Dak Prescott is good, sometimes very good. And evidence is mounting it's not enough to win the Cowboys a Super Bowl
Dak Prescott’s history suggests he is going to rebound from Sunday’s debacle in San Francisco and deliver some good — if not very good — performances and plenty of victories the rest of the Dallas season.
After all, Prescott is a good quarterback; sometimes very good.
Little of that, at this point of this season and his career, matters all that much.
Prescott has a big game problem, a January playoff problem and, most specifically, a 49ers problem.
Good — sometimes very good — will get you a $160 million contract. Good — sometimes very good — in Dallas will get you a bunch of national television commercials.
Good — sometimes very good — as quarterback of the Cowboys will also get you a white-hot spotlight. This is Dallas. Win or lose it's always a circus; everything is an overreaction because that’s how the soap opera is scripted.
By now Prescott knows and understands it. One of his best attributes is he can handle the chaos, the extreme highs and extreme lows, better than most. It’s part of why he maintains unwavering support, even over-the-top praise, from team owner Jerry Jones.
“I completely believe we have the quarterback that can take us where we want to go,” Jones said on his weekly appearance on 105.3 The Fan. “Make no mistake about it. We have a quarterback that can get us there …
“Dak Prescott is a quarterback that can get us to the Super Bowl,” Jones said. “And that’s the way that’s going to be.”
To do that, Prescott is probably going to need to get through San Francisco at some point. Maybe he can wind his way through the playoffs by avoiding the Niners, but that would still require big-game performances that we haven’t seen. It’s not like Philadelphia, Detroit or whomever gets deep into the playoffs will be easy.
As such, even if, Dak rebounds and returns to his best form, as expected, it won’t be enough to make anyone forget about what happened Sunday, let alone in two playoff defeats against the Niners.
It certainly won’t silence or even soften the critics of him and his play. It won’t end questions about whether he isn’t just another Tony Romo, a good — sometimes very good — player and likable guy who just can’t pull the Cowboys through when it matters most.
At 30 years old and eight years into his career, this is now all about getting to January and walking up to the 49ers and bullying the bully.
Dallas has faced San Francisco three times in the past three seasons. There was a 23-17 loss at home in the 2021 season's wild-card round. There was a 19-12 loss at San Francisco in the 2022 season's divisional round. And there was Sunday’s 42-10 beatdown in Santa Clara.
In those three games, Prescott completed 60 of 104 (57.7 percent) passes for an average of just 201 yards per game. He has just three touchdowns against six interceptions. He’s taken nine sacks. His average QBR is 61.5. His yards per attempt is just 5.8.
The bad numbers just pile up.
“I didn’t see it coming,” Prescott said Sunday after his 14-of-24, 153-yard, three-interception effort. “I put everything into this and I got punched in the mouth. [I said an early season loss was] a humbling against Arizona. But this may be the most humbling game I’ve ever been a part of.”
San Francisco can and will do that to you. The Niners' defense is elite. No one is arguing otherwise. It is very difficult to defeat the 49ers, let alone play good — or sometimes very good. Head coach Mike McCarthy’s stagnant offense isn’t helping anyone either. There were plenty of bad performances across the roster.
Yet Prescott is the leader and leading with strong play is rightfully expected. He certainly can’t be outplayed again by Brock Purdy. At least not by this margin.
Prescott is one of the highest-paid, most talented and most prominent players in the league. He doesn’t lack experience. If anything, it’s a bit of a now-or-never stretch of his career. What does he want to be? What can he be?
Jerry Jones keeps talking about the Super Bowl. His quarterback can’t even play average against San Francisco in early October.
Something has got to give.
Dak Prescott’s story isn’t written yet, but the narrative is taking shape.
