Dallas Cowboys: Mike McCarthy calls out criticism of Dak Prescott
The Dallas Cowboys suffered a tough overtime loss to the Las Vegas Raiders on Thanksgiving day. In the loss, the Cowboys trailed 27-19 through three quarters. Dallas struggled at times to move the ball early in the game, but a strong fourth quarter put the game into overtime. Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy came to the defense of quarterback Dak Prescott after the loss.
“At the end of the day, we may not have played as well as we would have liked early, but we put points on the board,” McCarthy said via The Athletic’s Jon Machota. “We were in position to win the game. I just quickly saw Dak’s numbers. It looked like he had good numbers. He threw what? 68, 69 percent, had over 300 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. If that’s struggling, hell I’d like to play tomorrow.”
Prescott was 16-of-21 in the fourth quarter with 209 yards and a touchdown, along with a 122.9 passer rating. Overall, he completed 32 of his 47 passes for 375 yards and two touchdowns.
Prescott nearly threw for 400 yards without his top two receivers
The Cowboys were without wide receivers Amari Cooper and CeeDee Lamb on Thursday. Cooper is out while he remains on the reserve/COVID-19 list while Lamb was not able to clear concussion protocols in time to be active for the contest.
As McCarthy alluded to, Prescott had a very strong game purely based on the numbers. To throw for 375 yards without your two elite wide receivers is not an easy feat. Prescott turned to Michael Gallup, Cedrick Wilson and others to fill the void. Gallup had five receptions for 106 yards while Wilson caught seven passes for 104 yards. Noah Brown also had six receptions for 53 yards. Tight ends Dalton Schultz and Sean McKeon caught Prescott’s two touchdowns.
Thursday was the third game this season where Prescott has thrown for 375 yards. He threw for 403 yards in Week 1 against Tampa Bay and had 445 yards against New England earlier in the season.
Prescott has had a very strong season for the Cowboys. He has completed 69.4 percent of his passes for 2,932 yards, 22 touchdowns and seven interceptions. Prescott also has 27 rushing attempts for 94 yards and a touchdown.
The Cowboys have now lost two consecutive games and three out of their last four. With a 7-4 record, Dallas sits atop the NFC East, although the distance between the Cowboys and other teams is getting smaller. The Philadelphia Eagles are 5-6 while the Washington Football Team is 4-6. Both teams could win again this week to continue narrowing the margin. Philadelphia takes on the New York Giants while Washington faces a struggling Seattle Seahawks team.