Despite bitter loss to Eagles, Dak Prescott-led Dallas Cowboys remain a team on rise

There are no moral victories in the NFL and certainly none when a loss to your division rival puts you 2 1/2 games back in the NFC East standings.

The Dallas Cowboys’ 28-23 loss to Philadelphia Eagles Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field remains a bitter one for them to digest, especially since they came inches short of putting themselves in position to win the game on a several occasions.

But this not a Cowboys team that will go home hanging their heads and demoralized as they did following the 42-10 no-show loss to the San Francisco 49ers last month.

The Cowboys (5-3) had won two straight games since that loss.

And while they came up short against the Eagles (8-1), who have the best record in the NFL, this is a Cowboys team with its arrow still going up because quarterback Dak Prescott is playing as well as he has at any point on his career.

Just don’t ask him if Sunday’s game was a litmus test for the Cowboys who failed miserably in the measuring-stick game against the 49ers.

“I usually like to think highly of myself, but I don’t know what kind of test that is. Litmus?” Prescott asked.

He then jokingly blamed it on growing up in the school system in Louisiana and going to college at Mississippi.

“Different words you know,” Prescott said. “I mean obviously if that is the case, we didn’t pass it. It sucks. You want to come into this game, everybody in that locker room believed, and we still do. Don’t get me wrong. We were inches away, as we talked about on three different plays from this being a different game or being a different outcome near the end of the game with the way it was being played.

“We are getting better. I can promise you that, and we are going to continue to get better. We are getting better and we’re okay.”

Again, the Cowboys are going to be okay and build toward a rematch against the Eagles at AT&T Stadium on December 10 if Prescott continues his excellent play.

Prescott wasn’t perfect against the Eagles. If he had kept his feet in bounds on a two-point conversion in the fourth quarter, the Cowboys would have been a field goal away from tying the game on their final two drives.

And with kicker Brandon Aubrey on a streak of 19 straight field goals to start his career, that would have been money in the bank.

But there is no kicking of Prescott or the Cowboys for their effort against the Eagles.

Prescott passed for 374 yards and three touchdowns in the game.

He passed for 173 yards in the fourth quarter against an Eagles defense, which, according to ESPN Analytics/NFL Next Gen Stats, posted 13 pass rush wins in the fourth quarter on Sunday, tying for the most by any team in a game in the last 3 years.

Prescott was sacked five times in the game, the last coming with 27 seconds left, turning a first down at the Philadelphia 11 into second and 21 at the 22, making the comeback virtually impossible.

But Prescott left it all on field and was the reason the Cowboys had a chance to win in final moments..

Not only was Prescott’s 374 passing yards a season-high but they were his most in a non-overtime game since the 2021 season opener at Tampa Bay (403 yards).

Prescott has seven touchdown passes in the last two games — he passed for 304 yards and four touchdowns in a 43-20 victory against the Los Angeles Rams last week — the most touchdowns in a two-game span since he threw for eight scores in the last two games of the 2021 season (vs. Arizona, 1/2/22 and at Philadelphia, 1/8/22).

And with a 115.2 passer rating, Prescott has recorded a 100.0 passer rating-or-better in three consecutive games. The last time he had a 100.0 passer rating in three straight games was the final three contests in 2021.

“Dak is a freaking warrior,” linebacker Micah Parsons said. “That’s Dak [expletive] Prescott, bro. He’s a dog. He’s a warrior. I have an unbelievable amount of confidence in him. I felt he had a great game. People need to put more respect on him. He outplayed everyone today.”

Said coach Mike McCarthy: “I thought [Cowboys QB] Dak Prescott played extremely well. You know, in these circumstances it’s a tough place to play. I think, obviously, their defense and their defensive line, I think it’s clear, is the strength of their defense. And [Prescott] made plays with his feet, hung in there in the pocket, took hits, I thought he played his butt off.”

It’s the plays with feet to go along with his arm that has made the biggest difference for Prescott and the Cowboys offense since the 49ers game.

Prescott ran for first downs. He avoided sacks and scrambled to find open receivers for first downs and touchdowns.

Prescott is completing 73% of his passes when he throws on the run this year, best in the NFL.

It’s a cheat code that Prescott has unlocked and unleashed in his game. He credits the new offense under McCarthy and the built on scramble drill that requires him move after 2.3 seconds.

“It’s freedom honestly,’ Preccott said. “It’s freedom. It goes into the offenses. it goes into Mike understanding my game It just really us being on the same page to be honest with you. It’s more of a system in the sense of trusting my feet. It allows you to get into communication that we have throughout the week with me understanding the protection, the protection is aligned with my feet. So when that’s not right, I do know where and when to scramble and which gap. . .When you when you can scramble, you can make plays, that’s about the second part of the play development so why am I using.”

Prescott’s body feels it after games more than in the past because he is running more. But he is not changing this new style.

“I want to play this way,” Prescott said. “I want to continue to play this way.”

If Prescott continues to the play this way, the Cowboys will be right where they want to be at the end of the season.

They lost on Sunday but it was litmus test they are going in right direction.

“I’ll say this, I felt last week we kind of turned the corner,” McCarthy said. “I am a huge believer of you get what you put into it, whether it’s life or in the game of football. I thought our team really hit their stride going into last week’s game. Played well, did it again this week, came in here expecting to play well and win.

“So as long as we stay after that, there’s an ebb and flow in every game, but there’s a vibe that gets created. You get into a routine and you start building that momentum and so forth, and that’s why a win tonight would have been excellent because you get a nice chunk of confidence coming out of these wins. But we know who we are.”

And the Cowboys will be ready for rematch against the Eagles.