How a poised Dak Prescott revived Cowboys hopes with game-winning drive against Lions

Quarterback Dak Prescott played an efficient and seemingly mistake-free game.

Running back Ezekiel Elliott had been dominant with over 150 yards on the ground and a 38-yard touchdown reception on a screen pass, known as the (offensive coordinator Scott) Linehan special because it works every time, per Prescott.

But with 2 minutes, 17 seconds left, it all seemed for naught.

The Cowboys trailed 24-23 following at late score by the Detroit Lions.

An offense that has struggled through the first three games via the pass was seemingly already kicking itself for having to settle for three field goals earlier in the game.

And then on the second play of the drive, disaster struck. Lions defensive end Da’Shawn Hand nearly had a strip sack of Prescott, knocking the ball out of hand.

But Prescott picked up and headily threw the ball out of bounds.

A 9-yard pass to Allen Hurns gave them a first a first down and then two plays later, Prescott hit Elliott with 34-yarder to put the Cowboys in field goal range.

Three straight Elliott runs for a total of five yards but the ball in right in the middle of the field for Brett’s Maher 38-yard kick to win the game in the waning seconds.

The 26-24 victory was pretty but it was necessary for a Cowboys team that wanted to avoid a disastrous 1-3 start to the season.

And it spoke volumes the calm competitiveness of Prescott, who is never going to win a beauty contest as a passer but is a quarterback the Cowboys trust to lead them.

“Dak Prescott’s play on the ball that got knocked out of his hand, goes back and makes a play on the ball and keeps us alive at that point in the ballgame kind of said it all for us about the whole ballgame,” owner Jerry Jones said. “Took a lot of different ways to do it. We just didn’t quit and right at the end we made the plays.

I just have the feeling that Dak is going to help us win and help the team in so many different ways. I just don’t know that there is a limit to the nuances of how he might be able to contribute and to me that’s a great thing with a quarterback. I remind Roger Staubach when I used ask him, ‘we’ve got to start thinking about the replacement for Tony Romo, traditional pocket or move around, and he said ‘I don’t know about that, just get somebody the players will follow.’ Well, he manages to come up with different ways to help us get in position to win games. I think that play defines kind of this team right now and got down there into position to kick a field goal.”

Coach Jason Garrett agreed that the picked up fumble and toss out of bounds was a huge play on the critical final drive.

It showed Prescott’s poise and composure.

But Garrett never worried about Prescott, who came into the game with straight outings of less than 200 yards and nine of the last 11 dating back to last season.

He had just two touchdowns and two touchdowns and two interceptions through the first three games and questioned began to suffice about his status as the team’s franchise quarterback of the future.

“Yeah, you’ve heard me say this before, he’s a damn good football player,” Garrett said of Prescott. “He handles success. He handles adversity as well as anyone I’ve been around at that position. He’s a great leader. He never blinks. He just goes out and plays. I think if you look at his performance today, it’s the way we want our quarterbacks to play. A balance of run and pass and again, attack a lot of different ways. He threw to different guys all over the field, made plays with his feet, made plays with his arm, made plays at the critical moment. So he’s an awfully good football player.”

Prescott completed 17 of 27 passes for season-high 255 yards with two touchdowns and season-high quarterback rating of 118.6. But none of it would have mattered if he didn’t avoid disaster on the fumble and lead them down the field for the game-winning field goal.

Elliott had 152 on the ground and the 38-yard touchdown on the screen pass.

But the biggest play of the game came on the 34-yard pass with Elliott split out in the slot and running an inside fade against a linebacker.

“Once I saw we got the 2-minute offense and they were playing man to man, I lined up in the slot,” Elliott said. “I was excited. I got them one-on-one with me. He made a perfect throw. One pass, we won the game.”

Said Prescott: “Anywhere you got him the ball, anywhere he had the ball in his hands, he was dominating the game and setting the tone from the screens to the check-downs to that last play right there. He just showed how physical he was in the run game. It was just a dominating performance for him.”

But more importantly, there was never any lack of confidence by Prescott or the Cowboys offense going into the drive, despite the long week of negativity swirling about.

Prescott never wavered on himself or the team. It was his 10th game-winning drive since 2016, good for fifth in team history. It was his sixth fourth-quarter comeback win.

“I know what I can do,” Prescott said. “I know the player that I am. And I never waver and I’m never going to get down on myself. All of us have good days and bad days and if all of us were judged by our bad days our jobs, then we’d all be in trouble.”

This story was originally published September 30, 2018 at 7:00 PM.