Dak Prescott’s been in situations over his seven years as a pro when he had to make up for what was lacking around him. Maybe it was injuries along the offensive line. Or when the team was overhauling its receiver group. Or when Ezekiel Elliott’s been out.
This season, very clearly, is not like that for Prescott. And that point was driven home emphatically to the 29-year-old over the five games he missed.
“I know how much of a blessing it was just to be able to watch these five weeks, and these five weeks to end up with the record we have,” Prescott said, in a quiet moment postgame Sunday, after a win that ran that record to 5–2. “I was able to learn a lot. I was able to learn what this team’s capable of doing, what we have in all aspects of this team whether it be defense, special teams, whether it be our run game that I feel like is the best it’s been in the past couple years.
“So all of it’s exciting and just being able to take that into this week, that’s all I can think about is just getting back and being a part of it and just knowing that I don’t have to do too much. It’s not about me; it’s about this team and just understanding that we’ve got a lot of greatness. And then just stay within the game, manage it and make sure I put these guys in the best position.”
Truth is, briefly, Prescott said he lost that Sunday.
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There were two throws, both in the first half, that he admitted to me he’d have liked to have back—unnecessary risks that, given the team he has around him, he didn’t need to take to win. But that’s where the beauty of the spot he’s in now comes in. That same team was good enough to win going away Sunday despite that.
That means, for the returning quarterback, Cowboys 24, Lions 6 was about getting his feet wet, getting reacclimated with the guys around him and grinding through a win.
And getting to look ahead, too, at what all this could look like with a little more time.
It was not the most dramatic Sunday of NFL action, but Week 7 did give us plenty in the way of story lines. Here are the ones we’re going to hit in this week’s MMQB column:
• In Three Deep, we’ll dive into the Chiefs’ rebound, the Seahawks’ reset and the Titans’ resurgence.
• In Ten Takeaways, we’ll go in on Joe Burrow’s outburst in Cincinnati, the Christian McCaffrey trade and the Washington ownership situation.
• In Six From Saturday, we’ll look at a bumper crop of college backs.
But we’re starting with the Cowboys, and the new lease on football life that Prescott believes he has, after watching his team go to battle without him for five weeks.
Cooper Rush’s success did give, as Jerry Jones has intimated over the past few weeks, the Cowboys more flexibility in timing up Prescott’s return, after he fractured his thumb in the opener against the Buccaneers. Dallas won and won, and won and won, getting to 4–1 before losing last week to the Eagles in Rush’s fifth start of the season.
But 100% from a football perspective isn’t always 100% from normal human perspective and that, Prescott freely admitted to me, was the case here, too.
“The hand’s great,” Prescott told me. “Honestly, I feel like I’ve relearned how to use it, activate it, all this past week and a half. As far as doing my job, there’s no limitations; there’s no doubt in my mind that I wasn’t going to be able to do what I just did. That’s what’s also in just trusting my rehab process, trusting everything that I’ve been through.
“In the real-life aspect of it, yeah, there’s probably another little step, step and a half that I can get before I’m over 100% or at 100%. But I can do my job, I can do my job comfortably, I can do my job with a lot of confidence and that’s all that really matters to me.”
It’d just take a minute for Prescott to get there Sunday.
The Cowboys started with a pair of three-and-outs against a pretty leaky Lions defense. On the first series, facing third-and-8, the Lions brought the house at Prescott, and Prescott didn’t move much in the pocket, creating a sitting-duck situation in which he took a costly sack. On the team’s next series, he scored his first completion, over the middle for seven yards to rookie Jake Ferguson, but Elliott was dropped for a two-yard loss, leaving Dallas with a second consecutive three-and-out to start the game.
That set up the rest of a first half through which Prescott, and the guys around him, were testing their boundaries and Prescott himself was testing the thumb.
“There were the two throws that I made early that, not necessarily I want back because they didn’t turn out bad, but yeah, that was my confidence and that’s what I’ve got to guard against,” he said. “It’s understanding that I do have this team, and I don’t have to try to force these balls, whether it be third down or whether it be a tight window. I have to continue to play the game, check it down, put us in field position and trust our defense to get it to back to us.”
As such, the Cowboys’ offense sputtered some in the first half as Prescott got his footing, and went into the break trailing 6–3. And Prescott mentioned that defense getting it back for the offense?
That’s just how the second half started—with Trevon Diggs picking off Jared Goff on the third play of the third quarter, and the Cowboys turning around and immediately marching 82 yards in seven plays. Even better, to cover that ground, Prescott didn’t have to do much, with just three throws on the drive. He connected with CeeDee Lamb for 10 yards on the second play of the possession and Dalton Schultz for nine yards on the fourth, then helped Schultz draw a pass-interference flag in the end zone from the 10-yard line.
The backs took care of the rest, with Elliott bursting off right guard, hurdling a defender and picking up 18 yards between Prescott’s two completions, and Tony Pollard ripping off a 28-yarder off right tackle two plays after that to key the drive. Prescott could truly just be the bus driver for that one, and he was totally comfortable with that.
The PI flag set up a one-yard touchdown plunge from Elliott, and the Cowboys didn’t trail again.
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When I asked Prescott, without equivocation, if this version of the Cowboys’ defense, with its supercharged pass rush, and front-seven superman Micah Parsons, is the best one he’s ever played with, he didn’t skip a beat.
“There’s no doubt that this is the best defense I’ve ever played with,” he said. “Last year, we had signs and we showed what we were capable of. Just from my [point of view], I don’t think they were as tight as they are right now. Right now, they’re special. I feel like whatever D is called, those guys can get it done. And they’re running through walls to get it done.
“It’s just great to see.”
Also great to see, for Prescott, is how things around him evolved offensively when he was out and Rush was in. The big question at left tackle appears to have been answered with first-rounder Tyler Smith more prepared than anyone expected to take the reins that Tyron Smith has held for more than a decade. Michael Gallup’s healthier, Ferguson emerged as a viable option, and the tailback platoon is working.
And the on-field realization of all that, of everything Prescott had watched for all his time on the shelf, actually came one possession before that first touchdown drive detailed above.
The Cowboys took possession at their own 24 with 4:03 left in the second quarter and quickly found their stride. First, it was Elliott for eight yards, then Prescott finding Schultz for another eight, and by the two-minute warning, Dallas had covered 51 yards and had first-and-10 at the Lions’ 25. Things went south from there—Prescott took a sack that was negated by penalty, then Noah Brown fumbled the ball away inside the 5—but what the quarterback was looking for through the game’s first 30 minutes materialized.
“I know that resulted in a fumble right there at the 1 or so, but the couple of passes that were called there, the couple of throws that I made and just getting in my rhythm, I went into halftime feeling great about it, knowing coming out for the second half that we’re going to be able to go do what we needed to do,” he said. “Yeah, I felt great.”
Asked what it was that made him feel that way, Prescott said, “It was just the rhythm, the way the ball was coming out of my hands, some of them were progressions and just trusting what I was seeing and making the throws, and the receivers were making the catches. And just being on the same page with those guys is awesome.”
Before that possession, Prescott was 6-of-9 for 61 yards. Thereafter, he was 13-of-16 for 146 yards and a touchdown. And methodically, the Cowboys would take the Lions from there—with the defense shutting out Detroit over the game’s final two-and-a-half quarters, and the offense scoring on three of its five possessions (excluding kneeldowns) after the break.
And the fun part, for Prescott & Co., sure looks like it’s ahead.
The Cowboys have, over the last 15 years, rarely lacked for talent. So declaring that things are different this time for a franchise that last reached even a conference title game 27 years ago might be a fool’s errand.
But, at least at this early point, there are a number of things coming together for Dallas. And one, in a roundabout way, is Prescott’s injury itself—and that benefit he got from getting to see his team from a 30,000-foot view. He felt the benefit Sunday in Arlington, in figuring out what his team needed from him against Detroit. He felt it, too, in knowing just how good the group around him can be, and what they, collectively, could be capable of.
“No doubt about it, you just said it,” he said. “To watch for the last five weeks and to see the offensive run game be the best that it’s been in the last couple of years, to see a defense, the best defense that I’ve been a part of in my seven years, to see all that and understand that when I get back, I can add another level, I hope, to our offense and to our team, being able to spread it out if that’s needed but just staying within myself, there’s so much excitement.
“And honestly, it’s a privilege. It was a blessing to be able to sit out those weeks and see that, understand that, learn so much as I did, and just to now be back and be healthy. I’m just thankful.”
Safe to say, the Cowboys are thankful, too.
