Dak Prescott is asked to be perfect, and the problem is he’s not Russell Wilson
Dak Prescott is paid like a top five quarterback, but on Sunday we saw the line between himself and the men at the top of the NFL pay scale.
As much as Dak detractors love to hate the starting quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys, don’t believe them. He’s not bad. He’s not mediocre. Problem is, he’s not Russell Wilson either.
There is a difference.
And we all saw it on Sunday.
Both the Dallas Cowboys and the Seattle Seahawks asked their respective quarterbacks to carry their teams on Sunday in Seattle, and only one could do it.
Wilson is the better quarterback, and the Seahawks are the better team. And so they won the game, 38-31.
Until Dak consistently wins games such as these, the Don’t Pay Dak Fan Club will only increase in membership.
The Cowboys are beset with injuries to their offensive line, and an already bad secondary has injury problems, too.
The Seahawks offensive line has problems, too, but their defense is just a tick better.
Dak threw the ball 57 times on Sunday. Five-seven.
Any quarterback who throws a ball that much in a four-quarter game is going to lose.
The problems with the offensive line meant running back Ezekiel Elliott had nowhere to run, and the Cowboys justifiably gave up on running the ball early in the first half.
For the third consecutive week, the Cowboys fell behind and had no choice but to rely on Dak’s right arm to win.
And they almost pulled it off.
Dak passed for 472 yards with three touchdowns. Impressive numbers, but the magic numbers needed on this day were 500 yards and four scores.
With less than 30 seconds to play on what would be the game’s final meaningful play, Dak spun away from a would-be sack in a way that looked similar to the days of Tony Romo or even Roger Staubach. How he evaded a sack is anybody’s guess, but that was only one half of the play.
He still needed to fire a touchdown pass from Seattle’s 26-yard line to pull within a point. (This was not a day extra points could be assumed.)
But his desperation toss into the end zone, into a crowd of humanity, was intercepted and effectively ended the game.
“I always want the ball in my hands. I’m never going to shy away from the moment with the ball in my hands and having a chance to win the game,” Dak said after the game. “I want to make those throws, and I want to have those opportunities.
“We just have to be better, starting with myself, of converting those and making more of these one-score games wins for us. I know we will. We have a long way to go, and we’re just 1-2.”
Before that throw, Dak sprayed the ball around like a lawn sprinkler, and found Michael Gallup six times for 138 yards.
Dak found Cedrick Wilson five times for 107 yards.
Dak led the Cowboys back from a 30-15 second half deficit to a 31-30 lead in the fourth quarter.
He made short throws. He made long throws. He threw darts. He threw spirals. He threw bombs.
On Sunday, as is the case so often, the problem for Dak is that the Cowboys don’t need him to be great. They need him to be perfect.
On Sunday, Dak’s biggest problem was that the guy on the other side was not only better, but he was best.
Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson was nearly perfect against the Cowboys. He completed 27 passes for 315 yards and threw for five touchdowns ... and zero interceptions.
Please note that it really helped Wilson was passing against the Dallas Cowboys’ decimated defense.
Wilson should have had one more touchdown but receiver D.K. Metcalf’s casual handling of the ball as he was coasting into the end zone for should have been a 63-yard touchdown catch in the first half resulted in a turnover.
“I have not seen a quarterback play better than this,” NBC NFL analyst Tony Dungy said during the telecast on Sunday Night Football. “Russell Wilson is playing out of his mind and they are winning on the last play of the game every week.”
Wilson is the highest standard of NFL quarterbacks.
As good as Dak Prescott is, he’s not Russell Wilson.
We saw the difference on Sunday.
This story was originally published September 28, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
