Dak’s Toughest Test Yet Awaits
--
So we’re all onboard with Dak Prescott right now as he carried his pre-season form into the regular season. He has lead the Cowboys to a 3–1 record and in each game he seems to prove more and more that he is a franchise quarterback in the making. Some have even suggested that because of Prescott’s form, we have seen the last of Tony Romo. I don’t quite believe that, but I’m not going to bemoan anyone for getting a bit overexciting, especially after the travesty that was last season.
But there is an asterix that should stop us from hailing Dak Prescott as the next Roger Staubach or Troy Aikman. The defences haven’t been the greatest. Now don’t get me wrong, they haven’t all been horrific. New York Giants is ranked 11th in the league, while the Chiacgo Bears are, some how, 10th. But then we come to the other teams we faced. The Washington Redskins defence is ranked 29th in the league while the San Francisco 49ers are 20th, so poor overall there. The Dallas Cowboys are ranked 18th by the way for comparison.
And now we prepare to face the toughest defence of the year with the Cincinnati Bengals coming up tomorrow. They are ranked 9th in the NFL and for most of their defensive snaps this season they have been without their star man, Vontaze Burfict. He’ll be there on Sunday, hoping to make up for his three match suspension. They’ve also got a few other star pieces to be worried such as Geno Atkins and Adam Jones.
And they may make the most of the mistakes that Dak has been making in his first few starts. Yes, he’s been brilliant and I’m sure as hell not condemning him for making these mistakes, he’s a 4th round rookie and this is just part of the process, but he has made them and we’d be silly to ignore them. His accuracy has been poor at times and has ignored wide open guys until its too late. And really, he should have been picked by Eric Reid in the game against the 49ers.
With the Bengals having the players to turn those mistakes from failed plays into interceptions, its a game where Prescott will have to be on top form. He seriously can’t afford to make many mistakes against this D, or he will get punished and we’ll be heading to 3–2.
But instead of being full of nerves, which I would be after reading up on their D, he should see this as an opportunity. There aren’t many fans who still have their doubts about Dak, but by leading his Cowboys team to a victory over the Bengals, he will banish the few that will remain. He’ll also send a message to the rest of the NFL that he’s not a standard rookie quarterback and that they should be afraid of him. And for his own management? Well, they’ll be rethinking that whole Tony Romo returns on October 30th for the Philadelphia Eagles game thing.
