ARLINGTON, Texas — While the Washington Commanders have already exceeded all expectations for this season, and while there are many reasons to be optimistic about the future, the dramatic 23-19 win over the Dallas Cowboys spotlighted the weaknesses of the present roster, which could loom large during the opening round of the playoffs.

Notably, Washington struggled in the trenches again. The defensive line struggled to get pressure on Cowboys quarterback Trey Lance and stop inside runs. The offensive line struggled to consistently control the line of scrimmage, which hamstrung any effort to establish anything meaningful with running backs.

None of those problems are new. Since the bye, the Commanders rank 23rd in pressure rate, 24th or worse in several defensive metrics for between-the-tackles runs and 32nd in running back yards per carry. The issues are magnified now because of how they could be exploited Sunday night by the third-seeded Tampa Bay Buccaneers (10-7), who are strong in those areas.

Still, the Commanders might be good enough to keep overcoming those issues. They have quarterback Jayden Daniels. They’re on a five-game winning streak that testifies to their talents and poise in what coach Dan Quinn calls “winning-time moments.” Quinn praised his battle-tested team Sunday by describing the sideline during the bad first half: “These players know we’re literally never out of the fight. Frustration? Yes. Pointing fingers? Hell no.”

Commanders guard Nick Allegretti, who won the Super Bowl last season with the Kansas City Chiefs, argued that playoff games can be lost when doubt creeps in — and that the Commanders never doubt.

“We knew that we were going to go down and [tie or win on Sunday],” he said.

Yet the team’s biggest problems could also become its Achilles’ heel. Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield has led an explosive passing attack since the opener, when he shredded the Commanders, and Tampa Bay’s running game has been excellent between the tackles. Its defense is elite against the run, which means the Commanders will likely have to put a lot on Daniels — again.

One X factor this week will be center Tyler Biadasz, who is dealing with an ankle injury. He has missed significant time in three of the past four games, and defenses have relentlessly attacked backup Michael Deiter, including on Sunday, when Dallas schemed up several one-on-ones for star pass rusher Micah Parsons. Blitz-happy Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles will likely keep applying pressure.

The Commanders could help Daniels by running the ball. But the unit has been floundering for weeks, and the return of Austin Ekeler from a concussion didn’t really help against the Cowboys. The running backs finished with eight rushes for 22 yards. Since the bye, they’ve averaged 3.1 yards per carry, the worst rate in the league, and the advanced metrics are not much kinder.

“I wouldn’t say [the run game is a] concern,” Quinn said Sunday. “I would say emphasis. It’s important to me to make sure we have balance to where we can do that. Just keep staying with it and we go from there.”

Two weeks ago, offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury said the team could win consistently without running the ball well “if No. 5 is healthy.” Daniels left Sunday’s game with leg soreness, and while Daniels and Quinn said he was OK, that he would have kept playing had it been a higher-stakes game, it’s hard to fully trust them considering both downplayed the rib injury that affected the quarterback for a stretch in the middle of the season.

Even when Daniels was healthy, the lack of a run game was part of the reason the Commanders were consistently behind the chains Sunday.

In the first half, their average second-down distance was 9.9 yards, which, if it kept up for a full game, would have ranked 528th out of 544 offensive performances across the league this season.

“We wish we were starting faster in these games,” tight end Zach Ertz said. “Things to improve on, obviously. We just need to not wait until our backs are officially up against the wall.”

How can the team start faster?

“If I had the answer, it’d already be solved,” he said.

Even if Daniels is fully healthy, and even if the Commanders can keep pace in a shootout, the Buccaneers figure to have a bigger margin for error.

Bucs rookie tailback Bucky Irving, a fourth-round pick from Oregon, has thrived, especially between the tackles. The 5-foot-10, 195-pounder is “frequently in a rush and would rather run through a wall than around it,” his predraft scouting report said on NFL.com. It has worked out well so far; he has averaged 5.7 yards per carry on inside runs, according to NFL Next Gen Stats, the fifth-best rate among qualified running backs in the NFL.

Commanders defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. understands his unit’s issue. He said last week he was “not happy” that problem persisted and in “playoff football, you have to stop the run.”

“The main focus [to stop the run is] making sure that we are aligned exactly where we supposed to,” he explained. “We’re staying in front of blocks.” He dove into the nuances of swapping gaps. “We’re not allowing fast motion to get us out of our gaps. And then, on the edges, if it’s a crack replace, we’re replacing, we’re not staying back there deep. We’re coming up with great eye control. So, it is not that difficult, we just got to get it done. We got to get it done. We got to play the run like we’ve been playing the pass.”

But the Commanders did not get it done consistently in Dallas. The Cowboys — one of the league’s worst teams in yards per carry all season — had 39 carries for 150 yards and were successful situationally. Before halftime, they went on a drive and converted a third and short and fourth and short by running it between the tackles.

The fate of the Commanders season could hinge on not allowing the same situation Sunday in Tampa. Or, if recent history repeats itself, Daniels could render all the team’s problems moot.