By Dwain Price
NDG Sports
After a most frustrating 19-9 loss to the defending American Football Conference champion Kansas City Chiefs this past Sunday, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott decided to look at the setback through rose colored glasses.
“I’m never discouraged, but pissed off, yeah, for sure,”Prescott said. “Especially when you have an opportunity to come out and play against a team that’s been in the Super Bowl the last two years.
“But this is a resilient team that’s going to continue to fight and get better, I can tell you that.”
The Cowboys didn’t put up much of a fight against the Chiefs.On a day when they didn’t score a touchdown, the Cowboys mustered just 276 total yards, Prescott threw a pair of interceptions and also was sacked five times.
“The offense didn’t hold up our end of the bargain,” guard Zack Martin said. “I think if you would have told us that our defense would have held them to 19 points, we would have felt pretty damn good about that.
“We’ve got to do a better job (on offense).”
Indeed, holding quarterback Patrick Mahomes and that high-powered Chiefs’ offense to just 19 points on their home turf is almost a miracle within itself.
“I thought we played great defense,” said defensive end Micah Parsons, who collected two sacks and also forced a fumble. “That (Kansas City) team can give you 45-50 (points) on any given day.
“To hold their offense under 20 points, we definitely did the job. It’s good, but it’s not good enough.”
The Cowboys did have some valid reasons why they sputtered offensively against the Chiefs.
Wide receiver Amari Cooper missed the game after testing positive for COVID-19, and left tackle Tyron Smith also didn’t play due to an ankle injury. In addition, wide receiver CeeDee Lamb suffered a concussion in the first half and did not return to the game.
However, coach Mike McCarthy refused to saddle this loss on the backs of any injured players.
“We had a healthy 48 players ready to play,” McCarthy said.“We had a number of guys that couldn’t play in the game.
“That’s the NFL. That’s the course of a season.”
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With the loss, the Cowboys fell to 7-3, but still have a two-and-a-half games lead over the Philadelphia Eagles (5-6) in the NFC East standings.
In addition to those two interceptions, Prescott was just28-of-43 for 216 yards while being chased around all day by the opportunistic Chiefs.
“I watch the line of scrimmage for the most part and the time clocks, the pace of the operations and things like that,”McCarthy said, referring to Prescott. “As far as grading his throwing, I wouldn’t be specific with that.
“We definitely were not as efficient(Sunday) as we needed to be. We’re not discouraged,but we didn’t win the game.”
The Cowboys will have a chance to quickly redeem themselves when they host the Las Vegas Raiders on Thanksgiving Day at 3:30 p.m. at AT&T Stadium. That game can’t get here soon enough for Prescott, who entered the contest against the Chiefs as the No. 1-rated quarterback in the NFL.
And with Mahomes – regarded as one of the league’s top three quarterbacks – on the other side of the field, Prescott knows he and the Cowboys missed a golden chance to silence their critics.
“We had a great opportunity to come out and play against a team that has been in the Super Bowl the last couple of years, and prove it to ourselves, prove it to one another what we are capable of,” Prescott said. “It sucks, but we are a confident group.
“The offense didn’t get the job done. It starts with me. There are no worries and no discouragements for what our future holds.”
