That first series was ugly for Dak Prescott, and he admitted it.
“It ain’t gonna [expletive] happen again. That’s on me,” the Cowboys quarterback told teammates on the sideline after tossing an early pick-six Saturday to put his team in a 10-0 hole.
“And that [expletive] stops after that. Period.”
And it did. Prescott overcame that opening gaffe to deliver a game-winning and season-best performance that has now also earned him FedEx Air Player of the Week honors for Week 16.
Prescott finished the day going 27-of-35 passing for 347 yards and three touchdowns, wrapping up the 40-34 win with a 124.3 passer rating.
Take out that unfortunate first series, and his passer rating shoots up to 141.6.
BREAKING: #DallasCowboys QB @dak Prescott has been chosen as the week 16 Air Player of the Week for his 347 yard, 3 TD performance!
Congrats, 4️⃣ 👏👏👏@NFL | @FedEx pic.twitter.com/AGe9hXK5vm
— Dallas Cowboys (@dallascowboys) December 28, 2022
Prescott earned more votes than fellow nominees Joe Burrow and Jared Goff to take home the weekly award for the seventh time in his career. Prescott last received the accolade in Week 12 of 2021, when he threw for 375 yards and a pair of scores in a Thanksgiving Day overtime loss to Las Vegas. He was the winner in Weeks 6 and 10 of last season, too.
Perhaps most impressive of all about the Christmas Eve clinic, though, is his perfect performance against zone coverage. Prescott completed all 24 balls thrown into Philadelphia’s zone scheme for 300 of his yards, making him the only player since 2018 to earn a maximum Next Gen Stats passing score of 99.
Asked about that on Wednesday, Prescott did what he does most game days. He spread the love around.
“Just numbers, honestly,” he told reporters. “Just goes to my preparation, seeing everything, seeing it pre-snap, seeing it post-snap, delivering balls, guys obviously in zones, just being the right spot, right timing. I think it’s a credit to that: where we can be when we’re all locked in and on the same page.”
And now the page with all of Prescott’s passing awards just got a little bit longer.
