Cowboys Week 1 studs and duds: Dak Prescott injured in brutal loss

Stud: Ezekiel Elliott, RB

When Dallas lost to Tampa Bay last season, a huge problem was Ezekiel Elliott being unable to get the ground game on track. This time, that wasn’t the case.

Elliott had 20 yards on four attempts in their first drive, which led to a field goal. From there, he had just six rushes the rest of the game. He finished with 52 yards on 10 attempts and with the game being close for much of the night, it made no sense that he didn’t get the ball more.

Dallas has a history of handling the ground game the exact opposite of how they should. When it’s not working, they keep pounding it. When it is working, they get cute and lose eight yards on reverse plays or start dialing up passing plays.

That was the case on Sunday night as they kept throwing it with Prescott — even though it wasn’t working — while refusing to let the run game go to work. Zeke actually looked the part on Sunday.

Dud: Dak Prescott, QB

The front office asked Prescott to turn water into wine and it wasn’t meant to be.

After destroying the wide receiver corps and weakening their offensive line, the powers that be in Dallas had to sit and watch as Prescott completed just 14-of-19 passes for 134 yards and a pick.

While it’s true the Jones family made a mess of things, Prescott does deserve a lot of criticism as well. He was far from good against the Bucs as he missed open receivers all night and made several bad decisions.

He was then injured late in the game and is set to miss several weeks. We don’t know how long Cooper Rush will be starting, but with the Bengals coming to town next week, this could be a disastrous start to the season. Buckle up, Cowboys fans.