FRISCO, TX — Dak Prescott is no stranger to what's at stake when the Dallas Cowboys travel back to California for a second consecutive primetime game, this time against the Los Angeles Chargers and an offense led by former Cowboys' offensive coordinator Kellen Moore.
It's not that the season is on the line in Week 6, but having been brutalized and demoralized by the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, it's paramount Prescott and the offense find the best version of itself in the battle to come — something that would help the defense have a bounceback game as well.
"The last thing we can [afford to] do is let that linger into the week, especially with the extra day to put it behind us," said the two-time Pro Bowl quarterback. "We watched the film and closed the book, and moved on to the Chargers, which is a really good team. You don't have time in this league to have a hangover — even after a game like that, that's disappointing as it is.
"It's one game, thankfully. We've gotta move forward and we get a chance to go out on Monday night and put something else on tape, and move forward as we go into this bye week; and build off of that."
As it stands, the Cowboys are 10-1 since 2021 after losing a contest, but teams were 0-15 in 2022 in matchups that followed a battle with the 49ers. Something will obviously give on one of those fronts come Monday evening at SoFi Stadium.
For his part, Prescott isn't stewing in what happened in Santa Clara. He's not flushing it entirely, but he's left that bathroom stall entirely.
"You can't be shaken by it," he said. "You can't change your preparation. … Bad night. Bad timing for some turnovers. We just couldn't do anything on offense and, at the end of the day, it really goes to the third downs — third downs that were manageable, and we've been the best in the league [at those] but we weren't able to do that.
"That's why the score looked like that and why the game looked as it [did]. … But we're not gonna allow it to shake our confidence."
Prescott turned the ball over just once through the first four games before the 49ers forced the offense into one-dimensional hero ball, picking him off on three occasions in the fourth quarter. The key for the Cowboys' offense will be to find consistency, explosiveness and get back to being effective on third down, and those are exactly the items they've been working on all week.
They're confident it'll all pay off in Los Angeles, looking to make the Chargers pay for the sins of the 49ers.
