Even better than the numbers were Dak Prescott’s poise, composure

After further review and more film study, the impressions of rookie quarterback Dak Prescott’s impeccable play in the Dallas Cowboys 28-24 loss to the Los Angeles Rams in last Saturday’s preseason opener have not diminished.

The numbers were outstanding alone. The rookie fourth-round pick completed 10 of 12 passes for 139 yards with two touchdowns and near-perfect quarterback rating of 154.5. His only two misses were drops by tight end Geoff Swaim.

But it was Prescott’s poise, composure and demeanor in working with the first-team offense in the spotlight environment of the Rams’ first game in Los Angeles in 21 years that stand out the most.

In evaluating young quarterbacks, Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said they look at “how does he handle the game? How does he manage it? Does he execute his plays? Everybody has an assignment to do on each play, 11 guys, did he do his job?”

Garrett said Prescott checked all the boxes with very few mistakes.

“The thing that jumped out more than anything else are his poise and composure, how he handled the game, how he managed the huddle, the line of scrimmage, how he managed game situations, did a really good job,” Garrett said. “And then he executed plays. Very few mistakes, and simply read the coverage, threw it to the right guy and delivered throws. The other part when you’re talking about quarterbacks is does the team respond to him? Does the ball move? Do you make first downs? Do you score points? And I think he did a really nice job in that area as well. Certainly was a good outing for him, but one of the things I’ve found out about him is he’s always looking for more. He always wants to learn from the experiences and he had a good response to the game and he’s ready to get back to work.”

Garrett said Prescott wasn’t perfect. He messed up a play call and could have had better decisions on a couple of plays.

But outside of that, he was the same guy they evaluated and scouted at Mississippi State before the draft _ prepared, calm and ready. They knew the stage wasn’t too big for him. It was just good to see it in an actual NFL game.

“One of the things we knew about him when we evaluated him was that everyone around him was so impressed with his leadership, his poise and his composure,” Garrett said. “We felt that when we evaluated him. (Quarterbacks coach) Wade Wilson went and worked him out. (Offensive coordinator) Scott Linehan spent time with him down there. He came to see us. We visited with him at the Senior Bowl, the combine, all of that. So we got all of those impressions. Since he’s been with us he’s demonstrated that as well, in practices, in competitive situations we’ve been in. But you haven’t seen him in a game situation. One of the things that was impressive is he kind of continued that same demeanor when the game started. And that’s a positive thing.”　

This story was originally published August 15, 2016 at 5:21 PM with the headline "Even better than the numbers were Dak Prescott’s poise, composure."