Tag: 2024 season week 9

Report: Dak Prescott’s injury tore tendon off bone

From @ToddBrock24f7: NFL Network’s Jane Slater says Prescott’s injury typically takes more than 4 weeks of recovery time, but the QB is seeking other opinions.

The details of Dak Prescott’s injury are in, and they’re not for the faint of heart.

Per NFL Network’s Jane Slater, the Cowboys quarterback appears to have suffered a partial avulsion of his hamstring tendon, partially tearing it right off the bone. ESPN’s Todd Archer later said his source confirmed that diagnosis.

Head coach Mike McCarthy had already ruled Prescott out for Sunday’s home matchup with the Philadelphia Eagles, but- despite owner Jerry Jones hinting that a subsequent move to injured reserve was imminent– the Cowboys have not made any official determination about a timeline for his return.

According to Slater’s sources, the injury typically “takes more than a four-week recovery,” but Prescott is said to be seeking secondary opinions. The team is therefore allowing that process to play out further before placing Prescott on IR, which would automatically mean a four-game absence.

“In some cases,” Slater posted on X, “they let it scar over, repair and then strengthen.” But, she said on-air Wednesday evening, the injury could require surgery, depending on its severity.

Prescott told reporters he “felt something” on a scramble late in the third quarter of Sunday’s 27-21 loss to Atlanta. After the sack by Falcons linebacker Kaden Elliss, Prescott went back to the huddle and ran the next play.

Upon trying to step into a cross-field throw, however, he pulled up noticeably.

“I felt a pull, felt something I’ve never felt,” Prescott explained.

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He lasted one more play to finish the offense’s drive and then did not return for the Cowboys’ next possession.

Backup Cooper Rush finished the Week 9 contest and has been tabbed as the starter this weekend, but third-string option Trey Lance may figure into the mix, too, even if only on a handful of gadget-type plays or run situations.

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Cowboys’ CeeDee Lamb gets encouraging news on shoulder injury

From @ToddBrock24f7: An MRI has confirmed that Lamb has a sprained AC joint, but he may not miss any time. History shows he’ll be just fine with Cooper Rush.

While the hamstring injury suffered by quarterback Dak Prescott in Sunday’s loss will cost the Cowboys multiple games without their leader, the team’s top offensive weapon appears to have dodged a bullet.

Wide receiver CeeDee Lamb played through a shoulder injury for most of the game and even caught a two-point conversion late in the contest despite being in obvious pain.

Lamb has a sprained AC joint, according to multiple reports, news that would confirm the team’s early suspicions. Last season’s receptions leader will have a sore shoulder, but the injury is not considered serious. He is being called “week-to-week” and may not even miss any time.

“I’ll be out there,” Lamb told reporters. “I’ll be playing.”

The initial injury came in the second quarter after a hard fall to the turf while making a catch. A fourth-quarter dive on a deep ball aggravated the injury further, causing him to stay down momentarily and even miss several plays.

He was able to return.

Lamb totaled eight catches on 12 targets Sunday, gaining 47 yards and that two-point conversion from backup passer Cooper Rush in the waning moments of the 27-21 loss in Week 9.

Now it appears that Rush will take over in Dallas, barring a surprise roster change by the team to go with third-stringer Trey Lance.

But assuming Rush gets the gig, there may not be the dropoff for Lamb that many fans would expect at first blush. The 30-year-old quarterback out of Central Michigan has started six games as a Cowboy, and Lamb’s receiving numbers in that relatively small sample size are… actually… just fine.

Tgt Rec Yds TD
2021 at MIN 8 6 112 0
2022 vs CIN 11 7 75 0
2022 at NYG 12 8 87 1
2022 vs WAS 8 6 97 1
2022 at LAR 8 5 53 0
2022 at PHI 10 5 68 0

In Rush’s six starts, Lamb has averaged six catches on 11 targets for 82 yards per outing.

Over 74 career games, Lamb has averaged six catches on nine targets for 78 yards per outing.

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If Lamb is to play this Sunday when the Eagles come to Arlington, he’ll likely need a positive week of rehab work with the Cowboys training staff and at least one full practice under his belt by the weekend.

“It hurts, no need to shortchange it,” Lamb said of his right shoulder. “But that’s no excuse for my performance. I could have played better overall, and I’ll be better. I’m not going to put so much emphasis on it as far as me catching the ball because overall, that’s my job, but yeah, it definitely hurt.”

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‘Something I’ve never felt’: Cowboys’ Prescott details Week 9 hamstring injury

From @ToddBrock24f7: The Cowboys QB missed the 4th quarter with a hamstring injury, but he also took a blow to his throwing hand in the 27-21 loss to Atlanta.

When the Cowboys lost Dak Prescott at the end of the third quarter of Sunday’s game versus Atlanta, a hamstring injury was the official reason given.

But it may not be the only costly hit the quarterback took in the 27-21 loss.

TV viewers saw the team’s training staff tending to Prescott’s throwing hand on the sideline as the fourth quarter got underway, with blood visible around the knuckle where the right pinkie meets the hand bones. Within minutes, Prescott was announced out of the game… but with a hamstring issue.

Prescott himself told reporters about a sensation he felt while trying to evade a sack by Falcons linebacker Kaden Elliss on the final drive of the third quarter.

“I felt it when I was getting it up from the run,” Prescott said in his postgame press conference. “I can’t even say that I felt it running. Maybe the tackle, maybe something on the tackle, I don’t know. But standing up from that, I felt something, but actually, I didn’t think it was much.”

Prescott seemed to realize otherwise, however, on the very next play. As he stepped through a throw to the far sideline- a 10-yard completion to Jalen Brooks- he pulled up noticeably. Replays show Prescott’s face contorted in pain.

“I felt a pull, felt something I’ve never felt,” he explained.

He dumped out of a pass on the next snap, a third-down play, and looked rather gimpy doing it.

“Tough to walk on it at that point,” Prescott would say later. “Saw the medical team and asked, ‘Could I make it worse?’ At that point, they said I wouldn’t be able to protect myself, and they made the call to hold me out.”

The quarterback had been under fire for weeks for not using his rushing and scrambling skills more often. Prior to the injury on Sunday, he was credited with three runs for 30 yards, his highest ground total since Week 6 of last season.

Prescott was scheduled for an MRI on Monday to determine the severity of the leg injury, but the apparent harm done to his throwing hand is worth following up on as well.

Prescott was not asked about his hand during his Sunday afternoon presser, nor did he bring it up. But the few images broadcast from the sideline seemed to show a very swollen right hand. The passer missed five games in 2022 after breaking the thumb on that same hand in a Week 1 game versus Tampa Bay.

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The bigger worry is that hamstring. Owner Jerry Jones told reporters, “I am concerned about that. It concerned me when I saw the play, or saw him have a reaction to any weakness there.”

Backup Cooper Rush came on in relief and went 13-for-25 passing, compiling 115 yards and a touchdown in a comeback effort that fell short and sent the Cowboys to 3-5.

Rush has a 5-1 career record as the Cowboys starter. His only loss came in his most recent start, 2022’s Week 6 visit to Philadelphia, the last game that Prescott’s thumb injury caused him to miss.

The Cowboys are set to host the Eagles next Sunday. No matter what Monday’s tests reveal about Prescott hamstring and hand, Rush will almost certainly be taking extra snaps as a precaution.

Prescott, for his part, hopes to be able to suit up without missing any time at all.

“I would say that I’ll be out there next week. I’ve got to see. Luckily, I can say I’ve healed fast, I’ve progressed fast on injuries and things, so I’m thankful for that,” Prescott said.

“It’ll take a lot for me not to be out there, I’ll tell you personally.”

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Sideline video catches Prescott’s blunt assessment of how bad things are for Cowboys

From @ToddBrock24f7: Prescott was seen sharing his NSFW thoughts on the team’s Week 9 performance after he was ruled out with a hamstring injury in Atlanta.

Dak Prescott was only repeating the conclusion most Cowboys fans had already come to themselves.

It was late in the fourth quarter of the team’s 27-21 loss in Atlanta, and the Dallas quarterback was watching from the sideline as backup Cooper Rush was embarking on his third series with the offense.

Down two touchdowns when he came in, Rush had started 8-of-15 for 54 yards in relief to that point. Upon tossing another incomplete pass to Jalen Brooks to bring up a third down, TV cameras caught Prescott- clad in a baseball cap and done for the day with a hamstring injury- sharing his observation of things with third-string emergency option Trey Lance.

“We [expletive] suck,” Prescott seemed to say with a shake of his head.

Yep, that pretty much sums it up.

The loss dropped the Cowboys to 3-5, looking way up at both the Commanders and Eagles in the NFC East.Team owner Jerry Jones made a rare away-game locker-room visit to address the team and called the Cowboys’ current situation “bleak.”

Already perilously thin due to injuries on both sides of the ball, the Cowboys now face the very real possibility of Prescott missing time, too.

Last year’s leader in completions and touchdown passes will undergo an MRI on Monday to determine the severity of his injury, which he apparently suffered on a five-yard scramble late in the third quarter.

He told reporters he felt something not during the run or even the tackle, but when he got up. On the next dropback, he said, he “felt something I’ve never felt.”

Though he wanted to return to the field, Prescott was told by trainers that he wouldn’t be able to protect himself and was pulled in favor of Rush to start the fourth quarter.

Over his three quarters of action, Prescott went 18-of-24 passing for 133 yards and a touchdown. Rush finished 13-of-25 for 115 and a score.

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As the leader of the team and face of the franchise, Prescott will no doubt face criticism for his NSFW assessment of the Cowboys’ outlook. He’ll likely own the moment and suggest that his teammates all feel the same way about how they’ve performed thus far this season. He’ll explain that it was an honest response to a disappointing day, but he’ll point out that his job- and the responsibility of every man in the Dallas locker room- is to now flush the loss, turn the page, leave that negativity in the past, and look ahead to preparing for Philadelphia’s visit to Arlington in Week 10.

It’s the right approach. But it doesn’t mean what Prescott said was wrong.

Cowboys fans have been saying it for months.

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Report: Ezekiel Elliott’s reaction to being inactive led Cowboys to leave him in Dallas

From @ToddBrock24f7: Elliott will be a healthy scratch for the first time. He apparently did not react well to the news and will not travel to Atlanta.

“Zeke Who?”

More like: Zeke… Hoo boy.

The Cowboys’ rushing attack has been utterly toothless thus far in 2024, and now not even Ezekiel Elliott will get fed in Week 9 when the team visits the Falcons hoping to get back to .500 ball.

The team website confirms that the ninth-year veteran will not travel to Atlanta with the team. He’ll be inactive for “disciplinary reasons,” according to a report first filed by ESPN’s Todd Archer.

David Moore of the Dallas Morning News reports that Elliott was told he’d be inactive and that, ostensibly based on Elliott’s reaction to the news, “a mutual decision was then made that he not accompany the team to Atlanta.”

It will mark the two-time rushing champ’s first healthy scratch in a game that’s not a “meaningless” season finale.

The 3-4 Cowboys currently rank dead last in the NFL in rushing yards and yards per carry. Elliott, in particular, has struggled in his return to Dallas after spending 2023 as a New England Patriot. The former fourth-overall pick is averaging fewer than seven rushing attempts and just 21.3 rushing yards per game, both career-worst numbers (by far) for the three-time Pro Bowler.

The Cowboys have been unable to make a planned running back by committee work through seven games this season. After signing Dalvin Cook prior to Week 1, the team left him inactive until last Sunday’s matchup with the 49ers. Once he finally took the field, Cook gained 12 yards on six carries in his Dallas debut.

Rico Dowdle, the team’s leading rusher, was a late inactive due to what the team called an illness; Deuce Vaughn was active but did not play.

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Cook was elevated once again for Sunday’s game in Atlanta. Dowdle has not been listed on any of the week’s practice reports and carries no gameday designation.

No Cowboys ball carrier has had a run longer than 13 yards this season.

Whether the Cowboys win or lose on Sunday, Elliott’s benching, his apparent reaction to that development, and the fallout from that move will be a major storyline moving forward at The Star, just the latest chapter in a season that has turned dramatic for all the wrong reasons.

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Cowboys: CB Trevon Diggs has calf muscle tear; will be gametime decision vs Atlanta

From @ToddBrock24f7: Diggs sat out practice this week with what he first thought was calf tightness. Jerry Jones isn’t ready to rule him out for Sunday’s game.

With a road trip to Atlanta on the schedule for this weekend, the Cowboys shouldn’t expect much in the way of Southern hospitality from Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins.

His loaded offense currently ranks in the top 10 leaguewide in points scored, total yards, yards-per-play, first downs, and passing yards. With DeMarcus Lawrence, Micah Parsons, and DaRon Bland all set to sit out once again, this is not the week for the Dallas defense to have any more of its superstar players pop up on the questionable list.

But that’s exactly where top cornerback Trevon Diggs is, with word coming from the top of the organization about the new injury that kept him out of practice earlier in the week and jeopardizes his status for Week 9.

Diggs made news after the team’s loss to the 49ers by getting into a heated exchange with WFAA reporter Mike Leslie outside the visitors locker room. While the two did publicly make up, it put extra eyes on the two-time Pro Bowler this week. Those eyebrows were then raised when Diggs later appeared on the practice report as a non-participant Wednesday and Thursday with some sort of calf issue.

“What none of us knew when that was going on was that he had a tear in his calf, and [it] was going to maybe limit him,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said Friday on 105.3 The Fan.

Diggs had told the media that he believed he was dealing merely with tightness in the muscle, stemming from “one of the plays I got hit or something” in Santa Clara last Sunday night.

Jones wasn’t ready to say Diggs will join his other high-profile rehabbing teammates as an onlooker at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

“I’m not so sure he’s out [for Sunday], but… that’s why he wasn’t at practice the other day.”

Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy offered some optimism for Diggs’s status, calling him a gametime decision.

“There’s specific drills we’ll need him to do tomorrow,” the coach said Friday per ESPN’s Todd Archer, “but he was much better today than we could have anticipated. He’s doing everything he can to try to get ready for Sunday.”

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On the bright side for Dallas, it looks as if rookie cornerback Caelen Carson will return to action. He practiced in full all week and carries no official designation for the Atlanta tilt after a shoulder injury that kept him shelved for four games.

Amani Oruwariye was moved to IR earlier in the week with a back injury, leaving nickel starter Jourdan Lewis, special-teams ace C.J. Goodwin, the much-maligned Andrew Booth, and practice-squadder Josh Butler as the only other cornerbacks in the building.

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