ARLINGTON, Texas — One more chance. All of Texas was screaming and hoping and praying for one more chance for Dak Prescott.
With so much at stake, an NFC Championship game against the Falcons, Prescott had made a mockery of the notion his first playoff game might have been too big for him, he had gotten himself off the canvas and gone eyeball-to-eyeball with the great Aaron Rodgers and refused to blink, and everyone, starting with Jerry Jones, wanted the kid quarterback who saved the regular season when Tony Romo went down to save the Second Season for the Cowboys.
Doomsday in Dallas instead.
“We were heartbroken,” Ezekiel Elliott said.
Because the great heartbreaker quarterback of the Packers never gave the kid the chance.
Twice Prescott brought his team back to tie the game in the searing cauldron of the fourth quarter, until Rodgers spun left on third-and-17 and somehow hit Jared Cook barely in bounds, a 36-yard gain that positioned Mason Crosby for the 51-yard field goal as time expired that gave the Packers a 34-31 victory and a trip to Atlanta.
“I thought we were gonna win it when we tied it, and then when we went down and tied it again,” Jones said. “I thought they might just run the clock out right there. I thought our physical style of play on offense, if we could get the ball, that we had a chance to frankly impose our style on them and win the game. I thought it went to us if we got in the overtime, especially if we got the ball first.”
Jones said he never gave one iota of thought to Romo riding back in on his white horse once Rodgers stretched his lead to 28-13. Dak to the Future was good enough for the present.
“We just haven’t had as much on the line as we had today,” Jones said. “One guy, I guess, played better than he did out there — Aaron Rodgers at the same position — but he was more than I thought he could have been after we got down like he did, he was more than I thought. As far as looking to the future, his teammates, his coaches, anything that we might look at building around him or those kinds of things — we got a lot of answers out there in that second half tonight.”
All Prescott had done once the fourth quarter was underway was whittle a 28-13 deficit to 28-20 with a third-and-14 completion to Jason Witten for 15 yards followed by a 6-yard TD pass to Witten with 11:39 left.
“It’s fun when everybody’s vibing like that,” Prescott said.
All this, after having to forget about a telegraphed interception on second-and-1 at the Green Bay 19 midway through the third quarter.
“Bad pick … wish I coulda held the ball at that point,” Prescott said. “Nobody flinched.”
Especially him.
Elliott, who didn’t get enough touches early, began wearing down the Packers and when Prescott, third-and-2, hit Dez Bryant with a 7-yard TD pass, it was Packers 28, Cowboys 26 with 4:08 left.
“They did exactly kinda what we thought they’re gonna do,” Prescott said. “Dez went to the side and it’s just him and the guy one-on-one. I kinda put it where only Dez can go get it.”
Here came Prescott running in the two-point conversion.
“It’s a play set up where I’ve got pass options,” Prescott said.
Pandemonium inside Jerry World.
Then Mason Crosby booted a 56-yard field goal.
Prescott got his one last chance at his 25 with 1:33 and one timeout remaining.
“That’s just something we practice every week, just the two-minute drill,” Prescott said.
Complete to Terrance Williams for 24 yards.
Complete to Witten for 11.
Complete to Cole Beasley for 7 yards and out of bounds before Nick Perry batted down a third-and-3 slant for Bryant.
A 52-yard Dan Bailey field goal, 35 seconds remaining.
“We’re not gonna give up?” Prescott said.
Then came Rodgers.
“It’s something Aaron Rodgers does,” Prescott said.
Romo won’t be doing them anymore for the Cowboys. Dak Prescott will be doing them.
“It’s just games that I dreamed as a little kid of playing in,” Prescott said. “Plan on playing many more.”
Jones was so encouraged by Prescott’s comeback that he was moved to say: “This team in my mind’s capable of getting to The Big Game.”
Alas, no Supe for the Cowboys.
“It’s a terrible feeling,” Prescott said.
