Dak Prescott's Late-Game Heroics vs. Texans Salvage Cowboys Win
The Dallas Cowboys' 27-23 victory over the Houston Texans inside AT&T Stadium on Sunday seemed a given entering the day - but hardly felt it with as little as three minutes remaining.
With the Texans (1-11-1), who entered the day as 17-point underdogs, possessing the ball with a 23-20 lead inside the Cowboys' 5-yard line, all hope looked lost. Until Dallas' defense stood tall and forced a turnover on downs, holding the deficit at three.
But even with the stop, the challenge ahead for quarterback Dak Prescott and the Cowboys' offense seemed insurmountable: 98 yards between the ball and the endzone, 3:20 to play ... and just three points to their name in the second half.
There's also the element that Dallas had been in this same position just two minutes earlier, when Prescott was intercepted for the second time of the game.
But as all great quarterbacks must do, Prescott elevated his game when he absolutely had to. The Cowboys couldn't afford to lose to the Texans if they wanted any chance at winning the NFC East and clinching a postseason bye - and Prescott simply wasn't going to let the opportunity slip away.
Entering the drive just 18 of 32 for 205 yards, Prescott flipped a switch. He completed his first six passes, with his lone incompletion coming in the end zone to receiver Michael Gallup, who had the ball jarred away at the last moment after a big hit from Texans safety Jonathan Owens.
The series started with a 21-yard pass to tight end Dalton Schultz, followed by a nine-yard scramble of his own. Then 13 more yards to Schultz, nine on a pair of completions to running back Ezekiel Elliott and receiver CeeDee Lamb, six more on a scramble and back-to-back 18-yard pickups to receiver Noah Brown and Schultz.
It was a surgical drive by Prescott, who picked apart Houston's defense with layered, anticipatory passes, setting up Elliott's go-ahead two-yard touchdown run with 41 seconds to play, effectively sealing the Cowboys' come-from-behind win.
In the end, Prescott's final stat line - 24 of 39 for 284 yards, one touchdown and a pair of interceptions - reflects a productive, albeit rocky afternoon at the office.
But, as the two-time Pro Bowler put it, he "just needed the ball one more time" - and capitalized by leading the 18th game-winning fourth quarter drive of his career, good for 11th-most among all active signal callers and the highest total among those who entered the league in 2013 or later (Prescott's rookie season was 2016).
While far from a flawless outing, Prescott's Herculean effort on the final drive to put the events of the previous 57 minutes in the rearview mirror and lead Dallas to its fourth consecutive victory rescued the team from a severely damaging late-season loss that could've marked the end of its NFC East hopes.
Instead, it's a crisis averted for the Cowboys - while Prescott added another stellar comeback to his ever-growing list of clutch drives.
You can follow Daniel Flick on Twitter @DFlickDraft
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