There isn’t a more scrutinized player in the NFL than Dak Prescott.
Not coincidentally, the most scrutinized team in the league is Prescott’s Cowboys.
A week ago, we were celebrating Prescott and the Cowboys for vaulting themselves into the NFC East lead while riding a five-game winning streak.
The dirty little secret that many were ignoring, though, was the stark difference in the performance by the ’Boys at home and on the road. The Cowboys (10-4 and tied with the Eagles for the division lead) look like the league’s most dominant team when they play at home, with a 7-0 record while averaging 40-plus points per game.
On the road, though, they have played as if they’re lost without Google Maps, with a 3-4 record and an offense and quarterback that look nothing like they do at home.
The Cowboys have outscored their opponents at home by a margin of 279-108, but have been outscored 156-152 on the road. Prescott, who makes everything go for Dallas, is a different quarterback at home and on the road.
Consider these numbers:
Of significant note here, as the Cowboys pursue not only the NFC East title and at least one home playoff game but advancing in the postseason past the divisional round for the first time since 1995, they play two of their final three games on the road, beginning with Sunday’s game at 10-4 Miami.
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The way things have gone this season, if the Cowboys don’t secure at least one home playoff game, their stay in the postseason will be brief.
“I wish I could put my finger on the difference between the home team and away team that we are approaching this thing,” Prescott told reporters after completing 21 of 34 for a season-low 134 yards in last week’s 31-10 loss at Buffalo. “We have to try and figure out what those answers are.’’
Prescott‘s squad has to figure out how to beat elite teams, or they’re going to be bounced from the playoffs prematurely yet again. They were stunned and humbled by a 42-10 loss at San Francisco in Week 5 and thought they had righted that wrong. Even in a 28-23 loss in Philadelphia three games later, the Cowboys played well and took something positive out of that.
The blowout loss to the Bills, though, has allowed some of that previous doubt to creep into their psyche, because they were overpowered on both sides of the line of scrimmage, and Prescott, who was prominent in the league MVP conversation, looked pedestrian.
As paltry as Prescott’s numbers were, the Cowboys defense yielded 266 rushing to the Bills, the most they’ve allowed since 2020.
Cowboys pass rusher Micah Parsons called the team’s road issues “unacceptable.”
“There’s no excuse for it,” Parsons said. “It’s mind-boggling. I don’t understand it. Why we are not playing well and we’re not coming together on the road? It’s something that we need to look at and get better.”
Dallas coach Mike McCarthy has no answers for the discrepancy.
“Regardless of what’s in front of us,’’ McCarthy said, “there’s too big of a gap between home and away.”
If it doesn’t change, regardless of how many games McCarthy and Prescott have won — McCarthy is 34-14 in the past three seasons and Prescott is 71-40 in his Dallas career — it will make no difference in the end. Both will be heavily criticized, and there will be pressure on Cowboys flamboyant 81-year-old owner Jerry Jones to make changes.
Prescott has led the Cowboys to the playoffs in four of his seven seasons but is just 2-4 in the postseason. That’s not good enough for “America’s Team.’’
Not in Jerry’s world.