Blogging The Boys
The Dallas Cowboys went toe-to-toe with one of the top teams in the NFC, and almost got a win. Dak Prescott and the offense were able to put on an all-star performance without their top player, CeeDee Lamb. The outcome would have been different if the defense forced a turnover on downs on just one of the Green Bay Packers’ second-half possessions.
The return of Micah Parsons almost became a secondary storyline with both offenses moving the ball. Even though the narrative was shifting, that didn’t lessen his impact on the field. Even though the game plan on offense was to avoid Parsons, he still finished with ten total pressures per Pro Football Focus, leading all defensive ends for Week 4.
Seeing Parsons in a Packers uniform and hearing him and Jerry Jones talk separately about their severed relationship at the end of the game was a reminder that there are still some hurt feelings on both sides about how things went down. Right before kickoff, NBC’s Cris Collinsworth talked about how he got the sense during the week that both sides never wanted this to happen, but you can’t change the past now.
All Parsons and the Cowboys can do now is move forward.
Through the first month of the season, Dak Prescott has been tasked with carrying the team on his back. He’s done everything possible to keep the Cowboys in position to win games and is playing at an MVP-level like he did in the back half of the 2023 season.
No one can use the narrative that he’s only successful on the field because of the offensive weapons, because CeeDee Lamb was missing from the lineup against the NFL’s top-scoring defense in Green Bay. Credit can be given to the offense he and Brian Schottenheimer have put in place to maximize his talents, and create balance with a strong running game to complement the passing attack.
Stats only tell part of the story, but looking at how Prescott has fared this season when facing pressure can help explain why he is playing at an All-Pro level right now. According to PFF’s metrics, Prescott has a 90.2 grade when facing pressure this season, which ranks first among all starting quarterbacks. The quarterback second on the list is Matthew Stafford, with a 73.8 grade under pressure. The gap between Prescott and Stafford’s grade is the same distance as Stafford to Michael Penix, 12th on the list.
No one else is coming close to how good he’s been when things start to collapse around him in the pocket. It’s difficult to say how long Prescott can keep this up, but if he can keep Dallas within a fighter’s chance of winning games, the Cowboys could be a fringe playoff team come December.
Nate Thomas was slated to be the Week 1 starter in place of Tyler Guyton after the starting left tackle suffered a bad knee...
