The Dallas Cowboys needed Dak Prescott to rebound after a clunker in San Francisco. He did just that Monday.
Prescott helped guide the Cowboys to a 20-17 win over the Chargers at SoFi Stadium on Monday Night Football. Just days removed from his dreadful, three-interception showing against the 49ers, Prescott completed 21 of his 30 pass attempts for 272 yards and a touchdown. He added seven carries for 40 yards and a score.
It was a pivotal bounce-back for Dallas’ quarterback. He played mistake-free football in the Cowboys’ 10-point fourth quarter, sending his team into the bye week at 4-2 instead of 3-3.
"Yeah, I do (think it was his best game),” Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones said Tuesday in his weekly appearance on Shan & RJ. “First of all, we had to have his legs, and we had them and we got to that initially, it was a big part of that offense. I think at one time he had 70-, 80-percent of – well into the game he was our leading rusher by a margin. That’s real important.
“But I can’t say enough about how he just played football out there, as he certainly was able to get plays made that were critical against a really good team, a defense that was playing really competitively in the Chargers.
“Bottom line is I thought it was Dak’s best game of the year.”
The performance came shortly after a Dallas Morning News story on the departure of Kellen Moore suggested that Jones thought Prescott might have plateaued because he became too comfortable under Moore.
Jones pushed back on the characterization.
“I don’t necessarily agree with the quarterback was too comfortable, uncomfortable,” Jones said. “Those are not the issues. I thought we had the opportunity to get the best of what Kellen could offer us by what he had done over the previous four years.
“Then we get to have Mike McCarthy come in, who I have a lot of promise for as far as being able to literally implement and make the calls in our offense. So I did think it was a step forward to make that happen.
“It wasn’t so much as really Moore moving on, it was more about being able to utilize Mike, have him more (involved) … but it was a better use of what our circumstances were, and I thought it certainly was a Dak-friendly move.”