Dak Prescott Settles Back in After Injury
The Bears are unlikely to get the best the Dallas Cowboys have to offer because Ezekiel Elliott is doubtful for Sunday's game with a knee injury.
They'll get something close to it because Tony Pollard is a good back, but even more than that they will be facing Dak Prescott.
"Dak's run that offense for a long time," Bears coach Matt Eberflus said. "He knows what it is, he's been in that system. It's the same system since he got drafted, so there's a lot of variants when you have Dak in there for sure."
One variant is the running ability the Bears wouldn't have faced with Cooper Rush. The Bears could taste a bit of the same medicine they've been giving out to opponents with Justin Fields.
Prescott doesn't run as much as he did before he had a severe ankle injury in 2020 but is capable and had 146 yards rushing last year. He gained 277 or more his first four seasons.
"If you think about across the league, you know, (Patrick) Mahomes, (Josh) Allen, all the guys we talk about, Lamar (Jackson), the top quarterbacks in the league, those guys all have the ability to scramble, look down the field and deliver the ball down the field," Eberflus said. "That always puts an issue with the defense. You got to pay attention to that."
The Bears really haven't had to worry about this since looking terrible at stopping Giants QB Daniel Jones. Mac Jones tried to run and slide a little but was out of the game Monday night very quickly, and Bailey Zappe isn't a runner. Neither Kirk Cousins nor Carson Wentz in the Bears' previous two games were scramblers.
Prescott had some trouble last week in his return from a Week 1 thumb injury, but was still 19 of 25 for 207 yards with a TD. The Cowboys got it going in the second half to put Detroit away and relied on their second-ranked defense. In the second half, Prescott went 9-for-10 for 103 yards.
Without Prescott from Week 2 through Week 5, the Cowboys tried playing it close to the vest with Cooper Rush at quarterback. They haven't scored more than 25 points in a game and are ranked 29th on offense, 22nd in scoring.
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They expect the Cowboys attack to look quite different in Prescott's second start, but will stick with what has worked for their own defense. They are sixth in scoring defense now and 12th overall.
"You know, whether it's Dak or anyone else, we try to look at it as a nameless, faceless opponent and it's about the Chicago Bears defense and playing complementary football," defensive coordinator Alan Williams said.
Dallas will come into the game with a few other injury concerns.
Linebacker Micah Parsons (shoulder) is one of seven Cowboys listed as questionable.
Tackle Terence Steele (neck), tight end Dalton Schultz (knee), wide receiver Noah Brown (foot), safety Malik Hooker (hamstring), defensive end Sam Williams (knee) and linebacker Devin Harper (Achilles) are questionable. Brown and Hooker appear to be the most questionable of the questionables because they could not practice all week. The others were at least able to practice on a limited basis on Friday.
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