Thirtysomething: Patient Dallas Cowboys Rewarded By Dak Prescott MVP Evolution
COWBOYS WHITT'S END 12.15.23:
Whether you’re at the end of your coffee, your day, your week or even your rope, welcome to Whitt’s End …
*Better late than never. In fact, almost always late.
In a microwave-ready society thin on patience and saturated with what have you done for me in the last 24 hours, we slap irrational two-minute-drill expectations on NFL quarterbacks. Despite contrarian history lessons scattered about the halls of Canton.
The Jets and Zach Wilson, the Patriots and Mac Jones, the 49ers and Trey Lance, the Bears with Justin Fields and – for most of the last three seasons – the Dallas Cowboys and Dak Prescott. Because they didn’t ascend to the top of their profession at warp speed, their fan bases and front offices are already scrapping plans and looking for successors.
The NFL is a young man’s game. Except, that is, at quarterback.
It’s not an exact science, of course, but turning 30 is generally the coming of age. Consider:
Tom Brady won the first of his three MVPs at 30. Roger Staubach earned five of his six Pro Bowls after 30. After turning the big three-oh: Joe Montana’s two MVPs, Steve Young’s two MVPs and seven Pro Bowls, three of Aaron Rodgers’ four MVPs, and three of Peyton Manning’s MVPs. Matthew Stafford won his first Super Bowl at 33. In his 30s, Drew Brees threw for 54,050 yards and led the league in passing five times.
This season, nine quarterbacks 34 or older have started games: Russell Wilson, Kirk Cousins, Ryan Tannehill, Tyrod Taylor, Joe Flacco, Andy Dalton, Brian Hoyer, Stafford and Rodgers.
There are exceptions to the rule, like Troy Aikman (all three Super Bowls and six Pro Bowls before turning 31) being in the perfect situation and Patrick Mahomes (two MVPs at 27) being a complete freak of nature.
But guess who turned 30 during last Summer’s training camp? Prescott. And look who’s trending toward his first MVP? Sure enough.
Dak’s maturation is a testament to owner Jerry Jones, who never gave up on his quarterback and tailored a roster around him. To coach Mike McCarthy, who tweaked an offense allowing Dak to make quicker reads and get the rid of the ball faster. And to Prescott, who absorbed painful injuries and brutal criticism but nonetheless said and did all the right things.
Dak has finally reached that magical quarterback intersection where his mind sees everything, and his body can still do anything. Not surprisingly – and despite our toe-tapping impatience – he arrived here at 30.
*Last week I toldja not to miss the Dallas Mavericks-Los Angeles Lakers game because of Luka Doncic. Maybe it would be another first-half triple-double, or perhaps a garish head accessory. Or … a pass that only a handful of players to ever play the game could see and even less would have the guts – or ability – to try.
Luka dissected and executed in a split second what it took me five slow-motion replays to even comprehend. There's "no-look" passes, but this was a "no-see" assist.
*Luka's Thursday night performance wasn't quite as memorable as the Mavs lost at home to the Timberwolves by 18 points in a game they led, 17-2. Doncic scored 39, notching his ninth consecutive game with 30+. And he tied Dirk Nowitzki with his 78th game of 35+ points. Slight difference: Dirk played in 1,522 games; Thursday was Luka's 353rd. Remarkably, that means he's scored 35 points in 22 percent of his games in the NBA.
*Forget Rangers-Astros, Mavs-Spurs or Longhorns-Aggies, the best rivalry in Texas sports takes center stage again Saturday afternoon at AT&T Stadium. For the fifth time in six years, my alma mater Duncanville and North Shore will play for the 6A Division 1 championship.
Who’da thunk a Texas high school championship could turn into a best-of-seven?
North Shore (10 miles from Houston) won the first three games before Duncanville (15 miles south of Dallas) won the title last season. If not for a miraculous Hail Mary in 2018, the series would be tied 2-2. The Panthers are led by LSU commit Caden Durham, who rushed for 225 yards and five touchdowns in last weekend’s 52-10 rout of 14-0 North Crowley. Duncanville’s lone loss is to DeSoto, its biggest rival just eight miles away.
Saturday could be an epic day for southern Dallas County, with South Oak Cliff (5A Div. 2), Duncanville and DeSoto (6A Div. 2) featured in a title tripleheader.
*The folks defending Mahomes and the Chiefs for berating referees who properly enforce rules are the same folks who speed every day and then get mad at cops for properly enforcing laws and writing them a ticket when they finally get caught.
Rules are rules and they all should be enforced, equally at all times.
Let’s get baseball coaches to stand in those marked boxes by first and third. Let’s stop allowing NBA players to step in the lane early on free throws. And let’s judge pass interference on every play, including Hail Mary’s.
I often arrive at the gym parking lot at 5:04 a.m. and I complete a full-halt at a stop sign with no one else around. Why? Because it’s the law. And I – or anyone else – shouldn’t act like I’m above it.
Says Jerry of Kansas City’s bellyaching over being flagged for lining up offside: “Being under stress is part of the challenge of playing football. It’s not part of the officiating handbook to help get a team lined up properly.” Amen.
*Trying to decide what I want for Christmas and – after listening to holiday music for a couple days – I’ve narrowed it down to either an entire human being or merely a couple of incisors.
*Cowboys can mute all, er, most of their critics Sunday with a signature win in Buffalo. It’s one thing to run up the score against inferior opponents at home, but winning outdoors in December in front of Bills Mafia would be significant.
It would also be their best road win of the season, which isn’t too high of a bar considering as of now it’s the 40-0 shellacking of the 5-8 Giants in Week 1.
The Cowboys have scored 23 points or more in 10 of 13 games. The three below 23 were all on the road.
*Hot.
*Not.
Like many Hall-of-Fame QBs, the Cowboys' Dak Prescott has elevated his game after turning 30.
Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports
*Last weekend’s wallop of the Eagles was important, but not definitive. Remember: Philly has played the NFL’s toughest schedule; Dallas the third-easiest. The matching 10-3 records are anything but identical.
*I’ve positioned my fingers on a keyboard almost every day since 1983. But this week I looked at my keyboard and thought, “Wait, what the what?!” By now it’s second nature, but why are the keys arranged like that in the first place?
The numbers are laid out numerically, but the letters certainly aren’t in alphabetical order. Looks more like the inventor stubbed his toe and lost his balance on the way to placing them, instead scattering them into a chaotic non-order.
Of the many explanations of the “qwerty” layout, these are my two favorite: 1. To make the word “typewriter” easy to type, all the letters are in close proximity on the same, top row. 2. The keys are randomly arranged to make fast typing difficult, as early machines in the 1870s couldn’t keep up and would easily jam.
*I still don’t forgive the Mavs and Mark Cuban for that shameless tanking at the end of last season. It was so obvious and disgraceful that they were fined $750,000, but is the reward turning out to be worth the ridicule?
After averaging just five points and five rebounds at Duke last year, Mavs’ first-round draft pick Dereck Lively II is leading the NBA in field-goal percentage. But it’s not just his finishing at the rim. He has recently posted a game of 16 points, 16 rebounds and another with 20 points, 16 rebounds and seven blocks.
A 19-year-old rookie, he’s already the best center of the Luka Era.
*Most 20-point wins in an NFL season: Patriots 10 (2007), Rams 9 (1999), Packers 8 (1996), Cowboys 8 (2023). The previous three teams made it to the Super Bowl.
*Dallas 31-year-old mother Kate Cox was forced to leave Texas this week to get a life-saving abortion after attorney general Ken Paxton and the state’s Supreme Court denied her the ability to have the procedure near her home. Cox was 20 weeks pregnant, and multiple doctors determined that her fetus had a rare and deadly genetic condition. If carried to full term, the baby would die at birth and threaten Cox’s future fertility and possibly her life.
I’ll never understand why mostly male Texas lawmakers passionately enact laws to prevent abortion while allowing adultery to slide. Paxton recently admitted to having an extramarital affair. (Ahhh, I think I do understand after all.)
Adultery is No. 6 of the Ten Commandments; “abortion” isn’t mentioned in the Bible.
*The Lakers plan on raising a banner for their In-Season Tournament championship, which is ridiculously hollow. But you know what else is cheap? Texas high-school football’s “broken” state championships.
I realize it’s tied to enrollment, but it’s silly to crown – for example – two Class 6A champions. In fact, the process doubles the amount of “champions” and smacks of our “participation plaque” era of youth sports. If DeSoto and Duncanville win Saturday, how great would it be to have them play one game to decide the best team in Texas.
The state’s last undisputed solo champ was Odessa Permian in 1989. The current system is akin to the Cowboys winning the NFC and the Chiefs the AFC, but not playing a Super Bowl.
*Scientists recently discovered a fossil from an underwater dinosaur they judge to be 72 million years old. The same degreed community that deals with tangible facts and knowable research through cross-validated geochronological methods including radiometric dating estimates Earth to be 4.5 billion years old.
Meanwhile, non-scientists all around DFW continue to have blind faith that our world was created only six thousand years ago. A smidge of discrepancy, I’d say.
*Cam Newton had a higher single-season peak than Dak, but the Cowboys’ quarterback has had a better career. In winning MVP in 2015, Cam led the Panthers to 15-1 and the Super Bowl. But Dak holds career edges in record (71-39 to 75-68-1), completion percentage (67-60), passing yards per game (258-218), touchdowns (194-193), interceptions (71-123) and passer rating (99-85).
To be fair, Newton did rush for 5,628 yards and 75 touchdowns to Dak's 1,827 and 28. But to label Dak a “game manager” is preposterous.
*Ice Bucket Challenge 2.0? At Thursday’s practice at The Star, Cowboys’ tight end Jake Ferguson soaked his hands in a bucket of ice water, before taking them out, catching a pass, and running through pads adorned with printed photos of the Bills’ defenders.
Seems a bit much, but hard to argue with 10-3.
Forecast for Sunday in Western New York: Mid-40s with a chance of light rain.
*Next time I start to whine about Luka’s whining, remind me that the Mavs could have Draymond Green on their roster.
*This Weekend? Friday let’s go to a Christmas party. Saturday let’s watch some Texas high school football championships. Sunday let’s take Big Brothers Big Sisters lil’ bro Ja Christmas shopping before Cowboys-Bills. As always, don’t be a stranger.
