FRISCO, Texas — Among yet another successful regular season under Mike McCarthy for the Dallas Cowboys, one major knock on the 10-4 squad is its ability to perform on the road.
Despite a record-setting home schedule that has seen the Cowboys go 7-0 and outscore opponents by 24.4 points per game, going on the road has been a different story with a 3-4 record and double-digit losses to Arizona, San Francisco and Buffalo this past Sunday.
With another big road test looming back out east in Miami, Dak Prescott and the Cowboys went back to the drawing board this week in Frisco to diagnose the issues on the road and how they can improve before its last big road test of the year ahead of the playoffs.
"We'll see Sunday, but first and foremost it's about our approach and our focus throughout the week, understanding that we've got to turn that up a little bit," Prescott said Thursday. "We gotta do that going into the week to make sure that everything we've done throughout the week carries over. This is a team that prepares the right way, attacks the day the right way and it can't be any different when you go on the road."
Mike McCarthy along with Dak Prescott spoke immediately after the loss in Buffalo about the importance of identifying the issue with the Cowboys' performance on the road, and while those conversations did happen this week back in Frisco, Prescott knows the only correction is to complete the task at hand.
"I don't know if there is anything concrete, honestly," he said. "Different things you could say, maybe it's this, maybe it's that at the end of the day. The type of guy I am, the conversations we have, they are all going to be excuses."
"We've just got to come out with the energy and maintain it throughout the game, regardless of the score, regardless of the down. The belief, the emotional discipline, maturity and competitiveness to not blink and enjoy when it's you against the world."
Christmas Eve serves as an immediate opportunity to bounce back against one of the best teams in the NFL on their home turf, and it's an opportunity the team looks to take advantage of before almost certainly having to go on the road in the playoffs.
"What a great opportunity now," Prescott said. "A great team, a team at the top of their division, one of the best teams in the AFC…to get a chance to go out there and not necessarily redeem ourselves but pick our s–t up on the road and put a performance out there like we have at home and really moreso a performance that we know we're capable of."
