‘He’s a warrior’: Cowboys teammates come to Dak Prescott’s defense after gutsy performance in loss

From @ToddBrock24f7: Prescott had his most passing yards in nearly two seasons, but his teammates don’t blame him for the team coming up short in Sunday’s loss.

There are plenty of reasons why the Cowboys fell in Sunday’s 28-23 loss to the NFC-leading Eagles, but despite one popular narrative playing out with a certain segment of football fans, no one actually wearing the star believes their quarterback is one of those reasons.

Dak Prescott passed for 374 yards in the Week 9 clash, his most through the air since 2021’s Thanksgiving Day overtime meeting with the Raiders, and a total that ranks within the top 15 games of his pro career.

But that was of little solace to Prescott as he spoke with reporters at Lincoln Financial Field after his three-touchdown effort was in vain.

“It sucks,” Prescott said plainly. “You want to come into this game, everybody in that locker room believed. And we still do, don’t get me wrong. We were inches away, on three different plays, from this being a different game or being a different outcome near the end.”

Two of those plays were Prescott passes that came up just short. One was the apparent touchdown to rookie tight end Luke Schoonmaker, called back only after a video replay review determined his knee was down before the ball crossed the plane of the goal line.

That play happened immediately after Prescott tried to punch it in himself and was dramatically flipped head over heels to land inside the 2.

The Cowboys also came up just shy on the game’s final play, when CeeDee Lamb was tackled on the 4-yard-line as time expired.

The third play was Prescott’s late two-point attempt that saw him race Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham to the goal line and get forced out of bounds just before getting the ball across. A successful conversion there would have put the Cowboys down by just a field goal with over six minutes still to play.

“Really just mad at myself for not just attacking the pylon earlier with two hands, diving,” Prescott said. “I was just going for the pylon and played it too close. Obviously, we get that, those last two possessions are completely different. So, it sucks.”

But Prescott’s teammates and coaches had nothing but praise for No. 4 for an overall heroic performance.

“I thought Dak Prescott played extremely well under the circumstances. This is a tough place to play,” head coach McCarthy told reporters in his postgame press conference. “He made plays with his feet, hung in there in the pocket, took hits. I thought he played his ass off.”

“He’s just so reliable. What a leader,” Schoonmaker agreed. Big-time players make big-time plays in big-time games. The confidence is just through the roof.”

“Dak was awesome tonight,” guard Zack Martin said. “Using his legs, throwing the ball down the field. He was lights out.”

“He’s a champion. He has a champion mindset,” explained guard Tyler Smith, who had a critical false start penalty on the final drive that pushed the offense back five yards. “I’ve got to be better for him.”

Thanks to a running game that never really materialized, Prescott had to put the entire offense on his right shoulder, attempting a season-high 44 throws while using his legs to evade an Eagles pass rush that still got home for five sacks and hit him another ten times.

That made an impression on the Cowboys’ own defensive star, watching from the sideline.

“Dak’s a freaking warrior,” linebacker Micah Parsons said at his locker. “There was multiple times where I was like, ‘That’s Dak [expletive] Prescott, bro.’ He’s a dog. He’s a warrior. I’ve got an unbelievable amount of confidence in him. I thought he had a great game. I think more people need to put more respect on him; he outplayed everyone today.”

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And still, Sunday’s clash came down to the smallest of margins. A few inches on Schoonmaker’s catch. A few inches on Prescott’s two-point run. A couple yards on the final throw to Lamb.

There’s not much comfort in that for Prescott.

“There’s no moral victories in this, I can promise you that. Not by any means,” he explained.

But there are lessons to take moving forward.

“We got close. We got close,” Prescott repeated. “We’re doing things the right way. We’ve just got to- an inch here, an inch there- make that difference, and we’ll find a way to gain that.”

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