After best game of season, might Dak Prescott’s legs be key to Dallas Cowboys offense?
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to surmise that when Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott has been at his best it’s when he is dual-threat offensive weapon, using his legs and his arm to make plays.
And while owner Jerry Jones is no Einstein, he was once told that he had the brain of a 40-year old. That wa seven years ago when he was 73.
Jones celebrated his 80th birthday this past weekend. He enjoyed a family dinner at Mr. Chow’s in Beverly Hills on Sunday and got the best present of all on Monday when Prescott led the Cowboys to a 20-17 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers.
And it wasn’t lost on Jones that Prescott has his best game of the season because he used his arm and his legs to power the Cowboys offense.
Prescott completed 21 of his 30 pass attempts for 272 yards and a touchdown. He added seven carries for a team-leading 40 yards, including an 18-yard touchdown run.
Prescott accounted for 312 of the 368 total yards by the Cowboys.
“Yeah, I do (think it was his best game),” Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones said this week on his radio show on 105.3 The Fan. “First of all, we had to have his legs, and we had them and we got to that initially, it was a big part of that offense. I think at one time he was our leading rusher by a margin. That’s real important.
“But I can’t say enough about how he just played football out there, as he certainly was able to get plays made that were critical against a really good team, a defense that was playing really competitively in the Chargers.
“Bottom line is, I thought it was Dak’s best game of the year.”
It couldn’t have come at a better time, considering Prescott’s three interception meltdown in the second half of the previous game’s 42-10 loss to the San Francisco 49ers.
He didn’t come into the Chargers game looking run like he did in college at Mississippi State. Most of his scrambles unfolded naturally as he was trying to avoid sacks.
But he did acknowledge that he needed to use his legs more to help unlock the potential of the Cowboys offense.
“That’s that’s how the game unfolded,” Prescott said of his scrambles. “A little bit of maybe a conscious effort by myself. Just just coming off of last week, realizing that maybe that’s something I could use and we could use. I think it’s something that we could benefit from.”
The Cowboys certainly can benefit from a dual threat Prescott, especially when the running backs struggled to get yards conventional way as they did the past two weeks.
Leading rusher Tony Pollard rushed for 30 yards on 15 carries against the Chargers one week after rushing eight times for 29 yards against the 49ers.
Prescott got his legs going early against the Chargers as the 18-yard touchdown run came on a zone read fake to Pollard on 4th-and-1. He saw a wide open field and end zone against a Chargers defense didn’t expect him to keep it.
“Not showing my legs early in the year and not running played a part in that and so just able to go get it,” Prescott said.
The Cowboys have no intention of running Prescott like he did a Mississippi State. But he still can and will when needed.
“We’re very selective with it,” offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer said. “Nobody wants to have the quarterback have to carry it a ton, but he has the ability to hurt people with his legs, and he’s done that historically. We’re not back to the Mississippi State days in terms of all the carries that he’s used to, but it’s good to show that we have the capability of doing that, and to have it be a touchdown in the redzone and things like that was something that we were excited about.”
The Cowboys need him to keep plays alive with his scrambles to throw or to run move the chains.
“Well, running and scrambling is different,” Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy said. “Scrambling is part of the passing game. Yes, it’s a way we train. You see us practice in the quarterback schools and all those things. So the scrambling component is part of the passing game. The called runs, we’re selective when we do it. So I mean he’s very productive on the touchdown run but it was a big play in the game. But yeah I mean, I’m not interested in making Dak a runner. You won’t see me call 12 quarterback runs.”
The Cowboys need to see Prescott be mobile in the pocket, especially with offensive line still struggling to block in the run game and protect the passer at times.
Prescott came through in the fourth quarter against Chargers on third down deep in Cowboys territory. He avoided to two sacks and found Pollard leaking over the middle of the field. The subsequent catch and run went for 60 yards and was capped by a 2-yard touchdown pass from Prescott to Brandin Cooks, putting the Cowboys up 17-10.
“I mean there’s games where he hasn’t needed to run,” McCarthy said. “Then there’s games where he will need to. I thought he did a good job working through his progressions and escaping and activating the scramble drill. It’s once again it’s the second phase of the pass game. There’s decision making. Also there’s route running discipline and there’s lanes that needs to be filled. It’s not as much just him. It’s really the whole perimeter group and the pass protection group staying alive. So it’s really a coordinated effort by all the guys.
“That’s definitely something the quarterback can’t do by himself. I think he does a really good job with it.”
It is something he needs to continue to do.
Jones and Einstein would agree.
This story was originally published October 18, 2023 at 9:12 AM.
