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The $240 Million Question: Is Prescott Worth It?
In the years past, Dak Prescott has drawn a lot of the criticism he probably wasn’t owed. When was this Tony Romo dealing with the same thing? It’s just being the starting quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys.
He is the one that deserves the scorn this season.
Before this season, Prescott signed the historic four-year, $240 million deal, and now his play has been far from it. Cowboys loss Sunday night to the San Francisco 49ers continued Prescott’s difficult season. But the 49ers have their issues too and rallied to become 4-4 with a 30-24 win.
Instead, the Cowboys are going the other way, with a star quarterback who can’t get much going and turns it over too often. For the fourth time this season, Prescott had multiple interceptions in a game and had nothing in the third quarter when Dallas found itself behind.
Prescott threw four straight incompletions in the final minutes of the fourth quarter, and when the Cowboys had a chance to take the lead, they turned it over on downs. The Cowboys never saw the ball again.
The 49ers have had their stumbling blocks too, returning to 4-4 with the win. The Cowboys, meanwhile, are going the other way, their star quarterback struggling to get it much going and deciding three times to get it there himself. Dallas lost for the fifth time in six games when Prescott was intercepted twice and had nothing in the third quarter, as the game was slipping away from the Cowboys.
At 3-4, the Cowboys’ season isn’t dead. It’s far too complicated. To simply blame the quarterback for the hole Dallas has dug.
The Cowboys are crumbling fast, and their latest failure, Argentina’s Lionel Messi and team head coach Jorge Sampaoli winning the trophy, is the last to have happened, is its youngest player, its most visible player on the roster, its highest-paid player in the NFL history, and his shortcomings are mirroring the Cowboys’ season.
From Hope to Nope: Cowboys’ Wild Ride Ends in Defeat
They were both desperate for a win. It was the Cowboys who were playing like it early.
The 49ers were sloppy. One of several penalties that pushed the 49ers back, a 66-yard touchdown to Deebo Samuel Sr. was wiped off the board for a holding call. The offense didn’t find the end zone until halftime.
The Cowboys, who weren’t much better, were good enough for a 10-6 halftime lead against the Rams. Rico Dowdle was taken ill before the game and Ezekiel Elliott, filling in as the primary back, scored on a 1-yard touchdown run. The Cowboys’ defense held their own against the 49ers. Dallas has had runts of terrible execution this year, but played hard and for the most part well in the first half against San Francisco.
In the second half, it didn’t take long for the Cowboys to unravel all of the good they had done prior to halftime.
Early in the third quarter, the 49ers finally got going. For a banged-up San Francisco offense that has ground and pummeled through injury after injury all season, George Kittle has been a highlight, and he had a great play too, a 43-yard gain for a touchdown run by Isaac Guerendo that gave the 49ers a 13-10 lead.
Prescott then committed a big blunder that swung the game right back toward San Francisco.
49ers’ Comeback Triumphs Over Cowboys’ Fading Hopes
A third down, Prescott was rolling and he threw to a well-blanketed CeeDee Lamb. Deommodore Lenoir, a cornerback, caught Prescott’s throw well enough to bring in the interception and land in bounds. Prescott pushed the throw despite the fact that there was nowhere for him to go. Kittle scored a touchdown as a result, and San Francisco took a 20-10 lead.
The Cowboys are having that kind of season. They led on the road at halftime after playing a strong enough first half. Additionally, they lost a 10-point advantage at the half due to a few errors in the opening few minutes of the third quarter. With no first downs and a Prescott interception, the Cowboys ran nine plays and gained 15 yards in the opening three series of the second half as the game dragged on.
The Cowboys came back, and with 3:32 remaining, Lamb scored his second touchdown of the fourth quarter, cutting San Francisco’s advantage to 30–24. With 3:05 remaining, Prescott had the opportunity to lead the Cowboys to the game-winning touchdown after the 49ers made a bad punt and the Cowboys were stopped.
He was unable to arrive. Prescott nearly had his first ball intercepted as it was thrown into strong coverage. Prescott threw deep on fourth-and-10 after two more incompletions, including a close one to KaVontae Turpin. It was another misfire, and the 49ers were not flagged for pass interference.
Much of the credit for changing the outcome of the game should go to the 49ers. They were in some danger following a difficult first half and are also struggling with a number of injuries, including one to running back Jordan Mason that forced him to miss Sunday’s game.
However, the offense produced enough plays and the defense settled down to put the Cowboys in a significant deficit. The 49ers are still in a strong position to win the division since they are back to 500 and the NFC West is having trouble.
After winning 12 games in each of the previous three seasons, the Cowboys entered the season with high expectations. Although the Cowboys haven’t had a strong postseason, you can still expect on them to be among the top NFL teams throughout the regular season. This season, that isn’t the case. Both sides of the ball have a lot of problems.
However, only one of their players earns $60 million a year. The Cowboys’ quarterback needs to break out of his funk if they are to have any success this season.
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My name is Krishanu Das the founder of the Sports Dribble.
I am Accountant by profession but a Sports Blogger by passion.
I am passionate about sharing my all knowledge and experiences of sports, with my readers and every sports enthusiast.
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