How Dak Prescott led the Cowboys to season-saving win reinforcing Jerry Jones’ support

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott wasn’t perfect and he possibly never will be.

He is not a quarterback artist, but he is a gamer.

Yes, the Philadelphia Eagles dropped a pick-six when linebacker Kamu Grudier-Hill couldn’t hang on to a pass right in his hand in the first quarter on the third drive of the game.

Yes, he missed a couple of wide open receivers and nearly had another catastrophic fumble.

But the key is he didn’t have any turnovers. No matter the reason, the Cowboys are 0-5 when he turns the ball over in 2018 and 4-0 when he doesn’t.

And Prescott showed his competitiveness and gamesmanship on a night when the Cowboys (4-5) used the pass to set up the run.

He completed 26 of 36 passes for season-high 270 yards in Sunday’s season-saving 27-20 victory against the Eagles while out-dueling his more heralded counterpart, Philadelphia’s Carson Wentz, in the second half.

Prescott simply was at his best when it mattered most for a Cowboys team that snapped a two-game losing streak and won on the road for the first time all season.

He capped an 8-play, 75-yard touchdown drive right before the half with a 1-yard push.

Ironically, it came after Prescott took an awful sack on the second play of the drive that had the Eagles, down 6-3, thinking they could get the ball back and score themselves before halftime.

The sack made it 2nd-and-23 from the Cowboys 27, prompting a Philadelphia timeout. An eight-yard run by Elliott made it 3rd and 15, and the Eagles used another timeout to stop the clock with 58 seconds left.

But a hitch pass to rookie receiver Michael Gallup turned into a 25-yard gain. A pass to receiver Cole Beasley for 21 yards, a one-yard pass to tight and Geoff Swaim and 17-yard pass to receiver Allen Hurns to the 1 had Prescott scrambling to the line of scrimmage with 21 seconds left.

But instead of spiking the ball to stop the clock, he dove over for the touchdown.

“I didn’t care what they thought,” Prescott said. “I just knew it was important for us to get up there and get on the ball. I knew our guys had the call and we were going to get a good push inside, knowing how important that was. Especially since you have to score right there with the time running with 20 seconds on the clock. If we don’t, we’re going to put ourselves in a bind there.

“That was just a big play. I thought [WR Allen] Hurns might have gotten in. I realized he didn’t. He was on the half-inch yard line. It was tempo play, let’s get on the ball, and I just called the sneak.”

And then after the Eagles tied the game 13-13, and 20-20, it was Prescott who engineered back-to-back 75-yard scoring drives that ended with a seven-yard pass to Ezekiel Elliott and 1-yard run by Elliott to give the Cowboys a 27-20 lead that proved to be the difference in the game.

The final drive included completions of 17 yards to rookie tight end Dalton Schultz, 24 yards to receiver Amari Cooper and 23-yard to Hurns to convert a third down.

Most importantly he was 6-of-7 for 92 yards in the fourth quarter on the final touchdown drives combined.

“I just thought he played really well,” coach Jason Garrett said. “ We talked about the importance of mental toughness. There is going to be some good things, keep playing. There is going to be some adversity, keep playing. I thought he was as good an example of that on our team. It wasn’t always smooth. We were digging out of it a couple different times, but he made great decisions. I thought he played tough. I thought he made a lot of really good throws and made a lot of big plays at the critical moments in the game.”

All totaled, Prescott completed passes to eight different receivers with Cooper leading the way with six grabs for 75 yards. Elliott also had six receptions for 31 yards.

“They didn’t give us as much single high as we kind of expected going into this game and maybe it was because of Cooper or whatever it was, but we were able to take advantage of it and as you said Hurns with some big catches,” Prescott said. “[WR Cole] Beasley doing a good job of getting open and making some catches. And with Zeke out of the backfield, it was just a great night of the ball being spread around.”

Cooper, who was playing in his second game with the after coming over in a bye-week trade from the Oakland Raiders, said he learned a lot about Prescott against the Eagles and came away impressed.

“He’s resilient,” Cooper said. “He never gets down on himself. He never gets down on the team. He is always believing we can go out there and overcome any circumstance and you need that, especially in a quarterback. That is something I really admire.”

No one has been a bigger supporter of Prescott than owner Jerry Jones, who has already promised a contract extension for his third-year quarterback even though his declining play and struggles early in 2018 have many questioning whether he is the team’s QB of the future.

Prescott’s play on Sunday only strengthened Jones’ resolve.

“When you have those questions all around you and you play through that then that just reinforces my support of Dak,” Jones said.

This story was originally published November 12, 2018 at 7:00 AM.