FRISCO, Texas – Heading into Week 6, the Cowboys sit at 2-2-1 after a 37-22 win over the New York Jets on the road last Sunday.
Despite being the number one offense in the NFL in yards per game and playing some of the best football of his career, quarterback Dak Prescott isn't satisfied and still sees chinks in the offense that need to be worked out.
"We definitely have to improve on the three and outs," Prescott said. "We're too good of an offensive unit just to have that many number of three and outs or even scoreless possessions there in the second half when we had a chance to put them away a lot earlier than we did."
Dallas' offense went three and out four times in New York, three of which game in the second half. The Cowboys didn't extend their 23-3 halftime lead until there was 4:33 left to play in the third quarter on Prescott's 43-yard touchdown to George Pickens.
All of that said, it' certainly not like everything has been a negative.
"When you score plus-30 in the NFL, that's good momentum," Prescott said. "The pass game, the run game, they're balanced to an extent, maybe not to our standard, but it was a good road win. Any time you can get a road win of that caliber in the NFL, that's going to take a big chunk of confidence and move us forward."
The offense came into that Week 5 game shorthanded, down four starting offensive linemen and two starting receivers in CeeDee Lamb and KaVontae Turpin. In their absence, it was Ryan Flournoy who stepped up with a 114-yard performance on six catches.
While Flournoy's performance came out of the blue for some, Prescott credited it to the annual work he does with all of his receivers, regardless of where they sit on the depth chart, in the offseason.
"That's why that time in the offseason whether it's at the house or a local high school or annual trips are so important," Prescott said. "Because when you get into the game, or into the game week and the normal flow of things, you're really throwing to three or four of the guys that you expect to be out there."
"So there's a good bit of training camp and time that I wasn't getting reps again with Flo, and sure enough he gets in there and there's not a beat missed, and it's because if we can go back to those banked reps of confidence that we have… at that point, it's just about communicating on the details of the route."
Speaking of communication, there's been no shortage of it between Prescott and the Cowboys' coaching staff since the franchise made Brian Schottenheimer the 10th head coach in their history back in late January.
The familiarity of having Schottenheimer in the building as offensive coordinator before his promotion has paid it's dividends, with Prescott's play to start the season being the biggest example of it especially in the play action passing game. With Javonte Williams' emergence as a key piece in the offense, it's allowing Prescott to tap into one of the strongsuits of his game.
"I love it, no bigger fan," Prescott said. "Coming in early in my career, I guess the run game was so good that someday you took for granted, and then having a couple years in the past where we just weren't able to be efficient and consistent enough in the run game, handing the ball off feels great. It opens up my favorite part of playing quarterback: play action."
Sure enough, Prescott is thriving in the play action passing game. He second in the NFL in play action passing yards this season with 463, completing 46 of his 53 attempts for five touchdowns.
All of that begins with the run game, which has been much better than many expected coming into the year. A lot of that credit goes to offensive coordinator Klayton Adams, who has drawn praises from the entire organization and has helped Williams rejuvenate his career, currently sitting at third in the league in rushing yards with 447 to go with five touchdowns, one shy of Dallas' total from the entire season on the ground last year.
"Just the way that he installs plays when we stands in front of the team, the confidence that he shows, that he portrays, that he exudes, and just the professionalism that he expects is contagious," Prescott said of Adams. "Everybody feels it, and he's a hell of a dude."
Each weekly game planning session between Schottenheimer and Adams leads to one of the core values of Schottenheimer's role as a head coach: the play caller's purpose. What does that mean for Prescott?
"It just goes back into exactly why they designed this play this way with the formation, and once all that's illustrated out to me, it's easy to see and I understand where we're trying to attack, why we're trying to attack, maybe what it's not so great against," Prescott said. "It allows me to play comfortable within the play."
Having 10 years of experience certainly helps with that too, and Prescott is taking full advantage of it. He's signed with the Cowboys through 2028, when he'd be 35 years old, but can see himself tapping into even more of that experience if he feels physically able to.
"Forties would be a good number," Prescott said. "I've been through some injuries, played very physical in college, so if I can get to 40 playing at the standard that I want, that would be awesome."
Without too much thinking ahead, Prescott is focused now on Dallas' next task, a second straight road game against the Carolina Panthers. It'll be the third time in as many years that the Cowboys have travelled to Charlotte to play them, which has it's advantages.
"Any time you've got that, I'm not going to say it's like a division game, but there's a lot of familiarities in just what they're going to do, how they're going to attack, what we think they're going to play us or maybe a certain look or defense they're going to give us that we struggled with last year. So all that helps." Prescott said.
