Arrowhead Pride
“I’ve noticed he has been practicing at a high level. It just appeared to be different to me in the last two weeks — and I think it’s showing up on the field.”
— Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo on defensive tackle Chris Jones
Chiefs taking over as America’s team: This game is going to bring families together. They might be united in their hatred toward two of the NFL’s most polarizing franchises, but at least they’ll be in it together. You could call this a clash of the NFL’s “evil empires,” two accomplished franchises with giant targets on their backs. A matchup of two of the NFL’s last three dynasties (sandwiching the 2001-19 Patriots in the middle). The Cowboys won three Super Bowls in the 90s (1992, 1993, 1995) and the Chiefs have won three since drafting Mahomes (2019, 2022, 2023). It’s been well documented the Dallas Cowboys are “America’s Team” but that torch has probably been passed to the Chiefs. Kansas City has made seven straight AFC title games, but Dallas hasn’t made an NFC Championship since 1995, the longest active drought in the conference. Mahomes has more Super Bowl MVPs (three) than Prescott has playoff wins (two). A game with more cinema than anyone could imagine will fittingly be played at the NFL’s greatest theater, Jerry World.
Dak Prescott on matchup with Chiefs, CeeDee Lamb bouncing back, more | Cowboys.com
It’s not easy to compress that much information for a quick-turnaround game against any opponent, but much less when it’s the Kansas City Chiefs, who played in Super Bowl LIX against the Eagles, who Dallas played on Sunday.
“We know how talented and good this team is coming in,” Prescott said. “We know how important it is to start fast, and that’s our focus. However, if that doesn’t happen, you’ve got to be resilient, you’ve got to show competitive stamina. At the end of the day, it’s a four-quarter game and that is what the goodness of last week does.”
All of Kansas City’s losses have come in one-possession games. While their 6-5 record may not be indicative of it, the Chiefs’ offense has continued to play well, and it’s led by quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who Prescott has a lot of respect for.
“Everything in his game,” Prescott said of what he respects about Mahomes. “The way he plays it, at the end of the day obviously talent jumps out, but you watch a guy who plays with pure passion, who’ll do anything it takes to win. On the sideline, he’s not necessarily always running out of bounds, trying to make the extra play, never giving up on a play, has the ability to throw it back across his body. He does it all right. What I respect most is...
