Cowboys Looking Up
FRISCO, Texas — Heading into Sunday’s game with the San Francisco 49ers (1-2), the Dallas Cowboys (2-1) are seemingly back where they finished off last season’s dreadful 4-12 campaign.
They began the season without quarterback Tony Romo, who is out until after the bye week because of a broken bone in his back, and now they could without receiver Dez Bryant for up to three games with a hairline fracture in his right knee.
The absence of those two for the bulk of last year was the reason for the complete about face from the 12-4 season of 2014.
But this is not last year when the Cowboys had no hope.
There are no sunken heads in the Cowboys locker room. They are looking forward, not backward and they believe they can win without the leaders.
“Last year people were like crying almost,” Butler
said. “Nobody is batting an eye this year.”
Nobody is batting an eye because of the emergence of rookie sensation Dak Prescott at quarterback in place of the injured Romo.
Prescott has already won more games than the three quarterbacks who replaced Romo did last year combined.
“We got to move forward,” tight end Jason Witten said. “We got guys in the position that can play. We got to be able to keep moving forward. We can’t flinch.”
The Cowboys are able to move forward because Prescott is playing well beyond his years. He has no interceptions in his first three games combined, a span of 99 passes.
Prescott said if Bryant is not available then he will lean on other weapons in the Cowboys offense.
“I don’t really pay attention to who I’m throwing to,” Prescott said. “I just go out there and go through my reads. Whoever is open gets the ball. I hope Dez
gets well or is well really, really soon. But it doesn’t really affect this offense.”
It also helps that the Cowboys have a work horse back in rookie Ezekiel who seemingly coming into his own.
Elliott, who has 274 yards rushing through three games, just got out of the starting blocks and is off and running following that 140-yard performance against the Bears last Sunday.
It was his best game of the season and the Cowboys expect him to get better and better after a relatively slow start in the first two games. He acknowledges that the time he missed in camp and the preseason with hamstring issues set him back.
But now that his playing and getting more comfortable with the block schemes and the Cowboys offensive line, he should get better and better in being patient to the hole and hitting his landmarks.
“It’s hard to recreate true run game looks in practice,” Garrett said. “So hopefully over the course of the early part of the season and as the season goes on, you get better. You get better doing it because you’ve done it a lot in a game type situation.
“I think that’s what’s happening with Zeke. He’s run these runs a little bit, run them against different fronts, he’s felt the different looks and he’s getting more and more comfortable. I think we’ve been a real growth and development in Zeke just over the course of three games.”
