the Los Angeles Chargers. He did that.

(Photo: Chris Unger / Getty Images)