‘We will see them again.’ Dak Prescott on comment to Tom Brady after Cowboys’ loss
Dak Prescott, the Dallas Cowboys’ franchise quarterback who hadn’t played a single down of competitive football in almost a year, is back and better seemingly better than ever.
In what was his first game since he sustained a fractured ankle against the New York Giants last Oct. 11, nearly 48 weeks ago ago, Prescott showed no signs of rust, even though he played no snaps in the preseason due to a shoulder strain injury.
Prescott, locked in a passing duel with seven-time and defending Super Bowl champion quarterback Tom Brady, threw for 403 yards and three touchdowns on a career-high of 58 attempts in a 31-29 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before a sellout crowd of 65,566 Thursday night at Raymond James Stadium. The Cowboys, an eight-point underdog, held a one-point lead until the Bucs’ converted a 36-yard field goal in the waning seconds of the game to walk away with a thriller of an opener to the 2021 NFL season.
“I didn’t question my health,” Prescott said. “I know the work I put in the offseason. I expected to leave it out on the field to help this team and give us a fighting chance. I feel like I am a better player than when I left the field. That was the expectation, and I will get better and better. I’m fully healthy and the player I expected to be.”
Down 28-19 in the third quarter, Prescott tossed a 21-yard touchdown pass to Amari Cooper to make to 28-26 heading into the fourth. Cooper led the Cowboys with 13 catches for 139 yards and two touchdowns.
And with Tampa Bay seemingly driving for a game-sealing touchdown with 5:04 left in the game, the Cowboys forced their fourth turnover of the game when safety Damontae Kazee knocked the ball loose from Chris Godwin and cornerback Jourdan Lewis recovered.
Prescott then saved his best for last.
Powered by a 34-yard pass to CeeDee Lamb on 3rd-and-11, Prescott took over at the 10 and led the Cowboys 60 yards, while surviving two holding penalties, to set up a 48-yard field goal from Greg Zuerlein.
Zeurlein — who missed badly on a 31-yard field goal, was short on a 60-yard attempt and shanked an extra point off the left post in the first half — split the uprights to give the Cowboys a 29-28 lead with 1:24 left.
The team’s much-maligned defense, however, couldn’t hold off Brady’s Bucs for those last 84 seconds.
Brady, who passed for 379 yards and four touchdowns, quickly moved the Buccaneers into field-goal range, allowing Ryan Succop to boot the game-winner.
Prescott and the Cowboys didn’t get the win, but they felt they made a statement about what to expect this season, a year after their injury-ravaged squad finished a disappointing 6-10 campaign.
“I told everybody we will see them again,” Prescott said when asked what he told Brady when he met him at midfield after the game. “That is the confidence I have in this group. This is a playoff team that is going to make a big push this year. We need to get better and make a step from tonight. We have a good team. I am excited about this season.”
The Cowboys are excited largely because of Prescott’s amazing comeback performance.
His return is the basis for much of their optimism that they can make the playoffs, and possibly even make a playoff push in coach Mike McCarthy’s second year as head coach.
Being able to match Brady throw for throw led the Cowboys to the brink of a victory, and it’s something they hope to build upon. But Prescott’s performance was no surprise.
“This is who he is,” McCarthy said. “I never thought he couldn’t do it. He is 24-7 football. He puts a tremendous amount of effort into this. I thought Dak played well. I liked the way our team played, coming into a tough environment. We came up short on points, but I was proud of the way our guys played.”
The Cowboys, who played without Pro Bowl right guard Zack Martin who is out with COVID-19, didn’t try to run against a Tampa Bay defense that was ranked No. 1 in the league against the run last season.
Two-time NFL rushing champion Ezekiel Elliott rushed just 11 times for 33 yards in the game.
So the Cowboys leaned heavily on Prescott’s arm via the short passing game. In the first half, Prescott completed 22 of 32 passes for 222 yards and two touchdowns as the Cowboys showed no fear against the defending Super Bowl champions from the outset.
His first pass was a 28-yard strike to Cooper from shotgun while being backed up on their own 2-yard line. And his first touchdown came on a 22-yard strike to Lamb later in the first quarter, setting the tone for an aerial showdown with Brady.
“I’ve known Dak Prescott for a long time. I have so much respect for him as a person and as a man,” said Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians. “He’s a tremendous football player and a leader. It’s a shame he had to play Brady.”
Brady victimized a new-look Cowboys defense that remains suspect in the secondary, completing 13-of-21 passes for 213 yards and three touchdowns in the first half to put the Buccaneers up 21-16 at halftime.
For all of the problems that the Cowboys defense had last season, the unit did take Brady’s offense off the field again and again. They had four turnovers in the game, including defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence’s forced fumble, one interception each by cornerbacks Jourdan Lewis and Travon Diggs, and the Kazee forced fumble.
But the Cowboys also earned the dubious distinction of becoming the fourth squad in NFL history to lose a game while being plus-three in the turnover department and racking up at least 450 yards of total offense.
In end, the Cowboys couldn’t overcome Brady and the misses by Zuerlein.
As much as he gets credit for the 48-yarder late — he also made kicks of 35 and 21 yards — the missed four points came back to haunt the Cowboys. “No excuses. If I’m out there, I should make the kicks,” Zeurlein said. “No excuses.”
But even in the loss, the night belonged to Prescott. After working himself back from two injuries and signing a four-year, $160 million contract in March, he was like a like a phoenix rising from the ashes. His return gives the Cowboys and their fans hope.
When he wasn’t looking to throw, he took hit after hit. He ran the ball four times for 13 yards. He never wavered. He never blinked.
“To say I’m impressed would mean that I didn’t expect for him to do it,” Cooper said. “I wasn’t really impressed. I expect him to everything he did out there. He played a really good game. I expect that out of Dak.”
Said defensive end Randy Gregory: “He looked like the same Dak we know. He threw, what, 60 times? That’s crazy. It’s the guy we know to be. It’s a shame we couldn’t get the win, but it was good having him out there.”
In other words, Dak is back.
This story was originally published September 9, 2021 at 10:55 PM.
