PHILADELPHIA — On the sideline of the NFL season opener, Dak Prescott was watching his defense face the Philadelphia Eagles’ offense.
The Dallas Cowboys quarterback was talking to teammates when, suddenly, he spit.
Advertisement
“I thought you spit on me,” running back Malik Davis joked to Prescott, referencing an earlier-game incident that dominated much of Thursday night.
Prescott took the episode as proof of his point.
“I’m like, ‘See, I’m telling you, I spit nonstop,’” Prescott recalled to Yahoo Sports from his locker after the Eagles beat the Cowboys, 24-20. “I spit a million times in the game.”
Prescott isn’t boasting so much as stating a fact. His habit almost swung the game in the Cowboys’ favor.
The most memorable scene of an action-packed, lightning-delayed, Lombardi-visiting opening night arguably came just after kickoff, as the Cowboys’ offense and Eagles’ defense waited on the field during the conclusion of an injury delay.
Advertisement
Prescott was behind his offensive linemen and realized he needed to spit, so he spit over them onto the field in the direction of the line of scrimmage.
Eagles Pro Bowl defensive tackle Jalen Carter saw the spit as Carter, per Prescott, taunted first-round rookie offensive lineman Tyler Booker.
Carter asked Prescott: “You trying to spit on me?”
The quarterback was taken aback.
“I felt so like, ‘Bro, that’s so classless,’” Prescott told Yahoo Sports. “So I stepped through and I said colorful words, like ‘Bro, what the f*** would I want to spit on you for, bro?’ And then when I said that, he just spit on me. I’m like, ‘What the f***?’”
Advertisement
“Spitting is childish.”
NFL officials appeared to agree. Kicking off a season where the NFL wants to crack down on unsportsmanlike conduct, officials ejected Carter from the game for the “non-football act” that they deemed “a disqualifiable foul.”
“Just got to move on,” Carter said. “I made a promise to them boys it won’t happen again.”
The Cowboys went on to pace the Eagles through the better part of three quarters before falling short. An NFC East matchup that had earlier seemed to tilt toward the defending Super Bowl champions ultimately landed in the predicted direction.
There was irony in the Eagles losing their best defender just as the game was kicking off.
Advertisement
Because just one week prior, the Cowboys’ locker room had processed the same fate.
Philadelphia Eagles defensive tackle Jalen Carter (98) is escorted off the field by senior adviser Dom DiSandro after being eject Thursday night. (AP Photo/Terrance Williams)
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Crunch-time drops, defensive growing pains doom Cowboys in first game after Parsons
It’s hard to argue that the Eagles were not the better team Thursday night. Even with Carter’s unusual ejection, they outlasted the Cowboys thanks in large part to a run game Dallas couldn’t stop in the first half.
But when Cowboys team owner and general manager Jerry Jones commented on the loss, saying he was “encouraged,” the surprise was less palpable than post-loss praise might seem out of context.
Because trading Pro Bowl edge rusher Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers just seven days before kickoff had stilted the Cowboys’ external expectations. Was it surprising to see Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts run free on Dallas when the player Dallas recently tasked with spying him was now in Wisconsin?
Advertisement
And yet, in the second half, the Cowboys’ defense settled.
An Eagles team that rushed for 123 yards and three touchdowns before halftime added 35 yards and no end-zone visits afterward. A Dallas defense that allowed Philadelphia to convert all five third-down attempts in the first half permitted just three of eight in the second half. Both before and after a roughly 65-minute lightning delay, Dallas’ run fits and blitzes found their vision.
The visitors lost even after the top consideration in their offensive line protections no longer needed to be considered. But they saw room to grow.
“We had a chance to win that game and weren’t able to do it and it’ll sting,” Brian Schottenheimer said after his first game as head coach. “There’s no moral victories … but again, we had chances out there.”
Advertisement
The Cowboys’ chance faltered as they failed to play complementary football, their offense dropping off just as their defense began to pick up.
The same Dallas team that put up 20 points in the first half suffered a full shutout in the second. The Cowboys squandered a nine-play, 61-yard drive in the third quarter when running back Miles Sanders fumbled at the 10-yard line. Prescott tackled cornerback Quinyon Mitchell to save a big return just before both teams retreated to their locker rooms to shelter from lightning. Game play resumed at 11:30 p.m. ET partway through the third quarter. Then Dallas’ game-killing drive began with 3:09 to play, after the Cowboys’ defense forced a three-and-out to give its offense a chance to win it.
The Prescott-CeeDee Lamb connection that went over 100 yards on the night lost its rhythm then. Prescott threw in traffic while Eagles defenders swarmed, Lamb slipping on the route toward a pass that ended up landing closer to Mitchell. A non-secured interception and 15-yard completion to George Pickens bailed Dallas out, but Prescott’s 39-air-yard throw to Lamb bobbled from Lamb’s hands.
Three plays later, on another 30-yard try, the ball would again slip through Lamb’s hands with under 2 minutes to play.
Advertisement
The Cowboys didn’t get the ball back.
“That’s terrible,” he said after catching four of six passes for 86 yards in the first half and then three of seven for 24 in the second. “I can’t point the finger at anybody else. I take full accountability and everything else that comes with it. As a player, I train for moments like that.
“I need to catch the damn ball.”
The Cowboys’ offense needed to hold its spark for longer Thursday, and its defense needed to catch fire earlier.
“When plays are there against a good football team, you have to make plays, and that’s coaching and playing and all that together,” Schottenheimer said. “But again, we know we’re good enough to beat the Eagles. We know we’re good enough to beat anybody, but we have to do it. Those are just words, and we came up short tonight.”
Dak Prescott and Dallas’ offense got shutout in the second half against Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
‘We didn’t think we were going undefeated’
After opening against the defending Super Bowl champions, the Cowboys move toward a lighter portion of their schedule. Four of their next five opponents finished 2024 with a losing record.
Advertisement
The exception: the Packers, who knocked the Cowboys out of the playoffs two seasons ago and now have Dallas’ 2021 first-round draft pick in Parsons.
The Cowboys hope the defensive rhythm they found in the second half will carry toward wins in the coming weeks, the banner reveal and Lombardi display that Philadelphia held Thursday before kickoff no longer a weekly staple on Dallas’ schedule.
Schottenheimer’s first game calling plays has passed, as has the club’s first game without Parsons. Prescott’s first game back from an avulsion fracture to his hamstring is in the books, and rookie first-round right guard Tyler Booker’s first NFL game is complete.
Players expressed: Can we move on now?
Advertisement
Call the Cowboys crazy, but they left Lincoln Financial Field confident about what they’re building. The visions from new coaches and new personnel aren’t settled — but they did show signs of potential, players and front-office members believed.
Safety Malik Hooker took the stool beside Prescott’s locker after the game to tell his quarterback: It was us in the first half.
Prescott’s response: Hell, that was us in the second half.
“So that’s a game that both units can say, ‘Hey, we let the other unit down’ and a lot to grow off of and feel good about it,” Prescott said. “Hell, I was walking through and telling guys: Be process-oriented. We didn’t think we were going undefeated, did we? Let’s be honest: Did we? Would’ve been f***ing nice. But … now let’s build. Let’s not f***ing sit on our hands and be upset.
Advertisement
“Let’s build.”
They’ll aim to build a run game that doesn’t fumble and leave Prescott tackling an opponent to save a score. Build a defense that can contain a mobile quarterback, knowing Hurts won’t be the last to crop up on the team’s schedule. And build a team that makes plays late into the fourth quarter when the game is on the line — because history says this won’t be the last time the Cowboys have that opportunity this season.
History also says this won’t be the last time Prescott spits during a game.
But perhaps it will be the last time a player spits on him in return.
“I actually felt bad,” Prescott said. “I felt bad he got kicked out of the game. But then again, dude, you can’t do that.
Advertisement
“Just can’t do that.”
Read the full article here
