‘The Enforcer’: Dak Prescott Gets ‘Love & Respect’ as Cowboys Fight WFT
LANDOVER, Md. - A year ago, the Dallas Cowboys - clean out of fight - stood around as QB Andy Dalton seemed to almost get decapitated by a Washington cheap shot.
Dak Prescott is different. Sunday’s Week 14 rivalry matchup against at the Washington Football Team was different.
These Cowboys are different.
"I obviously respect and love the fact that my teammates are standing up for me,” Prescott said after this 27-20 win that featured yet another borderline cheap shot, this administered on Prescott, with La’el Collins and Ezekiel Elliott leading Dallas’ retaliatory charge. “It’s how all of us feel about one another.”
It frankly remains an indictment of 2020’s spiritless edition of this club that Dalton didn’t get the same “love and respect.”
Said Collins of that 2020 play: I was at home, in my bed when I saw that play. It just irked me. It made me feel some kind of way. You don’t take cheap shots on guys. We don’t play that type of game. We just line it up and go out there and play ball. We don’t play dirty, we don’t do none of that.
"At the end of the day, we’re not going to take no bullshit.''
Added coach Mike McCarthy: "L.C. did exactly what you're supposed to do there.''
Indeed, no denying the forcefulness Dak’s mates offered - and it so happens that Collins and Zeke are two of the QB’s closest pals.
Collins was ejected in the fourth quarter for throwing a punch at Washington defender James Smith-Williams, who was guilty of the illicit hit.
Said Collins, who Dak has labeled “the enforcer” along the O-line: "It wasn’t really the late hit for me. I felt it was more so, I felt like he was rolling towards Dak’s leg. It was uncalled for. I’m just here to protect my quarterback at all costs, and that’s the bottom line.''
Added Elliott: “We fight for ours.”
The biggest win, of course, was on the scoreboard, Dallas moving to 9-4 and taking command of the NFC East. But “brotherhood” is a theme that Prescott has pushed often. He mentioned that theme to Collins after the melee.
“Told him right there at the moment as they were taking him out of the game,” Dak said. “Told him how I felt about him as a brother and as a teammate and just reiterated that in the locker room.”
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