Gosselin: Cowboys let Dak Prescott down; rookie QB played flawless football

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ARLINGTON -- It's not fair to ask a rookie quarterback to win his NFL starting debut. It's also not realistic.

So you ask your team to win it for him.

The Cowboys let Dak Prescott down on the NFL's opening Sunday.

Prescott showed well in his debut, completing 25 passes for 227 yards, but New York's veteran quarterback Eli Manning showed better, throwing for three touchdowns to lift the New York Giants a 20-19 victory.

Prescott was the 134th quarterback since 1980 to make his starting debut in his rookie season. Only 43 of them managed to win those first starts. Cam Newton, Russell Wilson, Troy Aikman, Peyton Manning, Eli Manning and Dan Marino all began their careers 0-1 and all of them wound up quarterbacking teams to Super Bowls.

Prescott displayed poise beyond his years, certainly beyond his fourth-round draft standing, in the preseason when he completed 78 percent of his passes with five touchdowns, no interceptions and only two sacks with two rushing touchdowns. But that was playing against vanilla defensive schemes. The game changes from August to September. When the NFL starts keeping score, defensive coordinators approach games differently. They scheme to take away what you do best.

Steve Spagnuolo has been a Super Bowl-winning defensive coordinator for the Giants. His gameplan gave Tom Brady fits in New York's upset of the 18-0 Patriots in the 2008 Super Bowl. On this day he devised a gameplan to put the game squarely in the rookie quarterback's hands. If the Cowboys were going to win, he was going to force Prescott do the winning.

Spagnuolo took Ezekiel Elliott out of the game. He was not going to let the fourth overall pick of the 2016 NFL draft beat him with his legs. And Elliott didn't, rushing for a very un-Ohio State-like 51 yards on 20 carries. Spagnuolo also took Dez Bryant out of the game. He was not going to let the most dynamic playmaker in the Dallas offense beat him down the field. And Bryant didn't. He caught a pass on the second play of the game and then didn't catch another ball the rest of the day.

That left Prescott playing a game of pitch-and-catch with his underneath receivers Cole Beasley and Jason Witten. Prescott threw 26 of his 45 passes in their direction. They wound up with 17 catches for 131 yards. That'll get you some first downs but it won't get you touchdowns.

Even then, Prescott showed patience beyond his years. He played flawless football. He didn't force anything _ no interceptions, no fumbles and no sacks. He was high on some of his throws, particularly to the smurf Beasley, but he never put his defense in any bad positions with turnovers. He certainly didn't play like a rookie.

"I really liked his poise, his composure, his decision making throughout and how he handled a lot of different situations in the game," Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said. "I thought he threw the ball well. He made a lot of plays from the pocket and a lot of plays outside the pocket. He made a lot of plays with his feet. I thought Dak did a really good job of running the offense."

Flawless play by Prescott allowed the Cowboys to control the clock for almost 37 minutes. That's usually a script for victory. Except that in the first half, the Cowboys converted three long drives into mere field goals instead of touchdowns. Prescott complete 11 of his first 12 passes for 96 yards into the second quarter but had only a 9-7 lead to show for it.

Still, Prescott found himself in position to mount a legacy drive with 1:05 left in the game. A punting touchback put the Cowboys at their own 20 with no timeouts, needing at least 45 yards to give automatic Dan Bailey a chance to win the game with his foot. The game was squarely in Prescott's hands.

"That's what I wanted," Prescott said. "I didn't want it any other way. I'm thinking go win the game. I'd rather have it in my hands than in Eli's hands with that time on the clock."

But a dropped pass by Witten, a false start penalty by Zack Martin and disastrous left-hand turn by Terrance Williams on the game's final play when he should have turned right sent Prescott home with an 0-1 record as an NFL quarterback. The game ended with the ball on the New York 40 but no time left for Bailey to swing his leg.

"For the most part there are some plays I want back, some plays I'd like to re-do," Prescott said. "We just have to score touchdowns in the red zone. We were down there on those first three drives of the game and had to settle for three field goals. That's 21 points you'd rather have than 9."

Prescott's arrow is pointing up. He became the seventh quarterback since 1980 to throw 45 passes in his NFL starting debut but the only one of the seven who did not throw an interception. So Prescott is capable of playing winning football.

 

[JBond]

Dak looked pretty good. I'm excited by his potential, but have zero confidence in the coaching staff to help him improve. Zeke up the middle over and over made no sense to me. I hope they open things up a bit next week, but I doubt it. Seems like we are running the same Romo replacement offense that we used with Weeden and Cassel. Dak can make some throws. I'd rather lose playing aggressive than with this short game garbage. Dominated the clock and won the turnover battle. A bad play at the end and another defeat snagged from the jaws of victory.

 

[TheZoneSucks]

Dak could have had a rookie disaster, but did not. He wasn't flawless, but I think he played well enough to win the game. He did not let the team down. Can't say the same for Dez who appears to be another big time player who got paid then mentally checked out.

Dak was also let down by the coaching staff that did not stick with the better RB in Morris. I'm sure that was a phone down order from Jerry because Zeke is his new toy (besides his helicopter).

The defense was given a huge advantage in ToP, but still wilted at the right times, as per usual, to let the opponent come out with a win.

The coaching staff once again was vanilla, coaching not to lose, failed to adjust, failed to stick with the hot hand, and failed preparation as shown by the lack of situational awareness by certain players.