Dak Prescott and Cowboys silence critics in dominating playoff win

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David Helmann

Dallas Cowboys Insider

It was a night about doubt, or more precisely about erasing it. While memories of last year’s playoff failure linger and an embarrassing regular season finale still fresh in mind, the Dallas Cowboys had no shortage of skeptics heading into this last night drink of this wildcard weekend.

Sounds like a silly phrase to type in the wake of a 31-14 Tampa Bay collage that was even more lopsided than the scoreline suggests. And as they head into the divisional round of the playoffs for the first time since 2018, that has to be seen as a confidence boost, something that could come in handy in a major tilt against the San Francisco 49ers.

“They knocked us out last year. We know what we have in front of us,” Dak Prescott said after the game.

The hype of a Cowboys-Niners rematch will be unreal, and it will be discussed in every way imaginable.

In the meantime, Prescott deserves the top spot in any narrative of this game. No member of this Cowboys organization has received more criticism than the seventh-year quarterback, who led the league in interceptions this season despite five games missed due to injury. From the start, Monday seemed like another forgettable chapter, as Prescott’s first three assists were incomplete and he was sacked, all in his first six snaps of the game. Ultimately, it would be rare for Prescott or his passes to hit the turf from then on.

Midway through that game, with the outcome still in doubt, Prescott dissected the Buccaneer defense with a click of 15 for 17 for 203 yards and two touchdowns. When that didn’t work, he carried the ball seven times for another 24 and his fourth career playoff touchdown.

“We settled in. I missed a few earlier, but we settled in, we got into the groove,” Prescott said. Perhaps more importantly, he went his first game without a turnover in two months, snapping a seven-game streak with one interception. It was a sticking point that followed him all season, raising the stakes on an already huge game. Asked about the fight against this outside perception, he was frank.

“I didn’t listen. I just didn’t listen to other people’s opinions, other people’s thoughts,” he said. “I made sure I was aware of what I was putting in my head. I have a great supporting cast and crew, people who believe in me. That’s all that really matters to me.”

All of this is very important to Prescott in a narrative sense. It gives him a second career playoff win, not to mention the franchise’s first playoff win since the 1992 season. For him to come against Tom Brady, ruining the legend’s perfect career record against Dallas, makes it all the sweeter.

Of course, these are all outside talking points. Far more important to the playoff image are the other performances we saw at Raymond James Stadium, as Prescott wasn’t the only one to allay some concerns. Crucial to his own performance was a clinic from the Dallas offensive line, which has struggled with injuries throughout the past month. The injury bug didn’t even stop in this one, as Jason Peters left his second start of the season with a hip injury.

No problem. EnterConnor McGovern, who started the night as the team’s fullback, as the Cowboys adjusted on the fly by plugging him into left guard and kicking Tyler Smith from left guard to the left tackle. None of that even includes the continued wrinkle of left tackle Tyron Smith moving to the right side, where he put in his best performance of his injury-shortened season.

Results haven’t been good for much of the past month; they were great monday. Outside of the single early sack, Prescott was barely touched all night. Even more encouraging, Dallas turned in its most productive running performance since Dec. 18.

If all that wasn’t enough, it would be unfair to omit a dominant performance from a defense that had lost much of its bite over the past six weeks. The Cowboys have limped into this game after recording just six sacks in their last five games, a far cry from their near-historic pace at the start of the year. And despite only recording two sacks from Brady, the Cowboys pissed him off in an ineffectual performance for much of the night. The Buccaneers went into halftime with no points and an abyssal attack from 120 yards, with a crucial miss coming when Brady threw an easy interception to Jayron Kearse from behind the end zone.

“It’s great to end streaks and start new traditions here,” Micah Parsons joked.

With all that good stuff said, it wouldn’t be the Cowboys without something to worry about. And for every doubt that Dak and his teammates erased, there is now the question of the Cowboys kicking situation. Stable for much of this season, Brett Maher missed a heartbreaking four consecutive extra points on that outing, a total disaster that was only slightly mitigated by a mark on his final attempt. This will spark a lot of hand twisting as well as speculation about what to do to move forward.

These are Tuesday’s issues. On a Monday night, under the brightest lights, there were a lot of doubts about these Dallas Cowboys. From Dak Prescott down the list, they answered them one by one.

David Helman covers the Dallas Cowboys for FOX Sports. Previously, he spent nine seasons covering the Cowboys for the team’s official website. In 2018, he won a regional Emmy for his role in the production of “Dak Prescott: A Family Reunion” about the quarterback era in Mississippi State. Follow him on Twitter at @davidhelman_.

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