Alan Truex: Dak Prescott is gaining value
Updated Wednesday, September 11, 2019
LLANO, Texas — No sooner do they accommodate Zeke Elliott than another compensation issue threatens the Dallas Cowboys on their way to the Super Bowl. Quarterback Dak Prescott in the final year of his rookie contract is making special-teams salary: $2 million.
He solidified his negotiating position Sunday at Jerry World when he treated the New York Giants’ secondary like it was Arena League. He threw for 405 yards, on 25 completions in 32 attempts, and the Cowboys opened their season with such authority, 35-17, that Super Bowl talk is rampant among the fan base.
Troy Aikman, a Hall of Fame Cowboys quarterback, said after the game that “this team is as talented as some I was part of that went to Super Bowls.” This is the same Troy Aikman who less than a year ago was calling for “a complete overhaul of the entire organization.”
Actually, they haven’t changed that much since last November when Aikman saw “a lot of dysfunction.”
It’s the same playbook, but the rookie offensive coordinator, Kellen Moore, is reinterpreting it and using the options presented on every page.
Until now I never realized how important Jason Witten was to their team, why Jason Garrett pleaded with him to return to football at 37.
An embattled coach needing all the help he could get saw a veteran leader who would help the team’s young tight ends mature, and also a player who’s still useful in the red zone with his blocking, tackling and catching.
Not to mention that this was a player who was cringingly uncomfortable in the Monday Night Football broadcast booth.
We saw Witten at his red-zone best Sunday in the second quarter, score tied at 7. He lined up tight on the right side, faked a block for a running play and then hooked into the end zone to catch a 4-yard flip from Prescott. Dallas was ahead for good.
This was an example of smart scheming. Moore broadened and quickened the attack and disguised the intentions. “Have a little shift, then motion and then the read-option play,” Moore told the Dallas Morning News. “A bunch of things for them to look at.”
Elliott, who did his preseason training in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, seemed only incidental, with his 53 yards on 13 carries. He admitted he was “rusty,” though he was still much more effective than his popular backup, rookie Tony Pollard, who totaled 24 yards from his 13 tries.
The Giants jammed the box, daring the Cowboys to pass. So pass they did. Prescott achieved a 158.3 passer rating, which somehow is the highest possible figure. It’s considered “perfect,” the 7 incompletions notwithstanding.
Moore had Prescott throwing everywhere and to everyone: 4 TDs to 4 different receivers, and that did not include Michael Gallup, who caught 7 non-scoring passes for a helpful 158 yards.
This team is loaded with weapons, and Prescott knows how to use them. As Garrett said afterward, “He had complete control of the offense.”
Prescott was officially NFL Player of the Week. He needed to be because the Dallas defense was not as suffocating as it was in preseason. Rod Marinelli allowed some cushioning, not wanting to yield a long gain. With Odell Beckham in Cleveland the Giants are a one-trick pony named Saquon Barkley. He rushed for 120 yards on 11 carries but did not score. Dallas stopped him when necessary.
Fortunately for the Cowboys, Jerry Jones at 76 is still the front man but leaves the personnel decisions to his son Stephen, who’s an underrated judge of football talent. He steered his dad away from Johnny Manziel, and the Cowboys have done well with most of their draft picks in recent years.
Few teams can match a young nucleus of Elliott, Prescott, DeMarcus Lawrence, Jaylon Smith, Leighton Vander Esch, Byron Jones, Travis Frederick, Zack Martin, Maliek Collins.
Last year’s shrewd trade for Amari Cooper gave Prescott a deep receiver; they linked on Sunday for a 45-yard bomb and a 21-yard laser for a touchdown.
So right away the Cowboys are looking like front-runners for the NFC Championship. Last year’s winner, the Los Angeles Rams, looked vulnerable while squeaking by the Carolina Panthers. And the NFC runners-up, New Orleans Saints, needed a 58-yard last-second field goal to edge the Houston Texans 30-28 on Monday night.
Philadelphia, the reigning king of the NFC East, fell behind 17-0 to Washington before recovering for the win. The Eagles showed firepower comparable to the Cowboys: deep threat not lacking with DeSean Jackson back on the team. In his first game with Carson Wentz he caught touchdowns of 51 and 53 yards.
As good as the Eagles and Cowboys looked on first impression, it’s too early to put any team on the same level as the eternal New England Patriots.
Certainly the Pats’ 33-3 dismantling of Pittsburgh on Sunday night eclipsed what the Cowboys did in the afternoon.
NBC’s Chris Simms said, “That secondary the Patriots have allows them to do whatever they want with the front seven. Against New England you can’t fail to make a fourth down on a run or drop a fourth-down pass or let a ball in the end zone go through your hands when you’re down 20-nothing. If you don’t make those plays you lose 33-3.”
A former quarterback, Steve Beuerlein, said on Monday QB: “The most disappointing performance of the day was by a guy I like a lot: Ben Roethlisberger. He’s got to play a lot better if the Steelers want to win.”
For all the problems Antonio Brown caused off the field, the Steelers clearly miss him on it.
JuJu Smith-Schuster could run free as a No. 2 to Brown, but as a No. 1 he had no room to breathe when matched against Stephon Gilmore.
I believe Amari Cooper can outrun Gilmore and that the Cowboys have enough speed, quickness, size and depth elsewhere to put up a good fight against the Patriots in LIV in Miami.
The one cloud in the picture: Prescott, suddenly pressing Zeke as Most Valuable Cowboy. In all the celebration of Zeke, we forget that Dak has thrown for 71 TDs and rushed for 18, and he’s been picked off just 25 times in 3 seasons. Resigned to paying Prescott his $30-35 million a year (gotta be worth more than Jared Goff at $28 mil), Jones said he wanted to wrap up the deal this week.
Perhaps it was just coincidence that in the final two minutes of Sunday’s game the mighty sound system at AT&T blared the O’Jays classic, “For the Love of Money.” It warns: “Don’t let money change you.”
