3 concerns from Week 18 that could doom Cowboys in playoffs
By Jerry Trotta
1. Dak Prescott being carless with the football (again)
The majority of Dallas fans fight the good fight on Twitter in terms of defending Dak Prescott from Cowboys haters … and Dak haters. They’re always lurking in the shadows waiting for Prescott to make a mistake — usually an interception — and they came out of the woodwork after his pick-six against Washington.
Unfortunately, there was no defending Dak on Sunday. He threw the same throw on consecutive dropbacks, and both could’ve gone for pick-sixes. On the first, he tried to force a pass to Michael Gallup on a broken play. If not for Kendall Fuller slipping as the ball arrived, the pass would’ve been returned for a score.
On the second, Prescott threw a basic out route to Noah Brown and Fuller jumped it for a walk-in touchdown. Again, we’ll defend Dak through his darkest hours, but this was a pick you’d expect a rookie to throw … kind of like Sam Howell’s red zone interception in the first quarter.
There is no single concern from Week 18 that could doom the Cowboys in the playoffs more than Prescott’s penchant for turnovers. A handful haven’t been his fault but 15 with five games missed is bad no matter how you slice it.
If you want a glass-half-full takeaway, it’s that Prescott can’t (or shouldn’t) play much worse than he did Sunday. It’s only up from here.
