Archer: How popular is Dak Prescott? He's now taking pictures with babies

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How popular is Dak Prescott? He's now taking pictures with babies
11:01 PM CT
Todd Archer
ESPN Staff Writer

SANTA CLARA -- As Dak Prescott came into focus as he walked through the halls of Levi’s Stadium late Sunday afternoon, the fans’ murmurs grew louder and louder.

One woman held her baby out for Prescott to hold so she could take a picture. As has been the case in his first four games, there would be no turnover. Just a quick picture and a smile. He slapped hands with a few more fans, signed a No. 4 Dallas Cowboys jersey, took some selfies and then continued his walk to the team bus.

Prescott has the Cowboys sitting in second place in the NFC East with the 24-17 win against the San Francisco 49ers.

Prescott finished with 245 yards and two touchdowns on 23-of-32 passing. He has yet to have a pass intercepted in 131 attempts, the most ever by an NFL rookie and the second most by a player to begin his career. Tom Brady went 162 attempts before his first interception in 2001.

His first win was a fourth-quarter comeback against the Washington Redskins. His second win was a carefully orchestrated beating of the Chicago Bears. His third win, which equals the most by a Cowboys rookie quarterback (Quincy Carter had three in 2001), came after he was trailing 14-0 in the first half.

“I just like to play and play independently,” Prescott said. “I do my best to just focus on each and every play and allow the rest to play itself out.”

The Cowboys scored on their next two drives. Prescott hit Terrance Williams for a 20-yard touchdown, and in a hurry-up situation, completed 8 of 10 passes for 56 yards, including a 4-yarder to Brice Butler to tie the score with 12 seconds left in the half.

“I promise, I swear it’s like watching practice,” said Dez Bryant, who had his arms raised on the sideline signaling touchdown before Prescott even threw the ball to Williams. “This is what we do. Coach Garrett does an outstanding job putting us in those situations and we’re always coming through executing in practice. We go against a hell of a defense and they give us great looks. … We see it out here on the field, and it’s really nothing.”

The touchdown to Butler came on a sprint out to the left, a play where Prescott reads the coverage on Butler and Cole Beasley.

“Me and Dak actually did some extra time after practice working on that play,” Butler said. “That’s why we were excited, that we executed. It was just a simple quick route by Bease, and I run a corner and however they play it we go. I got inside leverage and he just banged it outside and hit me.”

It wasn’t the most difficult of throws or reads, but the work put in for that situation speaks to Prescott’s thoroughness during the practice week.

When it pays off on game day, Prescott’s teammates trust him even more and his legend will just grow. There probably will be more babies to hold too.

“From the get-go, 4 [Prescott] had a spirit about him, that he’s a natural-born leader,” safety Barry Church said. “From the defensive side we looked at it like, ‘This isn’t last year.’ Last year [Tony] Romo went down and everybody dragged their head and it was, ‘Man, here we go.’ This year we have a guy that can fight and lead us in the right direction and he’s doing a hell of a job.”
 
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