What areas can QB Dak Prescott, Dallas Cowboys improve in against the Falcons Sunday?
Let coach Mike McCarthy tell it, quarterback Dak Prescott played well in their first game together, despite the season-opening loss to the Los Angeles Rams.
Prescott completed 25 of 39 passes for 266 yards and a touchdown. He also rushed for 30 yards on three carries, notching two first downs.
Pro Football Focus graded him as the No. 5 best quarterback in Week 1.
“I thought he played well,” McCarthy said. “I thought he did a number of good things. I think the first thing you have to look at, especially in the first game, is competing together. I thought he was in great command. The communication, the adjustments. He kept us in clean plays throughout the game. I thought his awareness in the pocket was really good. Ball security. I thought he had a good game. I was pleased with his performance.”
“Pleased” would not be a word Prescott would use for his Week 1 effort.
He judges his performances by wins and losses and so he would never consider a loss as an example of him playing well.
And he is looking forward to a much better showing from himself and the Cowboys in Sunday’s home opener against the Atlanta Falcons (0-1) at AT&T Stadium.
The Falcons’ defense certainly provides an opportunity for Prescott to show improvement, considering it offered little resistance in a loss to the Seattle Seahawks last Sunday.
Quarterback Russell Wilson completed 31 of 35 passes for 322 yards and four touchdowns and had a near-perfect quarterback rating of 143.1
“Anytime you’re watching any opponent, whether the quarterback attacks the defense or takes advantage of opportunities, you can see those opportunities on tape,” Prescott said. “As you look back to last week, Russell did a great job of taking advantage of those, taking advantage of some of the matchups he had, beating some of the coverages. Just allows you to almost take that and use some of that, put it in your game plan. But you’ve also got to give credit to the defense, knowing that they’re going to make changes, knowing that they’re going to try to be better on their part and things that they’re doing.”
What Prescott and the Cowboys need to do first and foremost is take care of their own issues, starting with being better on third down, taking more deep shots and overcoming a disturbing trend of losing close games, dating back to last season.
Add in the loss to the Rams, and the Cowboys are a staggeringly bad 1-7 in one-possession games dating back to the start of last season, and 0-3 in games decided by 3 points or less.
“The last thing I want to call it is a trend,” Prescott said. “It’s been a tough challenge that we have not been able to get over that hump in the last year and obviously, this past Sunday. One-score games are something I take pride in. I take pride in having the ball in my hands late in the game. I’m not very proud of the way I’ve handled it and the team has handled it recently. But it’s something I’m sure will change. Everybody has got to embrace that, coaches and players, and allow that to become who we are and know we’re going to go down there, we’re going to score, we’re going to get the points that are needed, get over that hump and start a new trend.”
To do that, the Cowboys have to be much better than they were on third down against the Rams. They converted only three of 12 chances in the opener and Prescott was a woeful 1 of 7 passing on third down in the second half.
“Yeah, I mean we got to be better on third downs,” Prescott said. “You can’t finish with the numbers, 20 percent or so. That’s just unacceptable but we definitely got to get ourselves in shorter third downs, ones that are easier to manage where, obviously, you can run the ball or you can pass it, where it’s an option where it’s not almost drop back every time. That means just being better on first or second downs for the most part.”
Prescott also needs to find a happy medium with McCarthy and his west coast offense and get back to some of the things he did best last year when he had a career-best 4,902 yards passing and made a living throwing the deep ball.
Per the NFL and Next Gen Stats, Prescott was the No. 1 deep ball passer in the league in 2019. He was the most accurate passer in the league on passes between 21-30 yards.
And according to Pro Football Focus, Prescott threw for the third-most yards on passes of 20 yards or more in 2019 and had the third-most completions.
Yet, Prescott had just two completions over 20 yards against the Rams and both were catch and runs by CeeDee Lamb (33 yards) and Michael Gallup (24 yards). The only deep shot was a 47-yard pass to Gallup in the 31 seconds of the game but it was called back for offensive pass interference.
No. 1 receiver Amari Cooper, who signed a five-year, $100 million contract in the offseason, had a long of 14 yards.
“I mean, obviously, you go back and look at the game plan and that’s something we want to take advantage of and do more,” Prescott said. “With the receivers we have, I think you want to give them more opportunities to make plays whether it’s one on one, whether it’s a designed play or not. I think it’s the play calling and it starts with me obviously making that decision to push the ball down the field and knowing I’ve got great playmakers that will go win those contested battles. There’s a lot of football left.”
