November got off to a rough start for the Cowboys, with the team falling to the Eagles in a true game of inches just a few days after the calendar page had turned. Things turned around quickly on both sides of the ball, though, with three blowout wins, and now the league has recognized both an offensive and defensive playmaker for their stellar contributions over the last four weeks as a whole.
Quarterback Dak Prescott was named the NFC Offensive Player of the Month, and cornerback DaRon Bland was similarly honored as NFC Defensive Player of the Month. It’s the first time ever that the Cowboys have had two Player of the Month winners in the same month.
Prescott sits at or near the top in several passing categories for the season as a whole, but he’s been on an entirely different plane in November. In Weeks 9 through 12, he’s gone 104-for-149 through the air- that’s a 68.4% completion rate- for 1,298 yards and 13 touchdowns… and only one interception, for a QB rating of 121.7.
Within the conference, Prescott placed No. 1 or No. 2 in three of those four weeks in passing yards, and he never finished outside the top 6 in QB rating. He led the NFC in passing yards and touchdown throws for November, and he’s considered a legitimate candidate for league MVP with six games left to play in the regular season.
NFC’s best on both sides of the ball 💪
🗞️ https://t.co/5cZWJ4xeEF pic.twitter.com/wtNN0uOKOA
— Dallas Cowboys (@dallascowboys) November 30, 2023
Bland set a new NFL record on Thanksgiving by recording his fifth interception-return touchdown in a single season. He leads the league with seven picks, three of which have come in his last three outings (and two of those ended up in the end zone). He’s also added four defended passes and 20 tackles over the course of the month. The fifth-round draft pick is the highest-rated cornerback in the NFL this season in passer rating allowed when targeted and is in the conversation for Defensive Player of the Year.
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This marks the first monthly award for either player. The Cowboys haven’t had an Offensive Player of the Month since 2014 (they had three that year). Defensively, Micah Parsons won the award for September; this is the first time in franchise history two Cowboys defenders have been so honored in the same season. Brandon Aubrey was the Special Teams Player of the Month in October.
Prescott and Bland have the opportunity to close out their award-winning month in style with a primetime battle against the Seattle Seahawks on the final night of November.
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