When Dak Prescott guided the Dallas Cowboys to a 40-40, Week 4 tie against the Green Bay Packers, he did so by putting on a clinic. Prescott was operating with peak efficiency on Sunday night, carving up the NFL’s third ranked defense according to EPA metrics, and keeping the Cowboys in the playoff picture four games into the 2025 campaign.
It took everything Prescott had to deliver the tie. It was a perfect illustration of what the Cowboys need from their quarterback to just compete this season. Following Sunday’s affair, the Cowboys defense now ranks dead last in yards allowed. It’s a situation that doesn’t appear to be improving and a situation that demands excellence from Prescott day in and day out, just to keep the team afloat.
Prescott’s showing in Week 4 was nothing short of brilliant. The big plays he made downfield with his arm, eyes and legs may go down as the best NFL QB performance of the year. Yet the defense was so poor it still wasn’t enough to deliver victory.
Prescott’s 12 Big Time Throws this season is tied for tops in the league. Of the QBs who have played four games in 2025, Prescott leads the NFL in overall PFF grade. He’s doing so despite ranking bottom 10 in time to throw. For those wondering at home, this basically tells us he’s playing elite football despite problematic pass protection from his big guys up front.
Speaking of his big guys up front, two of his top interior starters, Cooper Beebe and Tyler Booker, are sidelined with injury. As for the play on the outside, Prescott’s had to deal with two of the worst pass protectors in the NFL on a weekly basis. Pro Football Focus tracking has tagged Tyler Guyton with 16 pressures allowed and Terence Steele with 14 pressures allowed. That ties them for second worst and seventh worst in the NFL, respectively.
If it wasn’t for Prescott’s elite ability to produce under pressure, this conversation wouldn’t even be happening right now. Prescott’s 90.2 grade under pressure is No. 1 in the league and ranks him a whopping 16.4 points above Matthew Stafford who ranks No. 2 with a respectable 73.8 grade.
CeeDee Lamb’s absence further exasperates the situation for Prescott.
He’s missed the better part of two games and very likely will miss more down the road. Lamb has unquestionably been Prescott’s top target over the years and without him Prescott’s been forced to develop new relationships with less talented pass catchers on the fly. While George Pickens is a pretty attractive No. 2 option to fall back on, he’s not without his issues, being responsible for a drop in each of the last two games, one of which resulted in an interception.
The Cowboys horrific defense, injured receiver corps and porous pass protection forces Prescott to play out of his mind just to keep the Cowboys in games. Some might say that’s what’s expected of the highest-paid QB in the NFL but the reality is it’s an unreasonable request of anyone in the NFL.
Take for instance Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Matthew Stafford and Lamar Jackson. Many consider them to be the NFL’s top tier of QBs in the NFL today. Yet each one of them has failed to operate at elite levels each week. Mahomes and Jackson have struggled more often than succeeded this year while Stafford and Allen both have multiple games graded below Prescott’s worst game this season (his Chicago game). Even the best QBs on the planet need their defense and offensive line to carry their own weight most weeks, to expect success without these contributions is nothing short of unreasonable.
Sadly, none of this is much of a departure from recent campaigns since the last three seasons combined the Cowboys rank just 25th in overall EPA allowed on defense. It’s been the Dak Prescott show in Dallas for quite some time but instead of moving in the right direction, the Cowboys appear to be moving in the wrong direction. The soft rebuild on defense, which was facilitated by the Micah Parsons trade, better hurry up and arrive because the 32-year-old Prescott isn’t getting any younger. Even if he is somehow still getting better.
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This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: Cowboys’ weekly demands for QB Dak Prescott are extreme, unreasonable
Reporting by Reid D Hanson, Cowboys Wire / Cowboys Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
