Dak Prescott has thrown as many interceptions (4) as he did all of last season. He has as many losses (3) as all of last season, too. His 93.1 passer rating ranks only 13th.
Yet, the Cowboys insist their quarterback is playing his best football.
“He’s playing really well,” Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said Monday. “He’s really doing everything we ask him to do. He makes so many plays within the scheme, throwing the ball to the right guy on a consistent basis, and then when things break down, making great plays with his feet and his arm out of the pocket. He’s been very good at situational football, third downs and fourth downs. The red zone yesterday was really, really good. He’s really getting more and more comfortable in the offense.
“Trust me, he’s been very comfortable right from the start, but you can just see him taking more command of it. The guys around him respond to him. He was just really impressive yesterday, particularly on that last drive. Regardless of how the interception happened, the interception was run back for a touchdown, you have to respond to that as a quarterback and his response was obviously off the charts. He’s playing at a very high level.”
Prescott completed 25 of 36 passes for 251 yards with three touchdowns, an interception and a 105.2 passer rating in Sunday’s loss to the Packers. He actually played even better than that. Damarious Randall’s 21-yard interception return was on receiver Terrance Williams, who had the ball bounce off his hands.
And it wasn’t Prescott’s fault his defense couldn’t keep the Packers out of the end zone after he had given them a 31-28 lead with an 11-yard touchdown run with 1:13 remaining.
“I thought he was outstanding,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said Sunday after the Cowboys’ 35-31 loss. “I thought it was maybe the best game I’ve seen him play since he has been a Cowboy. He got us on his back. He carried the team on his back. We finally at the end did what we wanted to do wearing them down, but Dak made the key significant 20-yard or more plays that kept those drives alive early. We had another guy here who was quarterback here for years, and he would make those and we called him a magician.
“Dak had a tremendous game. I am really sad for this team that we didn’t come out here with a win. We really did compete.”