FRISCO, Texas — Since coming back from a calf injury, something has been off with Dak Prescott, but there is a divide on whether the Dallas Cowboys quarterback is in a slump.
“I don’t want to say that, slump, but that’s probably fair,” owner and general manager Jerry Jones said Tuesday on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas. “But it’s such a multifaceted evaluation that I would say our offense is definitely away from where we were playing five and six games ago from the standpoint of production.”
On Monday, coach Mike McCarthy was asked if quarterbacks can get in slumps.
“I wouldn’t say a quarterback is having a slump. It’s different in football. A lot of things go into it,” McCarthy said. “I don’t think Dak is in a slump. I think everything has not gone the way we would like to go are things we can improve on. That’s the focus this week. We got a chance to go through the videos as a staff and the players went through this [Monday] morning … We’ll just keep working. It goes this way sometimes.”
Prescott missed one game because of a right calf strain that he suffered on a game-winning touchdown pass to CeeDee Lamb in overtime against the New England Patriots on Oct. 17.
In the six games since his return, Prescott has thrown eight touchdown passes and six interceptions while throwing for 1,568 yards on 151-of-239 passing. In his first six games before the injury, he had 16 touchdown passes with just four interceptions while throwing for 1,813 yards on 158-of-216 passing.
Jones and McCarthy, as well as offensive coordinator Kellen Moore, agree Prescott is healthy.
“Yeah, he’s healthy,” McCarthy said Monday. “He’s a little sore. He took a few hits in the game, but yeah, he’s healthy.”
Prescott missed the final 11 games last season with a compound fracture and dislocation of his right ankle, but he was back on the practice field during the organized team activities and minicamp even if not fully cleared. He was full go in training camp before suffering a strained right latissimus that kept him off the field for 10 practices and all of the preseason games.
Jones told The Fan he believes Prescott trusts his body.
“I think he’s playing smart in a lot of cases, relative to how he extends plays, whether he runs the ball or not,” Jones said.
The Cowboys had their bye week following the New England game and he did not practice for about two weeks before returning on Nov. 7 against the Denver Broncos. In the last six games, the Cowboys’ offense has scored 13 touchdowns, compared to 22 touchdowns in Prescott’s first six starts.
“He missed a lot of time in training camp and he missed a lot of time early with that calf injury and some will say, ‘Well, his mechanics are off a little bit. His feet and his motion aren’t quite where they ought to be,'” Jones said on The Fan. “I hear all that and, by the way, that’s been discussed but is there merit to it? I don’t think so. I just think, just as he’s had to his entire career, he will get in, he will figure it out. That’s the key thing here. He has no superior in working on it, studying it, taking it to the practice field, repetition. He’s as good or better than anybody I’ve ever seen. And so he will mentally and physically rep this through.”
Moore put the offensive struggles on the entire group. The running game has hit a major dip with the knee injury suffered by Ezekiel Elliott in October. Backup Tony Pollard did not play vs. Washington because of a foot injury. Left tackle Tyron Smith will not play this week vs. the New York Giants because of an ankle injury, which will be his fourth missed game of the season.
“Slump, I don’t know if I like the description of slumps. I think sometimes you have better games than others,” Moore said. “I think Dak is still doing a great job. We got to play better as a whole group on offense. I’ve got to call it better first and foremost. I feel like we got a great opportunity ahead of ourselves.”