Cowboys look dominant, but one shortcoming threatens to make them 'America's Tease' again
ARLINGTON, Texas – Dak Prescott seemed a bit agitated by the reminder.
It’s two weeks, two blowout victories for the Dallas Cowboys. Two games, zero picks for the much-maligned quarterback.
What a difference for Prescott. Last year, when he tied for the NFL lead in interceptions, he never had back-to-back games without a pick.
"What about the year before that?" Prescott said when he met the media after the 30-10 smashing of the New York Jets on Sunday. "Or the year before that? Last year is last year, and it’s something that I have left. I guess when you lead the league, it’ll never go away.
"But as I stated last year, everybody has their story. But that’s not where my mind is. I don’t really care about the questions about me at this point."
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Prescott knows. Win or lose, he’ll face some music. He completed nearly 82% of his passes on Sunday (31 of 38, 255 yards), which said much about his precision and efficiency.
At the moment, Prescott is also riding the wave of Dallas’ monster defense. Through two games, the Cowboys, led by the spectacular Micah Parsons, have produced an NFL-high seven takeaways and 10 sacks. Parsons was a wrecking ball against a Jets offense trying to find its way without Aaron Rodgers, collecting two sacks of Zach Wilson, four hurries, a forced fumble and a recovery.
Yet despite the roll of the defense, the Cowboys – known to tease with the best of them when it comes to flashing potential – can still heed some takeaways from their latest rout if they intend to grow into a legitimate championship contender.
"We’ve got to score more," Prescott said.
For all the energy spent since the end of last season in tweaking the offense – including coach Mike McCarthy taking over the play-calling duties and Prescott operating with more rhythm in a passing game geared to allow him quicker releases – the Cowboys bogged down in the red zone and wound up getting five field goals from rookie kicker Brandon Aubrey.
Sure, the Jets have one of the NFL’s best defenses, which adds a layer of disappointment for a team that, barring an unprecedented recovery, has lost Rodgers for the season. Four drives stalled inside the 20, forcing Dallas to settle for the kicks. When the competition gets better, that can be an issue.
"We’ve got to get more touchdowns, rather than field goals," Prescott said. "But at the end of the day, it’s about getting the job done and winning games.
"We left a lot out there, still. That’s the standard of this offense and this team."
Still, complementary football matters. And Prescott’s offense hasn’t committed a turnover this season – although the quarterback flirted with a pick-six when Sauce Gardner got his hands on a pass intended for CeeDee Lamb near the sideline but couldn’t hang on.
Speaking of Lamb, he came up big again (11 catches, 143 yards) on a day the Cowboys were without the other starting wide receiver, Brandin Cooks, who was nursing a knee injury. The absence of Cooks takes away Dallas’ best deep threat, but Prescott, who completed his first 13 passes, was content to take the shorter stuff mixed in with some explosive plays from Lamb.
McCarthy noted that Dallas had to adjust with moving parts on its offensive line caused by injuries. He also acknowledged Prescott’s zero turnovers – “We’ve had time to look at the past, learn from it,” he said – and grumbled about the missed opportunities after lining up first-and-goal from the 1-yard line and the 9-yard line and settling for field goals.
But winning is winning. The Cowboys dominated with 42 minutes, 15 seconds of possession, which was enabled by the defense limiting the Jets to 1-of-10 on third downs. With Sunday’s effort following a 40-0 opener at the New York Giants, the Cowboys have opened the season by outscoring the two New York teams, 70-10. The plus-60 margin of victory is the largest through two games for any Dallas team since 1968 (+67).
When someone asked Cowboys owner Jerry Jones to recall the last time a Dallas team started with such sizzle, he replied: “I’m guarded, because obviously when you’ve been in this thing as long as I have, you know you can have this thing turn on you.”
Jones shot back with some positive spin when the sputtering in the red zone was mentioned.
"I think we’ve got us a kicker," he said, referring to Aubrey. "We wanted to see if that guy could kick ‘em."
Dallas’ previous kicker, Brett Maher, had a booming leg but struggled with PATs and shorter field goals.
"I still need some extra points," Jones added. "We’ve had around here some field goal kickers, but no extra points."
Jones saw it all as half-full.
"To kick the field goals, we were materially in place to have gotten some scores," he said, meaning some touchdowns.
Tony Pollard, coming off a broken leg to assume the top running back role after the release of Ezekiel Elliott, logged a career-high 25 carries for 72 yards. While that may have been an indicator that Pollard can handle a full load, Jones wondered about something when he saw the running back still toting the football late in the game.
"Maybe if Pollard had gotten some (touchdowns) early, we wouldn’t have had him in there those last three minutes," Jones said.
Jones said he’d defer to McCarthy on Pollard’s use at garbage time, but the message was sent.
In any event, it’s early. And leave it to Prescott to deliver the message that puts it all in perspective. He’s in no mood to talk now about end-of-the-season goals. He knows. There’s no need for that.
"We can go to Arizona and get win No. 3," Prescott said, alluding to next Sunday's matchup. "Simple as that. That’s where our focus is. That’s where we are right now. Carpe Omnia. Staying in the moment right now. We know what we can get to. We know what we are. But it’s about attacking every day with preparation. We’re not going to get any further than Arizona."
After all, they will get to those tougher tests ahead in due time.
