dbair1967

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To Dak Prescott, it's not as easy as it looks

Todd Archer
ESPN Staff Writer

ARLINGTON, Texas -- When the Dallas Cowboys lost Kellen Moore to a broken right fibula on Aug. 2, panic set in.

The Cowboys lost their only backup quarterback with any NFL experience -- and just three games at that -- and were left with Dak Prescott and Jameill Showers as the only on-roster possibilities to be starter Tony Romo’s No. 2.

Eighteen days later, the story has changed surrounding the Cowboys’ backup quarterback position.

Prescott has simply been that good.

In Friday’s 41-14 preseason victory against the Miami Dolphins, the rookie completed 12 of 15 passes for 199 yards with 2 touchdowns and 0 interceptions. He ran three times for 28 yards, scoring touchdowns on two of those runs.

Add that to the performance Prescott had in Dallas' preseason opener against the Los Angeles Rams -- 10-of-12 passing, 139 yards, 2 touchdowns -- and it’s easy to breathe a little easier when thinking about what might happen if Romo were to go down.

After all, Prescott has accounted for more touchdowns (six) in two preseason games than he has incomplete passes (five).



Dak Prescott made a case for securing the Cowboys' backup QB job Friday night by slicing through the Miami defense with his legs (two rushing TDs) and his arm (two TD passes). AP Photo/Ron Jenkins

“I don’t think 'easy' is the word,” Prescott said. “It’s the work I put in through the week. I’ve got great veterans, great coaches and that puts me in a great position to be successful on the field. I’m thankful for that, but a lot of hard work goes in for that.”

Nobody knows the difficulty of the position better than Romo, who went 4 of 5 for 49 yards in his first preseason showing.

“I’ve been impressed with how Dak played,” Romo said. “It kind of reminds me of a little bit back in the day in some capacity. He’s playing great. To have depth at that position, it’s a big bonus. Hopefully he can continue to do that. And he’s a good kid, so you really root for him.”

Romo earned his way on to the Cowboys’ roster in 2003 as an undrafted rookie based on some valuable preseason moments, but it took him time to learn the position before he was ready to play in a regular-season game in 2006.

Of course, there is some tapping of the Prescott brakes.

Owner and general manager Jerry Jones said he didn’t want to get too far ahead of himself. Executive vice president Stephen Jones said the backup decision will be made off a full body of work, not two preseason games.Head coach Jason Garrett did not want to get into those discussions right now.

But what’s not to like?

Prescott’s first pass came out of the Cowboys’ end zone and went for 22 yards to Geoff Swaim on a bootleg that fooled the entire Miami defense. His second pass went for 12 yards to Terrance Williams. His third pass went for 14 yards, while he was standing tall in the pocket, to Cole Beasley underneath.

The fourth was a 28-yard dart to Dez Bryant at the pylon for a touchdown.

“Man, I’ll tell you this: Rookie is a name, just a name that they give you in the league,” Bryant said. “Either you can do it or you can’t. The guy is a student. Give it to him. You’ve got to give it to him. He wants to learn. He wants to be good. He’s sitting behind a Hall of Famer. Give him his credit.”

Prescott completed his first eight passes, though he was fortunate when an interception was negated by a roughing-the-passer penalty.

His second drive ended in a touchdown when he scrambled to his right on third and 10 from the Miami 20. As a lane formed in front of him, he turned upfield and sprinted to the goal line untouched.

The Cowboys scored on every drive directed by Prescott. He threw one more touchdown, after a 58-yard completion to Brice Butler, and ran for one more on a quarterback sneak.

Just as a reminder, he and Tim Tebow are the only Southeastern Conference quarterbacks to throw for 70 touchdowns and rush for 40 in a career. Prescott played at Mississippi State.

“We’re seeing some of the things that, frankly, he was able to do in the SEC,” Jerry Jones said.

As good as the SEC is, the NFL is supposed to be more difficult. Prescott is making it seem not that difficult at the moment.

The fourth-round pick is not going to lobby for the No. 2 job -- “That’s for them to decide,” Prescott said -- but plenty of others will do it on his behalf.

“It feels great,” Prescott said. “I’m very confident in myself. That hasn’t changed from the moment they drafted me to now.”
 

dbair1967

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[video=youtube;Fw9ldOZ8Jmw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw9ldOZ8Jmw[/video]
 
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What a great situation for Prescott. Just looking at the video you can see that his pass protection was very decent.

When a Dolphin did get some pressure, you can see Prescott's first instinct is to find a (check-down) receiver.

He doesn't run out of panic if the play doesn't go as scripted. He does see running lanes when they are available to him, though.
 

ThoughtExperiment

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And one big key I notice: Linehan is actually calling some rollouts and moving the pocket for him, which of course suits his skills. A huge complaint of mine about Garrett from an Xs and Os perspective was he never did that for Tony. Parcells did it quite a bit, but Garrett called plays for Tony like he was an old immobile Aikman-type pure pocket passer.

So props to Linehan for tailoring his play design to the abilities of his QB. That wouldn't have happened before he got here.

Zero asked in a post if we could accept a QB like Prescott as our starter, and I'm not totally sure what he meant by that, but I think he meant one who could run. I personally love that type of QB. It drives defenses absolutely nuts when they basically do their job but the QB makes a play with his legs anyway. Especially on third downs.
 
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Zero asked in a post if we could accept a QB like Prescott as our starter, and I'm not totally sure what he meant by that, but I think he meant one who could run. I personally love that type of QB. It drives defenses absolutely nuts when they basically do their job but the QB makes a play with his legs anyway. Especially on third downs.

Prescott is/was a spread option QB. A lot of fans, especially old school fans, dislike and/or distrust spread option QBs. I haven't noticed a lot of love for Cam Newton's game around here.
 

ThoughtExperiment

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Oh, I see.

I personally never understood the spread option hate. If a guy can play, he can play. He might need more training, but I think it's insane to limit yourself to pro-style offense QBs. If you do, you're only choosing from a small pool of players anymore.
 
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Yeah.

The ironic thing is that the Cowboys tried like hell to limit themselves to the more pro-style offense QBs in the recent draft, but couldn't quite get one. The Cowboys actively tried, repeatedly, to pick other QBs instead. Dak wasn't their first, second, third, or fourth pick for a QB.
 

yimyammer

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Yeah.

The ironic thing is that the Cowboys tried like hell to limit themselves to the more pro-style offense QBs in the recent draft, but couldn't quite get one. The Cowboys actively tried, repeatedly, to pick other QBs instead. Dak wasn't their first, second, third, or fourth pick for a QB.

If Dak pans out, it will be interesting to see how jeri spins this in the future
 

dbair1967

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Yeah.

The ironic thing is that the Cowboys tried like hell to limit themselves to the more pro-style offense QBs in the recent draft, but couldn't quite get one. The Cowboys actively tried, repeatedly, to pick other QBs instead. Dak wasn't their first, second, third, or fourth pick for a QB.

Paxton Lynch was really the guy they wanted and tried numerous times late in the first rd to move up for, he isn't the "more pro style offense" guy himself either. He ran a spread system and was given a lot of props for his athletic ability and mobility as well.
 

Bob Sacamano

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Look at some of Dak's throws and compare them to a fellow rookie such as Travon Boykins' (who's getting some nice reviews himself) and the difference is night and day.
 

yimyammer

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Look at some of Dak's throws and compare them to a fellow rookie such as Travon Boykins' (who's getting some nice reviews himself) and the difference is night and day.

I'm too lazy to look, I assume you mean Dak's throws are better?
 

dbair1967

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Granted, Lynch is in with all the flubs in the 3rd and 4th quarter. But look at the difference between where he is now and Prescott. Its remarkable. I also watched Goff last night vs KC and until KC put in all their scrubs Goff looked pretty bad.

[video]http://www.nfl.com/videos/denver-broncos/0ap3000000688614/Every-Paxton-Lynch-throw-from-Preseason-Week-2[/video]
 

SixisBetter

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But look at the difference between where he is now and Prescott. Its remarkable.

Yeah,it really is.
I was flipping back and between both those games.
It's pretty clear why Fisher's going with Keenum at this point.
I'd like to see Lynch with Thomas and Sanders at WR and the no.1s on the o-line.Niners scrubs were getting pressure just about at will, and the Broncos lower tier WRs were dropping a lot of stuff.Looked like Lynch was making some throws that were darts, at other times just flat out wtf was that tosses.
Prescott's miles ahead of Lynch and Goff at this point.
 
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And one big key I notice: Linehan is actually calling some rollouts and moving the pocket for him, which of course suits his skills. A huge complaint of mine about Garrett from an Xs and Os perspective was he never did that for Tony. Parcells did it quite a bit, but Garrett called plays for Tony like he was an old immobile Aikman-type pure pocket passer.

So props to Linehan for tailoring his play design to the abilities of his QB. That wouldn't have happened before he got here.

Zero asked in a post if we could accept a QB like Prescott as our starter, and I'm not totally sure what he meant by that, but I think he meant one who could run. I personally love that type of QB. It drives defenses absolutely nuts when they basically do their job but the QB makes a play with his legs anyway. Especially on third downs.

Nailed it TE!

While Parcells thought Tony's legs would net positive yards. Garrett would rather keep the WRs run around and Tony remain in the pocket to throw. I remember Romo saying he studied Brady and his use of the pocket. (Which is silly because Brady takes off and runs if it means getting a sure thing first down). So Romo stopped being himself and then you have Garretts offense which may or may not even exist (now that we saw last year).

I am convinced Dak is being trained and taught Linehans offense most likely like Daunte Culpepper was. Culpepper ran for like 400+yards in 2003 and 2004. By the way, who was it who was trying to convince us that Linehan was responsible for the Robert Smith yards? When Denny Green was coach it was Billick, Ray Sherman and Sherman Lewis who had the running game going. Tice came in and and wanted the Coryell scheme which was through Linehan and a huge salad of running backs - none of them like Murrays production. Minnesota threw the ball well in 2003 and exceptionally well in 2004 but went 9-7 and 8-8 respectively.

Compartmentalized, I think Dak under Linehan is our best bet right now. But only because Linehan may spread the routes out and give Dak a lot better chance to survive or flourish with his legs but let's keep things in perspective: the 2016 Cowboy WRs are no where near the 2004 Vikings WRs. Dez might be CC but there is no Moss.
 
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