No longer on the couch, Dak Prescott hopes for positive Thanksgiving feeling
Todd Archer
ESPN Staff Writer
FRISCO, Texas – Growing up in Haughton, Louisiana, Dak Prescott dreamed of being the Dallas Cowboys' quarterback. He knows about the team’s Thanksgiving tradition, if not the specifics of games in the past.
He doesn’t necessarily remember Tony Romo’s five-touchdown performance against Tampa Bay in 2006. Or 2012's painful loss to Washington, when the Redskins' rookie duo of Robert Griffin III and Alfred Morris did to the Cowboys what Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott are doing to the NFL in 2016. There really hasn’t been anything memorable about the Cowboys’ last two Thanksgiving games, losses to Philadelphia and Carolina, except that Romo hasn’t played in a regular-season game since last Thanksgiving.
“I don’t necessarily say there is one memorable moment or one that sits with me,” Prescott said, “but it was always fun getting to eat, getting full then sitting back on the couch and watching the Cowboys.”
Prescott actually studied up on the Cowboys’ 1994 win against Green Bay, in which his coach, Jason Garrett, started and beat Brett Favre. It remains one of the most memorable Thanksgiving games in franchise history.
It was just Garrett’s second career start. A year earlier he was pulled from his first start in favor of Bernie Kosar in the first quarter. Against the Packers, he completed 15 of 26 passes for 311 yards, with two touchdowns and an interception, as the Cowboys scored 36 points in the second half to beat the Packers 42-31.
“Somebody else within the organization told me the story, ran it down, so I had to go look it up myself,” Prescott said.
Garrett did that day what Prescott has done this season in leading the Cowboys to the best record in the NFL (9-1), with 17 touchdown passes and just two interceptions. He also has run for four touchdowns in place of an injured Romo.
“No, it wasn’t hard to believe. I’ve seen the type of guy he is,” Prescott said. “He went and made the most of his opportunity. He’s tough on us so I know he’s tough on himself. It’s not surprising.”
Prescott won’t be on the couch Thursday. His challenge this week is getting ready for the first time in his career without much practice time against a defense that is more familiar with him than any he has seen yet this season because of their Week 2 meeting at FedEx Field.
The Week 2 experience was a positive one for Prescott. It was his first win, and he directed the Cowboys on a fourth-quarter rally with an 11-play, 80-yard drive ending with Morris’ game-winning touchdown run.
“That one was special. After losing the first one the way we lost it, we had a chance,” Prescott said. “For the Washington game to come down to the end the way it did and us pull it out, it was great. We kinda had this momentum going through the whole camp and everything, the first game, losing that game against the Giants was good for us, I’d say. I mean, obviously we used it to feel ourselves, then Washington we picked up, got a win, saw what it felt like and kept moving.”
Prescott has noticed some changes in the Redskins' defense, in personnel and scheme, “trying to figure out what they want to do consistently, I guess you could say,” he said.
The prep time is shorter -- the Cowboys held their “Thursday practice,” which focused on third-down work on Tuesday -- but Prescott is cramming in the same film study as over a normal week.
“We need to focus on ourselves,” Garrett said. “You prepare for the team that you’re playing. You understand the fronts they play, the coverages they play, the pressures they use, what we’re trying to do against all of those things, and you just go play. We’ll let the other people outside of our building focus on [the difficulties of seeing a team for a second time]. The most important thing we have to do is just prepare, and that’s certainly one of the best things Dak has done. Just focus on the opportunity he has, the preparation, and then just go play on Thursday afternoon.”
Playing Thursday; not watching, as he did all the way up until last year while at Mississippi State.
It has forced him to change one Thanksgiving tradition.
“I’ve got to eat after, not before,” he said. “That’s the only difference.”