LANDOVER, Md. — Yes, Dak Prescott heard Washington Redskins cornerback Josh Norman was not impressed with his perfect performance in the Dallas Cowboys‘ season-opening win against the New York Giants.
But it’s not like that drove Prescott to play well Sunday.
“I’m not going to allow him to be a motivation to me,” Prescott said after the Cowboys beat the Redskins 31-21 Sunday at FedEx Field. “I’ve got enough things that motivate me, that get me going. What somebody says, good or bad about me, definitely isn’t the case, especially when he’s not on this team.”
Prescott did not have a perfect passer rating like he did when he threw for 405 yards and had four touchdown passes against the Giants, but he was nearly flawless on Sunday, completing 26 of 30 passes, including a personal-best 18 in a row, for 269 yards and three touchdown passes.
He did have his first career interception against Washington in seven games in the first quarter when Montae Nicholson came down with a batted ball, but he followed that up by missing on only three passes the rest of the game.
Leading into the game, Norman was nonplussed about Prescott’s work against New York.
“Yeah, I mean, I don’t think he was getting much rush up the field on him, either. If you stand back there in the pocket all day and go to your first, second and third reads and come back to your first one, OK cool. Anyone could do that,” Norman said. “You could throw the ball in that case. But he’s been playing well as you can see. He’s growing in the system. He’s just taking his keys and picking his targets and throwing the ball on time.”
Norman was a little more impressed Sunday but thought his comments were not relayed properly.
“The narrative of the media is they always take what they wanted and put whatever spin they want on it to get more clout than what it is,” Norman said. “When you look at the whole situation it always is taken out of context, ‘Anyone can sit back there and do what you want with no pass rush. When you get people in your face it’s a different story,’ that’s any quarterback. I’m not talking about one person. He’s a great player. Dak has always been a great player.”
Through two games, Prescott has seven touchdown passes, tied for the most in the Cowboys opening two games with Don Meredith, who accomplished the feat in 1966. He has completed 51 of 62 passes for 674 yards with seven touchdowns and one interception, which has impressed owner and general manager Jerry Jones.
“I sure haven’t seen him [play better] with the Dallas Cowboys,” Jones said. “Now they’ve got a statue for him over at Mississippi State, so he might’ve had back-to-back games over there that we haven’t seen. He earned some accolades while he was in college, and he played pretty good.”