ARLINGTON, Texas — There is a lot of blame to go around for the Dallas Cowboys‘ embarrassing loss to the Green Bay Packers, and Dak Prescott isn’t out of the woods.
The Cowboys suffered an embarrassing 48-32 loss despite the home-field advantage in their favor. In fact, the Packers snapped the Cowboys’ 16-straight home win streak which was the longest running in the NFL.
Dak Prescott Takes Accountability
Despite the stats in this game, it was one of Prescott’s worst performances in the 2023 season.
He had 403 passing yards, a completion percentage of 68.3%, two interceptions, and three touchdowns. In 89 offensive plays, they had 39 first downs and were 10-for-16 on third-down conversions.
Despite a late effort to make up for the lack of production in the game, it wasn’t enough.
Prescott’s regular season status put his name at the top of the MVP conversation, but now none of that matters to the quarterback because his team is in its offseason with many more questions than answers.
“I’m not a guy who lives in the past. Where my feet are, and at this moment, yeah, I sucked tonight, that was it,” Prescott said.
Prescott expressed his frustration, saying, “We got beat. There’s no other way around it, no way to sugarcoat it. Obviously, I didn’t play well.”
Overall, the 30-year-old kept mentioning being in a state of shock with the results.
“It’s a shock because, as I said to begin with, damn sure didn’t think this is where we’d be. As far as anything, I can promise you, from scheduling, myself, this team, this organization, that this would be it,” Prescott said.
The quarterback took the fall for the game’s result but didn’t seem to know why he couldn’t find a rhythm. The cadence that has improved since last year’s postseason was visibly nonexistent during this game. For some reason, Prescott’s composure wasn’t at the level it had been at previously.
But, there was still no answer to why his performance was not lights-out on Sunday.
Dallas’ Lack of a Passing Game Early On
This season, the Cowboys created a “Texas Coast” offensive system under Mike McCarthy. The new offensive scheme was a pass-heavy threat that struggled to establish the run.
But it was hard to ignore the consistency McCarthy was trying to establish throughout this game with the run. The Cowboys had a total of 123 rushing yards in this game, which is ideal, except it didn’t open up the pass.
The Cowboys had 403 receiving yards, but it’s another deceiving stat with the timing of when the passing game opened up.
CeeDee Lamb was a non-factor for almost the entire first half and didn’t get his first touch of the ball until right before the two-minute warning in the first half.
Prescott said the Packers disguised how they were playing the starting receiver, but it was too late when they finally found their groove. The quarterback never lost confidence in the guys around him, taking the game one play at a time.
“Nobody ever lost confidence. We understood that the only way for us to even have a chance was to take it play-by-play. Guys kept fighting, and I’m proud of the guys for that,” Prescott said.
The results would have differed if confidence and moral victories were the defining factors in this game. However, the team is now in for a long offseason with more uncertainty than before.
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