August 25, 2016, was the last time Cowboys fans felt their heart drop after seeing Tony Romo suffer from another collarbone injury. Soon after, Dak Prescott’s career would skyrocket as he took over the starting position. Prescott did not look back after that, and for four straight years, Dak would never miss an NFL start due to injury. That feat will unfortunately change today.
What seemed like another strong designed run for Prescott to inch his team closer to extending the lead against the New York Giants ended up in disaster. If you couldn’t tell already, the CBS broadcast showed the replay multiple times to assure viewers knew, in fact, that Dak Prescott broke his right ankle. The timetable for his return is uncertain right now, but the record-setting campaign that Dak Prescott started comes to a halt in Week 5 of the 2020 season.
The serious injury literally took the game’s breath away just as the Dallas Cowboys were finding their identity. It was quite a scene to see Cowboys HC Mike McCarthy and ex-Cowboy OC Jason Garrett side by side as they looked over the injured Prescott. In Jason Garrett’s first return to AT&T Stadium, once the Cowboys decided to move on from him after ten years, it was an injury he never wanted to see. Before Prescott was carted away, his teammates, one after the other, said their goodbyes to their leader.
The Cowboys were fortunately prepared for an event like this with the off-season signing of longtime Cincinnati Bengal Andy Dalton, a veteran QB that undoubtedly has the capability of leading an offense. Dalton led the Bengals to the playoffs four times as a starter and finished 2019 with 3,949 yards thrown. Also, fans can expect to see more of Ezekiel Elliott. The Cowboys had a vintage scoring drive today where they ran the ball 10 times on a 14 play drive. Run the ball, run the clock off, and keep the defense on the field; a formula that has given the Cowboys much success. I would expect to see many drives like this come in the future.
After the divisional win over the Giants-thanks to back to back miraculous catches by Michael Gallup to set up a game-winning field goal-the Cowboys improved to 2-3, and are somehow in first place in the NFC East. It is still very concerning that DC Mike Nolan’s defense gave up 34 points to a winless Giants team that only averaged 11 ppg before today. For now, many just hope and pray for the fallen QB. The Dallas win was certainly dedicated to Dak Prescott as he starts his road to recovery, and his team looks ahead to the Arizona Cardinals next week.
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