Dak and His White Buffalo

Dak Prescott’s best stretch of his career happened in the games leading to the worst moment in his playing career. Dak Prescott was on pace to throw for over 5,000 yards and break several passing records in 2020. In just four games, he passed for 1690 yards. It was still so early in the season, but Dak was having his best year ever. Then, in week 5 it all came to a complete stop as he suffered a gruesome injury that resulted in a compound fracture and dislocation of his right ankle. He would go on to miss the rest of the season and hasn’t been the same since. Will he ever get close to these numbers? Why is it a possibility and what is the biggest hindrance of recapturing this magic? To answer those questions, we must look to the past and the future.

In 2018, Zeke led team in receptions with 77. He was second in yards. This was the Amari Cooper trade year. The Cowboys traded for Amari a week before the trade deadline after trying to have success with WR by committee. Cooper would go on to lead the team in receiving yards and touchdowns in his 9 games. The Cowboys started the season 3-3 and went on to finish 10-6 and make the playoffs as the division leader. 2018 was also Michael Gallup’s rookie year.

The 2019 season was when it started to click for Dak. He finally had what he needed. A bonafide number one with an emerging number 2 to go along with the running game. Both Cooper and Gallup had 1,000 yard seasons. Randall Cobb finished with 828 yards as WR31. In 2020, the Cowboys drafted Cee Dee Lamb to give him another weapon. In the first four weeks, Amari Cooper caught 37 passes for 401 yards (100 yards per game), Cee Dee caught 21 passes for 309 yards (77 yards per game, 14.7 yards per catch) and Michael Gallup caught 13 passes for 275 yards (69 yards per game, 21 yards per catch). The three headed monster was born. Cowboys are hoping that with Brandin Cooks as their WR2, that this will give Dak weapons on par with what he had during the 2019 and 2020 seasons.

The 2019 season paved the foundation to how Dak can excel. He had 1239 yards off of play action. He also averaged 7.3 yards per scramble. In 2020, that number jumped to 8 yards before he got injured. Dak is best when he uses play action and extends plays.

The fuel for Daks emergence was that poor Defense in 2020. They couldn’t stop anybody so if the Cowboys wanted to win Dak was going to have to outduel whoever stood against him. 149 of Dak’s 151 completions came when he was either trailing or tied (18/30 when tied) that year. He was having his best season when the team needed him the most. This led to him averaging 371 yards passing per game. Cowboys then went out and got Dan Quinn and started building one of the leagues best defenses. One of those moves was drafting Micah Parsons with their first round pick in 2021. He has since became an All-Pro and one of the most feared pass rushers in the game. Does this Defense prevent Dak from his passing attempts?

Not even. This is a passing league. While Dak may not get close to 600 passing attempts this year, if healthy, he should get a little over 550. This could be enough if we see two main problems come down. The first problem that we see might not be a problem at all. Last year, Dak had the worst year of his career when he comes to taking care of the ball. Mike McCarthy and Brian Schottenheimer have added more West Coast concepts to keep the receivers on the move and has taken out some of the option routes that led to some confusion and turnovers. A more simple offense will mean less risk and hopefully more sustained drives and passing yards. But as much as interceptions were talked about with Dak, this isn’t the big problem. There is an elephant in the room that is potentially hiding Dak’s White Buffalo.

The amount of Drops by this team is staggering. It’s nothing new either, but if Dak wants to have better numbers, he will need his receivers to do their job and catch passes. In 2018, the pass catchers had 22 drops. This was 17th in league. In 2019, they led the league with 36 drops. They also had 36 drops in 2020 which put them in 2nd most drops. Andy Dalton was QB for 21 of those drops, Dak for 13 and DiNucci 2. In 2021 they had 28 drops for 8th most drops and last season, they had 33 drops for 8th most again. Dak was QB for 24 of those drops in just 12 games while Cooper Rush was QB for 9 in 5 games. No matter who the targets are and no matter who the QB is, this team can’t get out of their way when it comes to catching the ball. Maybe this is another area that a new Offensive Coordinator and having Cowboys Receiving coach Robert Prince in his second season.