Dak Prescott seemed a bit less sure about playing in a meaningless season finale than he did about a Christmas Day game that also had no connection to the playoffs.
Until the question of the final record for the Dallas Cowboys came up. The star quarterback was much more certain then.
Dallas (7-8-1) kept alive its chance to avoid a losing season with a 30-23 victory on the road against the Washington Commanders. The Cowboys will be back on the road to finish the season against the New York Giants on Jan. 3 or 4.
“Big difference,” Prescott said when asked about 8-8-1 vs. 7-9-1. “A lot of pride. To the point, I want to play. Any season of me being out there, I’ve never had, in all [of] my career, a season under .500. So that tie is going to come into play really well.”
Prescott and his teammates probably don’t know it’s been 23 years since the Cowboys had consecutive losing seasons. Dallas had three in a row from 2000-02 in the only three seasons of Dave Campo’s head-coaching career.
A year ago, Prescott missed the final nine games with a torn hamstring as the Cowboys finished 7-10 in coach Mike McCarthy’s last season. Brian Schottenheimer, a first-year head coach after a quarter-century as an NFL assistant, certainly has the incentive to beat the Giants.
The tricky part is that Prescott endured a season-high six sacks against the Commanders. Each time the franchise QB is dragged down under these circumstances, collective breaths are held in team owner Jerry Jones’ suite and beyond.
“Of course, I don’t want to get him hit six times,” Schottenheimer said. “We also ran 80-something plays. I thought he did a great job with his legs, but I don’t want Dak to get hit like that. But I think we know how to do it at a higher level than we did tonight.”
Prescott cut a reporter short early in the week on the question of playing against the Commanders, in part because it was Christmas. He wasn’t nearly as emphatic after the game.
“I love this game. I love any opportunity that I get to play it,” Prescott said. “I understand the reasons why maybe not, and if that’s the approach with that, I’ll handle that then.”
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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