Dak Prescott and Head Coach Mike McCarthy have the Dallas Cowboys rolling in the NFC East with a commanding three-game lead as the team enters its bye week. Prescott’s 445-yard performance against the New England Patriots on Sunday highlighted how dominant the sixth-year quarterback has been this season. It is the second time Prescott has completed passes totalling more than 400 yards in a game this season.
Greg Rosenthal, writing for Around the NFL, ranked Prescott as the number-one QB in the NFL in his weekly power rankings. Prescott is the first QB not named Tom Brady to take the top spot this season.
“It’s the decision-making under pressure that does it for me,” Rosenthall wrote. “There’s a long way to go in this season, but if I need one quarterback to make one play in any given situation right now, that quarterback is Rayne Dakota Prescott.”
Prescott has thrown for 1,813 yards through six games, putting him in fifth place overall in the NFL and only 251 yards behind the league-leading Brady. Prescott has thrown at least three touchdowns in three games. More impressive, Prescott has attempted only 213 passes, fewer than all but one of the top-five QBs. His 73.1% completion ratio leads all QBs through the first six weeks.
Prescott’s numbers are particularly eye-popping, considering that he sat out most of the preseason and did not play in any preseason games while nursing a strained shoulder. Prescott suffered a fractured and dislocated ankle in Week 5 last season that prevented him from playing for the remainder of the year.
As reported by the Dallas Express, following last Sunday’s victory in Foxborough, Prescott was seen with a walking boot. McCarthy confirmed on Monday that the star player suffered a strained calf muscle but anticipates that Prescott will be ready to play on Halloween at Minnesota.
The injury occurred on the game’s final play as Prescott scrambled to evade pressure and lobbed a perfect pass to wide-open CeeDee Lamb for the game-winning score. The injury occurred to the same leg as the fracture last season.
“I’ve got a lot of confidence in myself and the medical team, and as I said, I feel good,”’ Prescott said Sunday following the victory. “This (the boot) is a precaution. Didn’t hurt as bad, obviously, when you score and win the game.”’
The Cowboys bye week comes at an opportune time, as it gives Prescott an excellent chance to successfully rehab the calf injury and be ready for the seventh game of the season when the Cowboys travel to take on the Minnesota Vikings on Oct. 31. The Vikings are coming off an overtime win themselves and are also on their bye this week.
Prescott is on pace to match or exceed his numbers from 2019, his best season in his career. That year, Prescott threw for 4,902 yards. No Cowboys quarterback has eclipsed 5,000 yards in a season. With 17 games in the 2021 season, Prescott stands a great chance of becoming the first Dallas player to reach the milestone.
