Dallas Cowboys QB Dak Prescott bemoans ‘frustrating’ late three-and-out in loss
The Dallas Cowboys lost to the Carolina Panthers 30-27 on Sunday at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Quarterback Dak Prescott completed 25 of 34 passes for 261 yards and three touchdowns.
Here’s everything he said to the media after the game:
On going three-and-out in their last drive and not getting the ball back
“I wouldn’t say it’s demoralizing. I’d definitely say it’s frustrating, right? Even the last time we had the ball, probably not our best series of the game right there, other than the three-and-out to start the game off. At a crucial point like that, we can’t just do that. On top of that, that being the last time we touched the ball, it makes it frustrating. That’s the NFL. You trust that those guys are going to get a stop. Unfortunately, had a PI called on the third-down. After that, they just kind of ate the clock up, kept running the ball, did a good job. They won the fourth quarter. That’s the NFL. We won the turnover battle. Don’t know the big plays, but they won the fourth quarter, and that was the difference there. A team that’s obviously second-year coach, young quarterback playing well, getting better. Young running back that we’re familiar with. He told us to buckle up and he went and had a hell of a game and credit to them. They got the best, and they’re the better team this afternoon.”
On wide receiver George Pickens
“He’s just an elite receiver. He’s an elite receiver. He’s playing hard. He’s understanding everything that we throw at him. Whether it’s in different positions — you saw him in the slot a lot more today, making big plays. After he gets the ball in his hands, some of the things he does, it’s only George can do. He’s a special player. We’re lucky to have him. We’re only going to get better each game.”
On the fun Pickens is playing with
“For sure. Yeah, I mean, no, you’re right. It’s contagious at that. And obviously, I’m having a blast, but when you get to throw it to a guy like that, and he makes the catch, and you watch him do the — make the people miss afterwards, try to jump over them. He loves football. You see it on Sunday. I see it all throughout the week. There’s plays at practice, whether he catches a touchdown, and does a celebration, or catches a big play, and acts like — I don’t want to say, ‘Acts like it’ — he’s preparing to cut back and make people miss. That’s who he is. That’s the way he approaches it every day when he comes in. We’re crazy fortunate to have him. You see that every day that he touches that field. When he’s around the guys, he loves his teammates and he loves the game of football. It’s contagious and it’s fun to watch.”
On his team after the last two games
“Yeah, I mean, we can play with anyone. But it’s the NFL. We’ve got to make sure that we’re locked in because you can lose any game. That’s the beauty of the NFL – the parity. That’s why the draft is set up the way it is, it’s why free agency is the way it is. It’s great. It’s great. You get into a game like this, you feel like you’re going to win every second. Even the field goal block right there, [DE] Sam [Williams] is jumping over with the block. In my mind, we’re still going to block it, and we’re going to go win this thing in overtime. We got a good team that’s grimy. We’ve got to find a way to win these games. That’s the missing chink in the armor right now. Whether it’s the tied game or this game, we have to find a way to win games. If we do that, we feel a whole lot different in the locker room. Now the reality, is the team different? Not necessarily. You feel a lot better, you’re taking confidence and when you get that confidence that allows you to feel more confident at the end of games. Understanding and knowing, I guess you could say, and believing that you’re going to pull it out. Right now, we just have to find a way to win the fourth quarter.”
On if he was hoping that the defense let Carolina score at the end to get another chance on offense
“Yeah, for sure. Obviously, when they tried it, they went freeway. It’s NFL. Those guys know exactly what we’re going to try to do, too. That’s the beauty of the league — every play matters and every play is hard to execute. Even when you’re trying to give it to them, they understand that and they don’t want to take it. Yeah, maybe we have to install picking a guy up and running him into the end zone. That’s the beauty of game management. They did it better.”
On what gives him confidence that the defense can get things fixed
“That we go against them every day. It’s an iron-sharpens-iron mentality. I understand the players and the pieces that they have over there. You see them working each and every day. You see them getting better. At the end of the day, they’re getting better. The communication, they’re getting the ball out, so they’re going to get better.”
On what the season holds after a loss like this
“It’s a long season. It’s a long, long season. I’ve been 3-5 before, and we went and ran and made the playoffs. That’s my point. We’ve just got to find a way to win these close games right here. I have all the confidence that we will. That game right there, I just wanted the ball back in my hands knowing we’d go win and unfortunately it didn’t happen. The reality of it is we have to do better on that last three-and out. More importantly, we have to score in the red zone when we had that chance there. That field goal is for a tie, or they’re having to score to win. It’s a long season. It’s a long season. We’ve got a lot of great players. We’ve got guys getting healthy and guys coming back. That’s only going to make this team better and more explosive. We got to keep our heads down and keep working and understand it’s a process. It is a loss, but it’s also — we got to take something and learn from it.”
On not letting frustration boil over when the offense has to score on every drive
“That’s my standard. I don’t ever go out there thinking let’s punt the ball or after a first down, we’re good. If we don’t score, the last thing I’m doing is being frustrated at the defense. That’s my problem, that’s our problem. That’s somebody on offense or something that we didn’t do better. You guys know me, I’m a look-in-the-mirror type guy before I ever would think about pointing the finger. I have to be accountable. There’s two or three plays I can think of off the top of my head, and sure, it’s not big plays or maybe plays you won’t pick out, but that I’m thinking, ‘If I throw it there, if do this, what does that drive turn into? What’s the next play? What’s the next third down look like?’ It’s part of the game. You’ve got to look at yourself and fix that first.”
On if his relationship with Pickens is the quickest that he’s established a strong connection with a pass catcher
“I guess. I mean, [WR] CeeDee [Lamb] was pretty fast. Unfortunately, I was just hurt within five games and didn’t get to show the rest of it. That’s credit to these guys. That’s credit to them, one, to understand what I’m thinking, running their routes hard and then after we communicate, going and executing it. It’s fun to throw it to a guy like that. It’s fun to watch him. Speaking of CeeDee, when he gets back and gets healthy, good luck on how teams are going to play us. You have guys like ‘Ferg’ [TE Jake Ferguson], you’ve got other playmakers out there making plays in terms of getting healthy. We have ‘Flo’ [WR Ryan Flournoy], ‘J.T.’ [WR Jalen Tolbert] and [WR] George [Pickens] definitely opens it up. We’re thankful to have him.”
On connecting with tight end Jake Ferguson on the touchdown
“Yeah, it was great. I got a good look from the defense. The backer was kind of flat-footed and I saw he wasn’t getting depth. They leaned the safety over there. That’s probably one of the easier ones — trusting a guy like that. It was good to cash in on, especially after last week, if we talked about the one that should have been easy. Just to come back today and to get one, I’m proud of him.”
On the struggles of getting downfield on the last drive
“It was tough, and one, understanding that they’re going to try to put a lid on it. That not just because of the success we were having, but that’s kind of their get-back-on-track defense. They gave kind of a two-man look. It’s one of those things, looking at the picture, I’m like ‘Man, could I have taken that inside slot to [WR] ‘J.T.’ [Jalen Tolbert] right there?’ And you guys would probably go back and look at it and say, ‘Yeah.’ But it’s one of those thinking that nickel can drive and should potentially drive it with that coverage. Went through the progression as normal and got two negative plays in a row after the screen. That hurt us. On the third down, it was just about being smart. Trust me, I want to throw it into tight windows and make plays, but it’s a team game. You have to trust the other side. You have to trust special teams, defense, the coaching, the play calling. Unfortunately, we just didn’t get it back today.”
On if he is kicking himself more for having to settle for a field goal in the red zone or for the last drive
“The red zone. The red zone. The last drive, we’ll all have to go back and look at that, and try to dissect that. Good job by them. Just like I said right, I said it over and over. Nice, it’s the NFL, good job by them. We’ve been having a lot of success. They got us on first down. When you’re behind the sticks, it’s hard to get going again. But most definitely the red zone trip one. I know that there’s two balls in the end zone that were ops to cash in on – one was a scramble. [TE] Luke Schoonmaker would have had to make a hell of a catch, so not on him. Then they brought a cover-zero late. Didn’t get to necessarily alert the receivers that it was zero. ‘G.P’ [WR George Pickens] ran a good route, one of those ones we’ll communicate on. He’ll run it maybe a tad different next time understanding the situation, and we maybe cash in on that. But yeah, definitely, anytime we get in the red zone, knowing the players, the plays, what we’re capable of, and we don’t score, the game’s different. The rest of the, what, four or five minutes, what was left or whatever, six minutes, it’s different after that.”
On running back Rico Dowdle and if he misses him and if he has a message for him
“Great job tonight. Great job last week. He told us to buckle up. He got the last laugh. We got a hell of a group of running backs. I love my team, but I miss the guy. Rico is a hell of a friend. But I’m proud of him more than anything. As I said, I messaged him last week, but I didn’t get to see him right after the game. I’ll connect with him. He knows there’s nothing but love.”
This story was originally published October 12, 2025 at 8:06 PM.
