Inside Dak Prescott’s conversation with Jerry Jones, which fueled the biggest win — and maybe best performance — of his career
TAMPA, Fl. — Jerry Jones found Dak Prescott Before kickoff.
The Dallas Cowboys The team owner was aware that his quarterback had thrown 15 interceptions in the league this season, which is seven games more than his previous turnover-free performance.
Prescott had talked about risk vs. reward decision making during the week as he was preparing for his fourth-ever playoff match and possibly the most high-stakes of his career.
You have the chance to break a 30-year drought in road playoff wins. Finally, the chance to withstand the legendary Tom Brady comeback.
The Cowboys’ philosophy was clear: Use the defense to your advantage. Use your intelligence. Don’t insist on every-play heroics.
Also? Jones didn’t build the Cowboys into the most valuable franchise in sportsForbes said that this was because he played it safe. So he didn’t want Prescott to Press – but he did want his quarterback to Trust.
“I talked to him before the game, and all I said was: ‘Absolutely, do Not not take risks,’” Jones said at 12:21 a.m. ET Tuesday, ebullient from his team’s 31-14 wild-card victory The Tampa Bay Buccaneers. “ ‘Be aggressive.’
“There was no question before this game Dak was going to have to win it for us … to step out here and go and be the difference. He did. He was. It served notice to everybody – including his teammates, including himself.”
Because in the biggest game of Dak Prescott’s career, he also played at his best.
Dak Prescott’s ‘statement game’
The first two drives summoned Cowboys fans’ nightmares. Two three and outs. To start the game, there are three incompletions.
Prescott could rise to the occasion in the bright light?
“I told the offense in the huddle: ‘Hey, we get one first down, this thing’s going to roll,’” Prescott said afterward. “And that’s exactly what happened.”
Prescott completed 11 of his next 11 pass attempts, setting a Cowboys postseason mark for the most consecutive attempts without an incomplete.
And before long, he wouldn’t just rebound to a 25-of-33 night for 305 yards. Prescott would also throw touchdowns to three targets and rush for a fifth score on seven of his carries.
Prescott dropped back with 6:28 left to play in the quarter and was able to nail an airborne tight finish Dalton Schultz For a touchdown of 22 yards, he was stuck in traffic. A quarter later, Cowboys safety momentum was riding. Jayron Kearse’s end-zone interception of BradyPrescott feigned handoff to a 2016 draft classmate Ezekiel Elliott Before rolling to his left and racing in the third postseason win by ground,
“The play call fooled the defense,” Prescott said of the run-pass option. “I could’ve thrown it to Schultz. He had already had one, so I kept it.”
Before halftime, Dallas would score yet again – this time, courtesy both Prescott’s legs And His franchise-tagged tight end.
Prescott maintained the Cowboys’ pace by keeping the drive alive on third-and-6 with a diving scramble of 11 yards. Prescott rolled to his left again when his pocket started to collapse. As he approached the sideline, Prescott squared himself toward Schultz. Then he threaded a needle the 11 remaining yards.
This was the scramble drill Mike McCarthy had so strongly encouraged throughout the week. This was the situational game that the coaches had practiced all season. Players could see the drill in their lockers after each game.
Prescott stayed poise as Buccaneers defenders swarmed. Prescott was able to keep the play alive by giving Schultz a subtle finger tip toward the area in which he intended to exploit the coverage. This confirms: They were reading defense the same. The Cowboys took an 18-0 lead into halftime, despite kicker Brett Maher’s uncharacteristic misses of by then three, and eventually four, extra-point attempts.
ESPN’s cameras caught an angry Prescott slamming his helmet into the sideline and grass and seemingly exclaiming “go for f***ing two.”
Prescott said he spoke personally with Maher afterward, telling his kicker to “let that go.”
“I’m ‘Money’ Maher’s biggest fan,” Prescott said. “We’re going to need him. I just played like s*** a week ago. This happens. When you believe in each other, believe in what we’re capable of doing, knowing what that guy’s done, the resilience he’s shown throughout his career, personally no doubt he’ll come back next week, be perfect and help us win.”
If Prescott could rebound, why can’t Maher?
Prescott was the receiver, and the Cowboys kept their collective foot to the pedal. Michael Gallup Running across the back of the end zone just in time for a touchdown Next Gen Stats You can track it as far back as 0.5 meters.
And to cap it off – yes, there was still one more Prescott touchdown drive Monday – the Cowboys quarterback found a wide-open CeeDee Lamb In the fourth quarter, faced fourth-and-4 at the 18 yard line.
Even Brady, a playoff wizard, could be fended off by the cushion.
And while Prescott reiterated postgame that “this wasn’t some Dak vs. Tom Brady matchup,” the seventh-year pro showed the clutch composure that his counterpart long has.
“The heartbeat of the team,” Elliott said.
“Dak showed that he’s a warrior,” Lamb said. “He’s a baller. He was able to sling it.
“I felt like it was a statement game for him.”
Jerry Jones: Is Dak the best QB in NFC
As the Cowboys’ victory in this game was nearing its conclusion, there was much to be said about it in the Raymond James Stadium visitors box.
Michael Irvin, Cowboys Hall of Fame Receiver, approached Jones in order to explain the mixed emotions that would result from a victory such as this.
Irvin remembered the 86 yards he contributed to the Cowboys’ last playoff road win, one day short of 30 years earlier against the San Francisco 49ersThree weeks later, Irvin ran for 114 yards and two touchdowns as the Cowboys won the first of three Super Bowls in four seasons.
Irvin likened the thrill of winning to a dog that smells fresh meat.
“You put the dog in the hunt and you put it in there,” Jones recalled, “then once they’ve tasted that, they come on back. So that’s what you’ve done here, and these guys will never be the same.
“This was an elevating experience.”
The Cowboys’ win Monday night was an elevating experience because of all the historical and recent evidence that suggested they weren’t primed for triumph. But to Jones, this win didn’t only send a message relevant in the past and the present. It also bore great significance, the team owner and general manager believed, for the Cowboys’ immediate future.
“There is no exaggeration to think that this experience for our team made it much better,” Jones said. “This win is invaluable To everyone: It can happen You.”
And that “it” – a Cowboys win, a Cowboys postseason run, maybe even the magical season the Cowboys have waited 27 years to recapture – can happen, Jones said, because of this quarterback.
Prescott faltered in last year’s wild-card game, a “scar” he says he’ll wear for the rest of his career. After missing five games with a thumb fracture, he returned to play to alternate between throwing the most complex throws and tossing the most confusing interceptions.
Prescott heard the noise, accepted that the risky style he’d become comfortable with wasn’t necessarily It is wrong But he needed a greater counterbalance to the reward in order to justify his embrace.
And then, with confidence and precision and his arms and legs, Prescott led his team to victory against the NFL’s all-time playoff victor.
“All that is a nice badge,” Jones said. “He was well aware of the criticism, whether he had a lot to do with it or not, us not winning playoff games for the last umpteenth years. It was there. I think he just took it on, right in the face of it, Brady and all of it, and just said: I’m going to show you.”
Sunday, 6:30 p.m. ET in Santa Clara against the 49ersPrescott will try to do that again.
Count Jones among the believing.
“In the right setting, with the right circumstances,” Jones said in a quiet moment, nearly half an hour after Prescott had rolled his luggage out of the stadium and onto team buses headed home for Dallas, “he showed me he’s maybe the top – certainly the NFC – quarterback.”
Follow Yahoo Sports’ Jori Epstein on Twitter @JoriEpstein