Does Dak Prescott have to outperform Carson Wentz in 2020?

Do the Dallas Cowboys need Dak Prescott to outperform Carson Wentz to win the East?

NFC East quarterbacks Dak Prescott of the Dallas Cowboys and Carson Wentz of the Philadelphia Eagles are seemingly intertwined going into the 2020 regular season. And their performance will likely decide the winner of the division.

The Eagles have proven in the past they can win without Wentz, who has a long list of injuries throughout his young career. Whereas the Cowboys have needed Prescott to play at his best in order to even be competitive over that same span.

To further illustrate this, consider the fact America’s Team is 12-4 the past two seasons in games that Prescott throws multiple touchdown passes. While Wentz threw multiple touchdown passes in 15 games the last two seasons, the Eagles were only 7-8 in such games. So, Philly can win without Wentz throwing multiple touchdowns, while the Cowboys need much more from Prescott to secure the victory.

So, it’s quite clear that at the very least Prescott needs to outperform Wentz to give Dallas an upper-hand in the NFC East. That’s the macro view of the past two seasons for each quarterback but it gets even more obvious just how important the play of Prescott is to the division chances when you zoom into December of 2019.

Going into last December the Cowboys were 6-6 and the Eagles sported a 5-7 record, putting immense pressure on the last four games of the season. Carson Wentz went on a hot streak, while Prescott couldn’t figure it out for the two biggest games of the year, Week 14 versus the Chicago Bears and Week 16 versus Philly.

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The Cowboys’ offense couldn’t get chunk plays against the Bears, Prescott had to throw 49 times, alarmingly the sixth time he had to throw over 40-passes to that point in the season. This and a shaky defensive performance leads to a mind-boggling 31-24 loss. The division was tied.

Wentz leading into the Week 16 game was coming off two games in which he had completed 63 of 93 passes, throwing five touchdowns to zero interceptions. Wentz definitely wasn’t hurting the Eagles chances to win games with those numbers. While Prescott seemed to be developing the narrative that a disaster was looming on the horizon, a similar feeling Cowboys fans had during Decembers with quarterback Tony Romo.

America’s Team goes up to Philly and can only manage nine points on Week 16. Philly with a decimated offensive line and receivers is able to hang 17, for the eight-point victory and the division title. Prescott posts a QBR of 37.8, while Wentz throws a touchdown and posts a QBR of 63.8. The difference in that game and the 2019 season was the quarterbacks, so why would 2020 be any different?

Dak Prescott can’t have another bad stretch to win the war of attrition in 2020

When you examine what the recent Eagles and Cowboys rivalry has been under these two quarterbacks, it has been a war of attrition. Small adjustments and tweaks here or there throughout the calendar year that all lead to one team besting the other team by a game in the division. There’s nothing too obvious.

So, with the current war of attrition that is the battle for the top spot in the NFC East, it is clear that quarterback play will swing the results one way or the other. In 2019, Wentz had three solid games to go 3-0 when it mattered most to take the crown, while Prescott played just okay and America’s Team fell from the pole position.

Prescott cannot have the same bad stretches that plagued him in 2019. The December stretch was tame compared to the three-game nightmare stretch versus the New Orleans Saints, Green Bay Packers, and New York Jets earlier in the season. Two stretches that cost the team their playoff chances. Even if Prescott was the better quarterback overall in 2019 compared to Wentz.

This upcoming season there will be pressure on Dak Prescott to once again outperform Carson Wentz. The NFC East winner in 2020 could very be decided by how well these two passers play if the divisional race follows a similar path to last season.