This is a day I have long expected to come. A day that some Cowboys fans have been waiting for. The day that Dak Prescott, our beloved star QB, last season’s rookie sensation 4th round draft pick whose rise to stardom has been one of the greatest stories in the NFL, AND the current and future face of your Dallas Cowboys, is playing poorly. His team is crumbling around him, his confidence is low, he is experiencing the phenomenon known as a “slump”. As anticipated the Dak haters are out in full force. They have been waiting, lurking in the shadows and now predictably they are calling for the return of Tony Romo and telling us that they knew all along that Dak would fail. For the rest of us we have to face a simple fact…Dak Prescott is human after all. True, he had to play the last 2 games without All World RB Ezekiel Elliott, the best offensive lineman in football Tyron Smith and the defense has played poorly but these are merely excuses. The reality is that Dak had an opportunity to really solidify his star status but he has just not played well at all the last 2 games. Does this mean that everything he accomplished until now is meaningless? Does it mean that he has now been exposed and his magnificent run is over? Absolutely not! It is Ludacris to think that his previous success is completely contingent on just 2 players. Don’t get me wrong, those are 2 very important players but there is so much more involved here. The Dallas Cowboys coaching staff has not done him any favours. The Atlanta game was an absolute debacle and Jason Garrett and Scott Linehan completely mishandled the Chaz Green situation. Still, Dak has to shoulder some of the blame there since todays QB has to be prepared to make adjustments of their own, diagnose defenses and change plays accordingly. Dak does a lot of things really well and I consider him a really good decision maker but two things that Dak does not do well were front and center in the Atlanta game. The first is holding on to the ball too long and the second is that he lacks pocket presence. Dak has been a little spoiled up to this point with his offensive line and defenses focusing on Zeke so these flaws have never been exposed as they were recently. After the Atlanta game the Cowboys coaches had one week to adjust and prepare and I thought the pass protection was much better in the game against Philadelphia. The problem, in my opinion, is that Prescott may have been a little traumatized from the previous game and he did not look comfortable at all. He started out pretty shaky, missing some throws and he began to unravel as the game went on. Making bad decisions and forcing the ball are not things we normally see from Dak and yet that is exactly what happened. This is something us Cowboy fans may have to get used to in the short term until he can work out his issues. All great athletes have to face adversity and Dak Prescott is no different. Unfortunately for us fans, Dak Prescott is in the midst of a slump and we have to endure it for as long as it lasts. To make matters worse, the Cowboys are in the midst of a very competitive playoff race. They have tough schedule and they are on the outside looking in. Chances are this slump and the loss of Tyron Smith, Ezekiel Elliott and Sean Lee will ultimately cost Dallas a playoff spot. But fear not Cowboys fans, Dak will get over this eventually and improve from it. The future is still bright for “America’s Team!”
*Photo by Keith Allison (c) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode
Just because Mr I ain’t dak good is criticized don’t mean he is hated. You should correct your story. A lot of us seen thru last year. He had an easy schedule. He had zeke with a great year. He had one the best offensive lines Dallas has ever had and he had Romo helping look at defenses. He just an a mediocre qb at best. Most qbs would have had a great year on Dallas team last year. (EXCEPT but fumble sanchez) but hey he made 3 great passes to the Eagles dbs. Last week