Dallas Cowboys welcome Dak Prescott back – NFL is on notice
By Reid Hanson
They had their chance. With Dak Prescott out, the NFL had the perfect opportunity to bury the Dallas Cowboys. Alas, they did not, and now the 4-2 Dallas Cowboys are in position and fiendishly determined to show the NFL exactly who they really are.
When Dak Prescott went down to a thumb injury in Week One, things looked bleak. The Dallas Cowboys were atrocious with their franchise QB that game, we could only imagine how bad they would be without him. The offense has never effectively survived an extended loss of No. 4, so to think they could even tread water with Cooper Rush, a guy who didn’t even make the 53-man roster out of training camp, was irresponsibly optimistic.
The Dallas Cowboys survived the loss of Dak Prescott and now stand to elevate to one of the most dangerous teams in the NFL.
Little did we know the Dallas defense had matured to near elite status. Last Sunday’s season-worst performance notwithstanding, Dan Quinn’s 2022 unit might just be the best defense this city has boasted since the Super Bowl teams of the 1990s.
Premature anointment? Sure, but the high level of play cannot be denied and their ability to rotate deep and make big plays at every level, indicate it’s not only sustainable but fairly impervious to injury. Depth and youth lead us to believe they’ve only scratched the surface on their potential and this top-5 squad is only getting better.
Dak Prescott (thumb fracture) has been cleared medically to play according to #Cowboys HC Mike McCarthy. Tomorrow expect him to throw 40-50 balls at practice
— Jane Slater (@SlaterNFL) October 19, 2022
Dak Prescott’s return takes the team to an entirely different level. The last five full games Dak was at QB1, the Dallas Cowboys were a top-five offense. The last full five games Cooper Rush was QB1, the Dallas Cowboys were bottom-10. Even if Dak Prescott comes back and only leads this offense to his career-low levels, the Cowboys will still be over three times as productive as they’ve been this season under Rush.
The return of Dak Prescott cannot be understated.
According to @FiveThirtyEight, the #Cowboys did not see a change in their chances to make the playoffs this week (91%).
— Marcus Mosher (@Marcus_Mosher) October 18, 2022
That probably had to do to the fact that the Packers, Bucs, Saints, 49ers and Cardinals all lost in Week 6.
With Tampa Bay, Green Bay, San Francisco, and LA all going 3-3 the first six weeks of the season, all of the NFC’s top teams are floundering. To think Dallas is ahead of them all in the standings right now is enormously good news.
Now the Dallas Cowboys set to embark on a redemption tour. They are far better than their 3rd place divisional standing indicates and might just be the best team in the conference if Dak can save the offense, like we all expect him to.
The NFL needed the Dallas Cowboys to fall into a hole without Dak but Cooper Rush and the dominant Dallas D kept them in the chase. The NFL screwed up not putting the Cowboys down when they had the chance and now they have to face the consequences.
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Dak is back, baby.