QB Dak Prescott explains how the Vikings foiled the Dallas Cowboys’ offense
The Dallas Cowboys lost to the Minnesota Vikings 34-26 on Sunday at AT&T Stadium.
Quarterback Dak Prescott completed 23 of 38 passes for 294 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions.
Here’s everything he said to the media after the game:
On what the Vikings were doing defensively to frustrate the offense
“The zero [blitz look] that we talked about just throughout the week. [They] gave it to us a bunch. We didn’t have a good enough answer. When you don’t have a good enough answer for that, especially against [Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian] Flores, you’re going to see it again and again. Yeah, that’s what happened. They did a great job of the back end, playing with vision. So, it made it tough to get to the beaters with your normal zero beaters when they’re playing man, looking at the man, but they’re looking at the quarterback. So, they’re going to rally when you throw it underneath and you don’t have time to get it past them. They did a good job. They kept it on us, and we didn’t adjust fast enough or come up with something good enough to scare them out of it. We saw it the whole game.”
On the team’s goal of making the playoffs
“You’re a professional football player. You have to come to work and give your absolute best, regardless. Unfortunately, I’m sure the playoffs are out of the picture. But, it’s about taking pride in who you are as a man, and not only that and your job and everything that’s gotten you to this point. I know for a lot of guys, it’s just the business of the world, right? That’s interviews for some people. You can’t just give up. You can’t just stop. You can’t just say, ‘Oh, we’re not going to playoffs.’ It’s the National Football League. I just saw a team Thursday night that’s not going to the playoffs beat a good team and knock them out. We’ve got to show up and just do our job, and that starts throughout the week. When you get to the game days, it’s a celebration of the hard work that you’ve put in through your preparation. Nothing’s going to change for me, and that’s going to be my influence as a leader. My message to anybody around me is take pride in who you are as a man and as a football player and the job responsibility that you have, and what that entails is giving your best every day. And if you don’t, you probably won’t be in this league for long.”
On the range of emotions in the past few days with the team now being under .500
“Yeah, I mean [expletive] at this point. [It’s] hard to even go back to those highs. You beat two good teams, beat the two Super Bowl teams here in a matter of what, eight or nine days, something like that. Then, you go on the road and have to play a really good team, and they got the better end of us last week. And as I said, if we played that game 10 times, it might be 5-5 or 6-4, who knows which way? That’s kind of that matchup last week. We didn’t do things necessary to win, didn’t score in the red zone, and coming into this game, we couldn’t get an answer for cover zero and we didn’t score in the red zone. You add those two things together, and you’re going to lose by I guess at the end of it by eight. And yeah, it’s unfortunate, it sucks, but it’s the reality of the NFL. This [expletive is] hard.”
On the zero blitz looks on third downs
“Most of them came there. They obviously brought some in second down. I believe maybe one or two in first down. We just didn’t have a good enough answer, I’ll say, to scare them out of it or really to hurt it. That’s something that we’ve been good at in the past and whether it was back and forth between two decisions, should we do this or should we do that? A little analysis about paralysis myself or the staff between just all of us together. It just wasn’t good enough.”
On how surprised he is about the team’s position knowing his confidence in the roster
“Yeah, definitely surprised. Especially after the bye week and the trades got rolling like we did for those few weeks, and then watch the confidence just skyrocket. [We] stopped teams scoring at will, coming back from 21 points. Just a lot of good wins there to be in this position. Just reminds you that every play matters. It’s a hard game. Those guys get paid, too. They practice throughout the week and prepare no different than we do. It’s tough. I’m definitely surprised, hurt, pissed off, frustrated, but all I can do is get better tomorrow.”
On why wide receiver George Pickens couldn’t get going
“Honestly, just the zero looks and things like that. Simple as that. Anytime we’re in a passing situation or passing downs and when they were giving us that look, we tried to throw him a quick smoke early, not early, well late, honestly. Maybe we should have done that earlier. Maybe we should have just thrown him a slant. A lot of maybes. I’m frustrated. This was one of the toughest ones I’ve been a part of.”
On the red zone issues
“I mean, just not executing, I guess. You know what I mean? It is hard to say. It really is hard to say. Obviously, I’ve got to go back and watch the film of this particular game. I know last week, I had a player or two, myself, a guy had a play here last week. We were just taking turns on simple execution that didn’t allow a play to be successful or to be the touchdown play. I’m not sure tonight as I haven’t watched it yet, so I have to give you [an answer] this week.”
On where the frustration stems from
“I think we’ve got until we’re kicking the onside kick. The frustration comes from honestly just not having a good enough plan to beat that cover zero and seeing something over and over like that and not being able to gash it. I’m frustrated for myself and just I didn’t have an answer for it.”
On what he feels the results of the zero looks were
“It was a result of all of it. Pretty much, depending on the play. One of those things you said on a different play, sometimes we actually had the exact call we wanted, maybe missed a block. Other times, they’re getting there faster. We’ve got a route or a concept that I’ve checked to that I think works, but they’re playing with vision, and it doesn’t. Then you go and you try the other concept the next time, and it doesn’t work. It was just a revolving door of trying our answers, and they did a hell of a job understanding. I mean, they’re a good defense. [Flores], he’s a hell of D-coordinator, and just understanding that his DBs knew that I had to get the ball out. It was zero. Like I said, they were playing top down and making it tough for you to even get past them or just throw it up because then two would rally to it, but it was all of them.”
On being there for Trevon Diggs about him not playing tonight
“Yeah, tough. I had a conversation with him when he told me about the news that they gave him about not playing, and it was just about keeping his head up. I told him simple as this, on Monday ask what they expect from you. You have to plan it throughout the week, so you can make sure you do exactly to know what’s needed for you to become active and to get back to being the guy that you are, and he accepted that.”
On former teammate Micah Parsons’ injury Sunday
“I did [see]. I shot him a message before the game telling him to keep his head up. Tough game, tough business. He responded. Great message. Great attitude about it, and he’ll attack his rehab.”
On difficulty of making presnap decisions
“It’s not necessarily hard to make the decision. You’re just hoping it works out, and when it doesn’t work out, that’s when you second-guess yourself, and you go to the other decision and then that doesn’t work out and then you try the third one and that doesn’t work out. It’s easy to make the decision. It’s easy to get the call to get up there, but then the execution’s a whole different aspect of it, and that’s where we weren’t good enough tonight.”
This story was originally published December 15, 2025 at 2:48 AM.
