Dak Prescott wasted little time brushing off any concern about the right hand that had been wrapped after last Sunday’s 34-30 win over the Houston Texans. After Thursday’s 24-16 home loss to the formerly winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Cowboys quarterback said the issue had nothing to do with his uneven night.
“Absolutely nothing wrong with my hand,” he said, per Calvin Watkins of Dallas Morning News.
That leaves Dallas with a simpler explanation for a rough Week 5 showing: Prescott just wasn’t sharp. He completed 57.1 percent of his passes for 316 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions in a game that never really found his usual rhythm. Both picks were tipped by teammates, but the ball still wasn’t coming off his hand with the kind of touch Cowboys fans are used to seeing.
Whatever the cause, the result was the same. The Cowboys don’t have a defense built to absorb a bad night from their quarterback, and that reality showed up again against Tampa Bay. Dallas got on the board first with a Javonte Williams touchdown, then watched the Buccaneers answer with a scoring drive that ate nearly 11 minutes off the clock.
Bucky Irving was a major problem throughout, piling up 175 scrimmage yards and two touchdowns. Tez Johnson also slipped free for a 64-yard reception, another costly breakdown for a Dallas defense that keeps putting too much pressure on the offense to carry the load.
Even if the Christian Parker-led unit had played better, Prescott still didn’t deliver a winning performance. Now the Cowboys are 2-3, and they’ll get 10 days to regroup and rest before heading to Lambeau Field to face the Green Bay Packers, who are 2-2.
In Other News...
Jerry Jones Gets Pulled Back Into A Familiar NFL Firestorm
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For Dallas, it is another reminder that Jones can still end up at the center of league-wide conversation long after the original controversy faded from the daily news cycle. Jones had previously said the protests were disappointing and harmful to the NFLs popularity, and Kaepernicks public comments have now put that history back in view as the book tour keeps moving. [Read more 🡒]
Bucs Still Haunt Cowboys After Another Defensive Meltdown
The Cowboys latest meeting with Tampa Bay served as another reminder that the Buccaneers have become a particularly rough matchup when Dallas defense starts slipping. After giving up 17 unanswered points in the third quarter, the same issues that have dogged the run defense resurfaced, and the frustration around that side of the ball only grew louder in the aftermath.
Breiden Fehoko and Gerald McCoy both took aim at defensive coordinator Christian Parkers performance and the units execution, adding outside pressure to a conversation the Cowboys cant ignore. Brian Schottenheimer acknowledged there were some defensive shortcomings, even as he pointed to positives from a recent win, but the bigger concern in Dallas remains whether the defense can clean up enough to keep games from unraveling the way this one did. [Read more 🡒]
Cowboys Getting Booed At Home As Dak And Defense Crumble
The afternoon at AT&T Stadium turned sour quickly for a Cowboys team trying to protect home turf, as Tampa Bay kept stringing together long, methodical drives and sent Dallas into the fourth quarter trailing. What had started as a chance to settle things down after an uneven stretch instead became a scene of frustration, with the crowd growing restless as the Buccaneers kept moving the ball and the Cowboys struggled to answer.
Dak Prescott had trouble finding any rhythm, missing throws and throwing an interception, while the defense compounded the problem by giving up yardage and committing penalties that helped keep Tampa Bay possessions alive. Rookie quarterback Jalon Daniels, filling in for the injured Baker Mayfield, handled the moment well for the Buccaneers, and the combination of efficient offense and Dallas miscues left the home side chasing the game and hearing it from its own fans. [Read more 🡒]