New angle of Cowboys' game-winning TD shows Dak Prescott nearly made a huge mistake

Not many folks want to admit it, but Dak Prescott has carried the Dallas Cowboys on his back this season. The stats aren't overwhelming - though Prescott is second in passing yards - but the Cowboys quarterback has played exceptional given the circumstances.

Of course, Sunday's win over the Steelers was far from Prescott's best game. He committed three costly turnovers and each one was worse than the last.

The red zone fumble was the result of poor awareness, footwork and ball security. The red zone interception was due to a miscommunication between Prescott and CeeDee Lamb, but it was a dangerous pass regardless. His second interception came on a needless deep ball thrown into double coverage. Prescott may have thought the Steelers jumped offsides and decided to take advantage of a potential free play, but no flag was thrown.

Prescott overcame all of that to produce two of the most clutch plays of his career, including the game-winning touchdown pass to Jalen Tolbert on 4th-and-goal with 20 seconds left in regulation.

Overcome with emotion, Prescott uncorked your standard air punch. He put a little extra mustard on this one, though. Understandable given the circumstances, but Prescott did not check his surroundings before celebrating and narrowly avoided knocking out the nearby ref.

Dak Prescott nearly punched a referee celebrating Cowboys' game-winning TD

How did Prescott not make contact with the ref? That was straight out of Hollywood in terms of punches that are obviously fake but are enhanced by acting and editing to appear real.

Like we said, Prescott put his full body behind the haymaker. The adrenaline and raw emotion following a last-second touchdown is probably unparalleled. It's impossible to fault Prescott for celebrating, but it is frightening to think about the aftermath had the QB's punch landed.

Would Prescott have been flagged? If so, would the yardage have helped the Steelers get into field goal range to tie the game? Regardless of the outcome, would the NFL had laid the hammer on Prescott in the form of a fine for striking a ref to set an example? Would a suspension have been on the table?

Fortunately these are nothing but hypotheticals. The referee had his head on a swivel and jumped backward and even covered his face with his hands as Prescott gestured toward him.

Nobody was harmed and Prescott's celebration was only briefly interrupted, but this sequence was inches away from being a disaster.

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