Cowboys’ Allen Hurns: It’s not Dak, it’s not just receivers, it’s all of us

Allen Hurns and Cole Beasley aren’t blaming quarterback Dak Prescott for the Dallas Cowboys’ passing problems, it just sounds like that.

Hurns echoed Beasley’s sentiments from two weeks ago that the receiving corps has been getting open after the Cowboys lost to the Texans in overtime on Sunday night.

Many, justifiably you could argue, took Hurns’ and Beasley’s comments as a swipe at Prescott, who has the 27th lowest quarterback rating in the league and 28th lowest completion percentage at 61.8 percent.

Hurns said it’s not about Prescott’s performance, but the entire offense.

“When me and Cole came out and said receivers are getting separation that wasn’t a shot at any one,” Hurns said. “We just want to let people know that it’s something that goes on across the board. It’s not just Dak making the throw. Sometimes it’s protection issues. Sometimes it is him giving us an opportunity and we don’t come down with it. That’s the game of football. Everything is not going to be flawless.”

Hurns said the entire offense is often not on the same page.

“Each week you have that faith that you’re going to get things right,” he said. “Hopefully, you reach that turning point.”

The Cowboys’ offense has the 25th fewest yards (1,538) in the league and only two teams have scored fewer points than Dallas (83).

Hurns’ point is that the receiving unit has been unfairly criticized this season. That negative spotlight grew especially intense after Sunday’s loss in which two passes turned into interceptions after deflecting off the hands of Dallas’ receivers.

Tavon Austin, who was the intended receiver on one of the interceptions, blamed himself for not coming down with the pass, although it was clearly thrown two feet above his head. Rookie Michael Gallup said every receiver believes if it touches his hands the ball should be caught.

“Of course. Even if it’s a poorly-thrown ball, if it touches your hands you got to come up with it some how,” said Gallup, who has six receptions for 82 yards. “That’s on the wide receivers.”

Both Hurns and Gallup also admitted that the receiving corps missed signals from Prescott on several plays.

“We dropped a couple of balls. We’ve got to get them,” Gallup said. “You watch the film and it’s not fun to watch, but we’ll correct it and come back on Sunday.”

Hurns, who has eight catches for 84 yards, said there was no reason to privately clarify his comments to Prescott. He said most of the media and fan chatter is ignored, he said.

“This past Sunday, there were a lot of plays we left out there as far as a receivers standpoint, whether the ball was a little low or high there were a lot of times where Dak created something where he was supposed to be sacked and he gave us an opportunity,” said Hurns, before emphasizing that he wasn’t blaming his quarterback. “When we come out and say we’re creating separation it’s not a shot at Dak. We’re just saying we’re controlling what we can. There are times we’re getting open and he’s getting sacked. There are times when he throws it at us and I wasn’t open. It goes across the board.When we say it’s not us, we’re saying it’s not just us.”

This story was originally published October 9, 2018 at 6:03 PM.