Grading Dak Prescott's Week 9: Cowboys QB saved the season once again

A week after blowing a double-digit lead en route to an overtime loss to the Arizona Cardinals, the Dallas Cowboys looked like they were headed down the exact same path on Sunday against the Indianapolis Colts.

America's Team held a pair of 10-point leads, first at 17-7 after Dak Prescott connected with CeeDee Lamb for a 44-yard touchdown with just 21 seconds remaining in the first half and again at 20-10 when Brandon Aubrey drained a 28-yard field goal with 2:10 remaining in the third quarter.

But from there, the Colts put up 13 straight points, taking a 23-20 lead with 1:37 to play in the final frame on a 50-yard field goal from Spencer Shrader.

Only 29 seconds later, however, following a big pass from Prescott, who unquestionably deserves an "A" grade for his performance, and a couple of penalties on Indianapolis, Javonte Williams waltzed into the end zone for a 1-yard touchdown run, with an Aubrey extra point giving Dallas a 27-23 advantage, which turned out to be the final score after rookie Caleb Downs sealed the victory with his first career interception on the ensuing possession.

Dak Prescott tied a season high with 335 passing yards in the Cowboys' Week 9 win over the Colts

Including the game-winning drive, which marked the 28th of his 11-year career, thus moving him within one of Tony Romo's franchise record of 29, Prescott completed 21 of 34 passes for 335 yards, tying his season high from Week 4, with two touchdowns. And for the third consecutive week, he didn't throw an interception.

Among those 21 completions, as has been the case in every game this season, the four-time Pro Bowler made some incredible throws, one being his first touchdown toss of the afternoon, a 10-yarder to the back corner of the end zone to tight end Jake Ferguson.

As mentioned above, Dak's second TD pass of the day was a 44-yarder late in the second quarter to Lamb, who had a monster day with 10 catches for 195 yards. He actually could have had an even bigger day had it not been for some mistakes, but that's not the focus here.

And to be honest with you, the touchdown pass isn't the focus at this point either, as Prescott actually underthrew that ball a bit. Thankfully, Lamb had created enough separation that he was actually able to just sit and wait for the pass to arrive.

In this writer's eyes, the play before was the better one.

Facing a 3rd-and-1 situation from the Dallas 34-yard line, Dak took the snap in the shotgun, but when he stepped up to pass, a pair of Colts defenders collapsed on him, and a sack seemed almost imminent. But Prescott quickly adjusted, rolled out to the right, and with yet another defender coming at him, he fired a dart across his body to CeeDee for a 22-yard gain.

And, of course, we certainly can't forget about the aforementioned deep ball to kick off the game-winning drive in the fourth quarter, a 46-yarder to Ryan Flournoy that was thrown almost perfectly.

There were others, of course, but these were the three that truly stood out. Just like he did against Philly three weeks ago, Prescott kept the season alive. He's the biggest reason this team still has a pulse in the NFC East.

Now at 4-5 on the season, Prescott and the Cowboys will look to get back to .500 next Sunday against the 7-1 San Francisco 49ers.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow