FRISCO, Texas – In the time since it ended, there's been plenty of talk about Dak Prescott's performance against the Eagles on Sunday.
Understandably so.
After struggling for much of the afternoon, Prescott blew up in the game's fourth quarter, bombing away on Philadelphia for scores of 28, 75 and 15 yards in a 29-23 win.
Given that those touchdowns came after a flurry of three turnovers that set up a hectic finish, Cowboys owner/general manager Jerry Jones said it was a testament to Prescott's mindset for the position.
"If you hang around and you hang through a mistake on a given play and you're going to have something good happen. That's the way I feel about Dak," Jones said. "He's going to have something good happen. He's got the confidence of the team, he's got confidence in himself. 'Ok, we've had some setbacks here, but something good is going to happen.' Boy, what a mentality or what a character makeup for our game, football."
To be fair, Prescott had plenty of moments throughout the game. He completed 77 percent of his passes on the day for a career-high 455 yards and three touchdowns. But on a day when touchdowns were hard to come by – until the fourth quarter, at least – those turnovers loomed large in a game that essentially decided the division.
According to Cowboys coach Jason Garrett, his ability to get past that spoke to his intangibles as well as his on-field ability.
"When you play quarterback and you have some of those balls that go the other way, sometimes it's hard to pull that trigger and throw it the way you want to throw it," Garrett said. "That wasn't the case at all for him. He was ripping it in there and making a ton of big plays as that game went on."
Jones said that's due in part to Prescott's preparation. In fact, considering that Jones has owned the team for almost 30 years, his praise for his young quarterback's work ethic was impressive to hear.
"I don't know that we've had a player that is as focused on, if you will, the game plan or focused on what he's being told in the classroom," Jones said. "He takes it to the practice field and then he takes it to the game. So you know his preparation is going to kick in at some particular point."
That's exactly what happened, as Prescott and Amari Cooper took advantage of a depleted Eagles secondary when it mattered most. Considering his track record to this point in his career, perhaps it shouldn't be surprising.
"I thought he did a great job leading our team with that mentality," Garrett said. "We're just going to keep playing. We're going to play through the success. We're going to play through this adversity. We got another chance here. Let's go down and get this thing done."
