Dak Prescott’s Continued Improvement Positions Cowboys for Super Bowl Run

I don’t know about you guys, but Dak Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys still had to show me something.

Sure, the Prescott- and Ezekiel Elliott-led Cowboys had already clinched the top spot in the NFC entering Monday night’s tilt with the desperate Detroit Lions, but I needed to see more variety from the Dallas offense in order to feel comfortable with the idea that two rookies were guiding a Super Bowl favorite.

Not that there’s anything wrong with having a conservative, run-first approach, but it’s fair to wonder if an inability or unwillingness to swing for the fences could cost the Cowboys against primo opponents in January. 

Before declaring that the Cowboys just might be good enough to defeat a flawed NFC field and make a run to Super Bowl LI, I wanted to see Prescott stretch the actual field. I wanted to see if he could keep opposing defenses even more honest for Elliott and the running game.

I wanted to see him make big throws in big spots. 

Sure, he bounced back from an early-December slump by completing 32 of his 36 attempts in a Week 15 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but only one of his 32 completed passes that night traveled 20 or more yards. 

Despite throwing hardly more than half as many passes Monday night, Prescott put together the best performance of his career in a commanding 42-21 victory over the hungry Lions. And that’s because he proved to himself, his teammates, his future opponents and all of his doubters (yours truly included) that if needed, he can sling it. 

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Prescott’s first completion of the game, which set the tone for the evening, was an 18-yard bullet to wide receiver Dez Bryant. It came on a second-and-15 play, with the 23-year-old scanning the field before delivering a perfect strike between two defenders in coverage. Seven dinks, dunks and handoffs later, he placidly made some pre-snap adjustments before throwing a 21-yard missile to Brice Butler in the slot, opening the scoring. 

From that point forward, dude looked like a Pro Bowl-caliber veteran, and the …

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