ARLINGTON, Texas 鈥 Nothing went as planned for Dak Prescott and the 草莓视频下载入口 when the Arizona Cardinals, owners of a 2-5 record, walked onto the field at AT&T Stadium, a place where Prescott's offense averaged a league-best 41 points per game and needing, as a team, to bounce back from the trampling that occurred at the hands of the Denver Broncos eight days prior.
The defense struggled to stop the connection between quarterback Jacoby Brissett and former fourth-overall pick Marvin Harrison Jr., and the offense was disjointed for most of the evening as Prescott found himself pressured a total of 19 times (you read that correctly) on 39 dropbacks (48% pressure rate allowed), hit nine times and sacked five times on Monday Night Football.
While there were some positive individual performances that stood out in Week 9 for Dallas, there's only one word to describe the overall performance by both sides of the ball.
"Disappointing," said Prescott. "It's very frustrating 鈥 knowing that you're better than that, and going out there, not putting on a performance that's close to your standard, or even the expectations, or what you thought you could do and expected to do."
Now sitting at 3-5-1 on the season, up next for the Cowboys is the bye week, giving them two weeks to try and make some sort of adjustments, whatever those might be or entail, if they're to have even a glimmer of hope going into the back half of the season 鈥 one that requires them to now win five of their next eight simply to finish at 8-8-1 with a chance to potentially back into the postseason; but odds are they'd have to win more than five games to make turn that hope into a wild card berth.
Faced with so many questions, including new ones that have suddenly cropped up for their once high-powered offense, the NFL trade deadline offers some possible resolutions, and owner and general manager Jerry Jones firmly states there's at least one trade that's agreed to and that he's "leaning toward" pulling the trigger on, going so far as to note that the upset loss to the Cardinals could make him consider multiple trades for the Cowboys.
And, to be specific, Jones said Dallas is absolutely not looking to be sellers at the deadline on Tuesday, but instead buyers only, feeling there still a possibility of turning things around.
Prescott, who has been the beneficiary of an offseason trade for George Pickens and, previously, a midseason trade to acquire Amari Cooper, says sign him up if the trade is for the right guy 鈥 regardless of which side of the ball it's on, though it'll likely be exclusively on the defense, per Jones, the Cowboys having now traded to acquire linebacker Logan Wilson from the Cincinnati Bengals.
"Yeah, I mean, especially if it's a big value guy, a guy that's gonna come in and make a difference and have an immediate impact," Prescott said. "You can do so much good being a part of one of those [trades]. I forget how many years ago it was, but it was Amari Cooper, right? Signing him during the bye week, or going into the bye weekend, we were able to get something going a few weeks later.
"I knew we lost that first week we had him on Monday night, but we ended up getting it back rolling and put a streak together, and that's what this league is about. It's about creating streaks 鈥 win streaks, getting hot, and putting yourself in a better position than you were, or you are at this moment."
Like Jones and head coach Brian Schottenheimer, Prescott refuses to wave the white flag, but also understands something has to change and there's no better time to do it than during the bye week "when we don't have another team" to play against for two weeks.
"That's still in front of us," he added. "A lot of games are left to be played. We can still get a streak going. 鈥㎡bviously, [a trade] would help, but I think as important as anything is us getting some answers to these issues that we have and getting healthy."
With the loss to the Cardinals, the Cowboys' playoff odds dropped to roughly 14 percent with just eight games remaining on their regular season schedule, and that stretch being the most difficult portion of their calendar.
"Every game is a must-win going forward," said Prescott. "I know you say that, and you feel that in the NFL, and you should feel that, but when you put yourself in a position or behind like we have, it's even more so that case. We're fortunate right now that, in the league, there's a lot of teams with multiple losses. 鈥 You can catch a hot streak and be right there in the mix.
"That's great, but you gotta get a streak going. And if you don't get a streak going, you're just putting yourself more and more behind the eight ball. It's now or never."
Needing both some sort of hot streak, despite having not logged two consecutive wins all season, in addition to plenty of help from other teams in the process, Prescott hit the nail right on the head.
It is indeed now or never for the Cowboys, and every new failure brings them close to the latter.
