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On a night when so many things went wrong for the Cowboys, it’s easy (maybe even “lazy,” to recycle a recent buzzword from around these parts) to pin the team’s 30-24 loss in San Francisco on the two interceptions thrown by quarterback Dak Prescott.
The league’s highest-paid player now has eight picks through seven games, a figure currently topped by only three passers. That’s one less than Prescott threw all of last season, and it puts him ahead of his career-worst 2022 pace, when he had seven picks in his first seven games en route to a league-leading 15 total.
Perhaps most troubling, though: Week 8 marked the third straight game in which Prescott has tossed multiple picks, the first time in his career he’s had a stretch that long.
Prescott was quick to take personal responsibility for the miscues.
“I don’t have to be perfect,” he said in his postgame press conference, “but I damn sure can’t be having the turnovers.”
Winning the turnover battle was a “huge, blinking light” for head coach Mike McCarthy during the team’s bye week; Dallas came into Sunday night’s contest with a minus-six differential in the category. After Prescott’s two giveaways in Santa Clara, the Cowboys are minus-eight; only the Raiders and Titans (three combined wins this season) are worse.
Good teams simply aren’t bad in that stat.
“[We] put ourselves behind in the turnover battle, and that’s on me,” Prescott said. “Can’t have that if we plan to win games, and I’ve got to clean that up, period.”
But McCarthy pointed out that the breakdown was bigger than just his passer, especially on the first-quarter deep ball attempt.
“When you look at interceptions, you can grade them, put them in buckets and categories,” McCarthy told reporters Sunday night. “The first one, he had pressure in the B-gap, hits his feet, which took him late, the safety got a jump on the ball, so he wasn’t able to get it to the back pylon.”
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Prescott also hinted that the pressure from 49ers edge rusher Nick Bosa forced a bad throw in what might have otherwise been an ideal matchup downfield between speedy wideout KaVontae Turpin and San Francisco rookie cornerback Renardo Green.
“He was singled up. Obviously, the safety just got over there because I got hit as I was throwing the ball and left the ball hanging from the hit,” Prescott explained.
“That’s a potential of a big play right there. It just swings completely the other way… Thought I was going to be able to get it off with full strength on the throw. I wasn’t.”
McCarthy told media members that the Cowboys’ challenges with pass protection factored into his offensive plan as the game went on, citing “a little bit of my angst in play-calling because of [the 49ers’] ability to get pass rush with four rushers.”
San Francisco’s defense logged two sacks and two QB hits, plus numerous pressures on the night.
“A lot of conversation,” McCarthy said, “as far as our pass game was protection.”
Prescott has been sacked 18 times already this season and is under pressure on nearly one out of every four dropbacks, currently the highest rate since his rookie season.
With sketchy offensive line play and a mostly ensemble cast of third-tier receivers, Prescott was pressed once again to try to do too much as things started to slip away in the second half. That led to No. 4 forcing the ball to his only dependable target as he looked to provide a spark.
The result? A terrible decision that instead poured gasoline on a third-quarter fire that saw the 49ers go on a 21-point run.
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“The second one was as boneheaded an interception as I feel like I’ve had,” Prescott claimed. “Trying to make a play. Too much confidence in myself in that moment right there. I obviously should have just thrown it away. Wish I’d have put a little more heat on it; it would have been CeeDee or out of bounds. That one hurt.”
Once again, McCarthy tried to share some of the blame for the play choice, deliberately putting his quarterback on the move to counter his O-line’s struggles.
“I called it too early,” the coach admitted. “What was it, 3rd-and-5? That’s a better 3rd-and-4-to-3rd-and-3 call. [Ed. note: It actually was 3rd-and-4.] So the leverage wasn’t there, and he’s trying to make a play. We’ve got to throw that ball away there, but I wish I had that play call back.”
Prescott similarly expressed regret over the part that his errant throws made in the team’s latest meltdown by the Bay.
“I’ve got to make throws, pressure or not. I’m capable of doing it, so I’ve got to do it,” he said.
But he knows that it also comes down to making better decisions, even when the chips are down.
“I’ve just got to burn that ball or eat the sack and just play it play-by-play. A lot of times, big plays come from just taking something underneath, guys blocking in the secondary, and the guys going and breaking tackles. Big plays come from there, so we can’t necessarily chase them. We’ve got to stick to it, one play at a time. We’ll keep our heads up and do that.”
And so the dilemma continues for Prescott: whether to take command of the situation and play like the NFL’s first $60 million man on a squad that truly needs a hero… or just keep chipping away with the next right little decision and the next right little decision after that, trusting that something big will eventually break loose.
The reality is, the job requires both. But which moment calls for which mindset… that’s the whole key.