Cowboys owner Jerry Jones campaigned for Dak Prescott to run more after seeing Cam Newton in the opener. He wanted more quarterback runs, too, after seeing Deshaun Watson against his defense last week.
Ask and ye shall run.
After only 11 rushes by Prescott in the last three games combined, the Cowboys quarterback had 11 carries for 82 yards and a touchdown against Jacksonville. It set career highs for Prescott in carries and rushing yards.
“It just opened everything up,” Prescott said. “Some of it was called runs and just read options. The end game was to read, keep it and a lot of them were just man-to-man protection and man-to-man coverage, and the protection was solid, and I was able to get out of the pocket, and make them pay. At that point, it was making them get a spy guy making adjustments on their part, and it opened up everything for our offense.”
Prescott’s 82 rushing yards ranks second in team history among quarterbacks behind with only Hall of Famer Roger Staubach’s 90 yards on six carries against the Eagles in 1971.
The Cowboys now are 6-0 when Prescott runs it at least seven times.
Jones said Sunday he is fine with Prescott running as much as he did Sunday.
“I am. Yes, I am,” Jones said. “I’d rather see him running like that and sliding than getting chipped and nipped away at the ankles and the sacks that come in with what’s in that pocket. I’m fine with that. That will basically cause us to open it up. We don’t have to rely on that because we’ve got Zeke [Ezekiel Elliott] when we’re at full bore out there. Our antidote is really directly Zeke. We don’t have to depend on a lot of downfield connections for those two. You can hand it off to him or you can keep it.”