For the third consecutive week to start this 2026 NFL regular season, Dak Prescott played a solid game of football for the Dallas Cowboys.
But for the second time in those three weeks, the four-time Pro Bowler left the field a loser, as America's Team took a heartbreaking (and demoralizing) 34-31 defeat to the Baltimore Ravens in Brazil this past Sunday.
Now, we're not saying Prescott played perfectly, and there's one specific throw that still has us a bit befuddled, which we'll break down momentarily, even if you likely already know which one we're talking about.
Coming off a near-perfect performance in the Cowboys' Week 2 win over the Washington Commanders, one in which he completed an incredible 83.9 percent of his passes for 279 yards and four touchdowns with zero interceptions, Prescott wasn't quite that good on Sunday, but we still feel confident about giving him a "B" grade against Baltimore.
Dak Prescott played well enough to leave Rio with a victory
From an accuracy standpoint, Prescott had his worst game of the year, but he still completed 62.5 percent of his passes, going for 25-for-40 for 276 yards with one touchdown pass. And for the second straight week, he was turnover-free, which is always a bonus.
In addition, the lone sack he took can't be pinned on him, as Roquan Smith went completely untouched in taking Dak down on the Cowboys' opening offensive possession.
But Prescott actually shouldn't have even been put in that position to get sacked in the first place, which takes us right into the play-calling mistakes made by Dallas head coach Brian Schottenheimer.
On that opening possession, the Ravens' defense had no answer for Javonte Williams, who accounted for 44 of the Cowboys' 57 yards on that drive, with his sixth carry going for four yards on first down to put Dallas into a 2nd-and-goal situation on the Baltimore 1-yard line.
But from there, Schottenheimer called for two consecutive pass plays, with the first resulting in Prescott throwing an incompletion to Ryan Flournoy and the second resulting in the aforementioned sack that took the Cowboys back to the 10-yard line. Brandon Aubrey then came on to hit a 28-yard field goal to give Dallas a 3-0 lead.
And, of course, there's the Cowboys' final offensive possession of the evening in which Dak, with his team trailing by three, led the offense 63 yards down the field in just 67 seconds to put Dallas in a 1st-and-goal situation on the Ravens' 2-yard line with 23 seconds remaining in regulation.
With Schottenheimer again opting not to go to Williams, Prescott threw an incompletion in the direction of George Pickens on first down before being backed up five yards on a false-start penalty from Luke Schoonmaker.
Brian Schottenheimer failed Dak Prescott in Week 3
Prescott picked up a pair of yards on a scramble on second down, but on third down, with Pickens looking to be wide open at the right pylon, Dak inexplicably chucked the ball out of bounds. And least that's what it looked like in real time.
Upon further review, however, Prescott's pass took place a split second before Pickens broke away from Ravens cornerback Nate Wiggins and made his move toward the pylon, which could very well suggest that Dak was told to throw the ball away if things didn't develop quickly enough, given the time remaining.
And afterward, Schottenheimer himself confirmed that he did indeed tell Prescott to play it safe, even to the extent of tossing the ball out of bounds to keep the possibility of a game-tying field goal alive, a field goal Aubrey did come in and make with seven seconds remaining. And Dak definitely doesn't deserve any blame for what happened next.
Was it Prescott's fault that Aubrey inexcusably kicked the ball through the end zone, taking zero time off the clock? No. And was it Prescott's fault that the Dallas defense let Lamar Jackson hit Zay Flowers for a 27-yard gain to set up Tyler Loop's game-winning field goal? Obviously not. And that second one is just an all-too-familiar feeling.
Prescott has played well enough these first three weeks for the Cowboys to be 3-0, but instead, they're 1-2. And Christian Parker's unit is the biggest reason why, as Dallas has allowed the third-most total yards in the league and the eighth-most points.
While he obviously would have preferred a victory over making more history, Dak did at least join a highly exclusive club of quarterbacks in the loss.
As his third-quarter touchdown pass to Jake Ferguson was the 250th of his career, he's just the 30th in NFL history to hit that milestone and is also just one of five quarterbacks with at least 250 passing touchdowns and 30 rushing scores, the other four being Fran Tarkenton, John Elway, Aaron Rodgers, and Russell Wilson.
Prescott and the Cowboys will look to bounce back this Sunday against the winless Houston Texans.
Dak Prescott's grade by the week
- Week 1: B
- Week 2: A+
- Week 3: B
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