Dak Prescott's struggles were among the most glaring aspects of a blowout loss to the 49ers on Sunday night, but Jerry Jones is reiterating his faith in the Cowboys' star quarterback.
"Dak Prescott is a quarterback that can get us to the Super Bowl," Jones said on Tuesday during his weekly call to 105.3 The Fan. "That's the way that's gonna be. We have other quarterbacks on that roster, and players that certainly (are capable) if something should happen to Dak. But I want to be real clear: Dak is very capable of taking this team where we want it to go."
Prescott went 14-of-24 passing for 153 yards with one touchdown and a season-high three interceptions against the Niners. The QB's inability to consistently find receivers downfield made for a predictable offense that produced a season-low 197 yards. The poor offensive play also grossly affected Dallas' usually stout defense, which gave up season highs in points (42) and yards (421) and allowed more points than it did in the first four games combined (41).
It was the largest margin of defeat for Dallas since Week 10, 2013 at New Orleans (lost 49-17), according to NFL Research, and Prescott called it "the most humbling game" he's ever been a part of in the immediate aftermath.
Considering Sunday night's showdown with San Francisco was considered to be a measuring-stick game against one of the NFC's perennial contenders, the lopsided defeat was especially disappointing. Couple in Dallas' recent woes against its bitter rival -- the 49ers have taken the Cowboys out of the playoffs in each of the past two seasons -- and you have a frustrating trend that would make any fan base discouraged.
Jones isn't fretting about the state of his franchise after one Week 5 result.
"I'm not panicked, but the gap is -- when something tells you what it is, don't try to dream that it's something else," Jones said. "What I'm trying to say is we can do better than what we did out there Sunday night. That's a given, we can do better, we have the potential to do better. We have the preparation to do better, we didn't do it at all, to be trite about it, Sunday night.
"Do we have the quarterback? Let me be very affirmative, I completely believe that we have the quarterback that can take us where we want to go. Do we have the coaching staff on both sides of the ball, we certainly do. Did Sunday reflect that? No."
Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy, who took over offensive play-calling duties this season, has offered mixed results in the role so far thanks to the unit's ongoing red-zone struggles and the lack of splash plays through five games. Yet, the Cowboys have consistently boasted a capable offense with Prescott at the helm since McCarthy's undertaking in 2020, and the team has had to deal with a bevy of injuries along the offensive line in 2023.
With injuries on the defensive side beginning to pile up as well, the Cowboys' offense portends to be a focal point in the coming weeks and it will once again find itself under the spotlight this Monday night against the Los Angeles Chargers. Should those worries continue, the mounting frustrations in Dallas will continue for a franchise that hasn't produced the desired results for the past 25-plus years.
"The results are very obvious -- we haven't won a Super Bowl," Jones said. "We've had good games over the years and we have had some bad games, do you know any team that hasn't had that happen to them? Now consequently, I will say that we haven't gotten our big years when we should have. We've been real close a few times and haven't gotten our big years. That's not excuses, that's not anything. But if you think for one minute that there's any particular thing that I could put my finger on that basically says we need to do that differently, then it's a combination of things."
