Dak reacts to Dallas Cowboys’ failed season: ‘As a leader, you feel like you let people down’
Dak Prescott got emotional.
When the subject turned to head coach Jason Garrett, the Dallas Cowboys’ quarterback had tears in his eyes as he warmly described what Garrett has meant to him and his career.
Garrett, whose team finished 8-8 and out of the playoffs for the sixth time in his nine full seasons as Cowboys’ coach, is expected to be replaced by owner and general manager Jerry Jones.
Prescott also discussed the team’s struggles this season, Michael Gallup’s strides, his own improvements, his contract status and coming up a yard shy of Tony Romo’s record during his post-game press conference. Here’s a portion of his comments from the team’s transcription service:
On the disappointment of missing the playoffs
“I don’t know if I’ve ever been disappointed after a win, to be honest. But that was tonight. It was unfortunate and very disappointing. I think that’s the best word for it, the best description for the locker room. You go into that locker room, you see all those men – great teammates, great men. To know that it won’t be the same, the team won’t be the same is disappointing. It’s a change in every term and that’s something that I’ll never get used to as long as I’m in the NFL. It hurts but it is what it is.”
On the emotion in the locker room post game
“Disappointing, simple as that. You get in the locker room and you see the love for on another. You see the care. You see the commitment to one another. That’s what’s disappointing. You all have to look at one another and say that we gave it our all and did the best we could and just couldn’t get the job done. That’s everybody.”
On his greatest regret this season
“I don’t know. That’s tough to say right now. That’s tough to say this early. Obviously, I have to go back and dissect the whole season. Look at it from every view, every perspective to see what I and this team could have done better. As a leader to this team, as a quarterback, when you get in a situation like this and you’re in this locker room, as the leader, you feel like you let people down. Whether I did or they think I did or not, that’s how I feel personally. It’s tough, it’s disappointing. Some of those guys, I’ll never get to play with again and, as I said, that’s something I’ll never get used to.”
On if he has any second thoughts about not having a contract done before the end of the season
“Not at all. I never thought about the contract this season and I haven’t thought about it. I have a great team of people that will handle that when those talks come. When it happens, it happens. It will be a blessing. But that’s not why I play this game. I play this game for the love of it. It was my first love as an individual and I’m committed to those guys in the locker room, my teammates. That’s what wakes me up every day and gets me going. That’s why I play this game and play it with a passion, put so much into it. It has nothing to do with a contract or money. So, I’m not thinking of that.”
On what Jason Garrett means to him
“Everything. He drafted me. He’s the reason I’m here. That’s a great guy. I respect and love everything that he stands for – the coach he is, the man he is. He’s somebody I look up to and I’m thankful for his impact.”
On the point in the game in which he knew the Eagles won, knocking them out of the playoffs
“I think after the very last drive we had before we went out there and made victory. That wasn’t my focus. I was going to try to control what I could control. I Think I looked up one time after half and it was 10-10. That’s the only thing I saw. Then at that point, I leaned over to Cooper Rush and asked him and he said that the last time he saw the score, that it was pretty much out of hand. That’s when you feel bad after a loss and that’s when it set in.”
On the status of his shoulder this week
“I don’t know if I could say that it felt better, to be honest. We just executed better and I played better, simple as that. That’s the tough thing about it. You want to go back two weeks and play like you did today but you can’t. You live and you learn.”
On watching the growth of Michael Gallup
“That’s the thing that you look at, the good takeaways you take from this season. You look at the young man, the young athlete as someone who I have talked about since training camp, of how good of a player he’s going to be, how good he is. You saw it tonight. Three touchdowns, three great touchdowns. He’s a spectacular player who is going to have a great career.”
On what went wrong this season
“Like I said, I have to go back and dissect it. I don’t want to make any rash, sudden calls in trying to say that I know what it was. If I knew what it was right now, it wouldn’t have been this way. So I have to go and look back from game one to the last one and figure it out. Maybe we can put an answer on it, maybe we can’t. But I’ll go back and dissect and try to figure out my game individually and this team.”
On if he needs to do more rehab for his shoulder
“We’ll see. As of right now, as of all the info I have up to this point, rest will do it. We’ll take another look at it and we’ll see.”
On his confidence in this team
“The confidence that I have in this team, the men in that locker room, that’ll never change. That is the most disappointing part right now and will be for years to come when I play on other teams. But any time I look back at this season, we had the talent and we just didn’t get it done. It starts with us as players. We have to execute better but when we played at the best level, you saw it. We’re powerful, explosive with big plays one after another in the run game, the pass game, anything we wanted to do. But when we put ourselves down in games, we made it hard on ourselves and we weren’t able to overcome that. The record shows.”
On how much it meant to him to have another season with TE Jason Witten
“So much. As I just said, the disappointing part is that you’ll never be able to play with some of these people again and we don’t know if that’s what it is for Witt but he’s meant everything to me. Everything as a leader, someone I can look up to on the field, off the field. Somebody since I was a little boy who’s worn ‘the star’ the right way. I hope I can do that throughout my career.”
On Jason Garrett’s post game speech to the team
“He just said to stand tall, through success and adversity and be the man that you are. He said to never change that. It was felt throughout the team. We’re thankful for him. I’m thankful for this team.”
On uncertainty of his future
“As I said, I won’t speak on another man’s career when mine is unsure as well. So, that doesn’t change but as I said, all of that stuff will take care of itself in the time being.”
On the direction of the offense this season
“That’s something I’ll go back and look at when I look at this season and the whole review of it. Some of the times when we did what wanted to do – run, pass – we were able to do whatever we wanted. We were pass heavy, but I think we got down in some games and we were forced to do that. So, to say that was the thing we wanted to do, hang our hats on being a pass team, I don’t know if that’s true. That’s something that I have to go back and look at and then I’ll have a better answer for you.”
On his emotion
“It’s what I put into this game, as simple as that. How much I love this game and those individuals in the locker room. I think it’s everything, as I said. It’s something that I’ll never get used to, as the team changes. That means players and coaches, it means everything. I won’t be able to play with some of those guys again and that’s disappointing and that hurts.”
On the area of his game he feels most improved
“I’m going to have a better answer after I look at the whole season. Obviously, the answers say the passing and I felt more comfortable than I ever have in the pass game – whether it’s seeing the defense or seeing the run game. I took another step individually. So, that’s something positive to look at.”
On when he’ll dissect the season
“We’ll look at it tonight and I may look at it tomorrow but pretty soon I’ll get bac on it from game one to the end. I’ll look at them a couple of times before I turn the page and start looking toward next year.”
On what he needs to do during this off-season of uncertainty as a leader
“I have to get healthy first. I’ll get healthy and then figure out the team that we have. As I said, once I dissect this season and see the good, see the bad and how I and this team can grow from that. Then it will be about starting another brotherhood. That will begin when this team starts back, and we’ll see.”
On not meeting preseason expectations
“It’s disappointing. I don’t know if there’s any conflict in that but it’s definitely disappointing. I had all of the expectations for us to still be playing and for us to be playing for a while. When you sit here, after you get a win but knowing that the season’s over – I’ve never been disappointed after a win. So, it’s tough, it’s part of it. We did it to ourselves and me, as the leader. You have to live and learn.”
On missing tying Tony Romo’s for Cowboys single season passing record by one yard
“I didn’t know that until I pretty much figured out that the Eagles had won. So, I got all of that together at once. But I didn’t make the playoffs and I deserve to be second. As I’ve said, I don’t play the game for stats. I play the game to win. So, I’m okay with being there, being one yard short of him. It’s fine.”
On if he would like to see Coach Garrett back next season
“That’s somebody that I respect, look up to in every which way. He’s a great person, great coach, great man so of course. That’s my answer but obviously I don’t make the decisions. If I did, I wouldn’t be in the position I’m in. Thank you.”
