Dak Prescott’s Tunnel Exchange Over One Word Leaves the Cowboys With a Cringe They Earned

Before Thursday night, one of the questions hanging over the Dallas Cowboys was whether they had suddenly become the favorites in the NFC East. By the time quarterback Dak Prescott walked to the locker room at AT&T Stadium, a man near the tunnel had boiled the evening down to one word: embarrassing.

Dallas had just lost 24-16 at home to a Tampa Bay Buccaneers team that arrived 0-4 and started undrafted rookie quarterback Jalon Daniels, who was making his second career start in place of the injured Baker Mayfield. Prescott heard the comment and looked over, and the two exchanged words in a moment caught by a Spectrum News 1 camera. In CBS Sports’ account of the exchange, the man says, “He heard me,” and Prescott says, “You say that once I look off, huh?”

He did not dodge the subject. “So, if you’re saying it’s embarrassing, say it’s embarrassing,” Prescott told reporters afterward of the man, whom the team’s website describes as a car service driver. Prescott stopped short of adopting the label. “To use the word embarrassing; it’s tough,” he said. He did concede the larger point: “But, we were definitely supposed to win this game.”

That concession is where the cringe comes from for Cowboys fans. Tampa Bay ran 39 times for 241 yards, held the ball for 39:21 and never turned it over, while Dallas gave it away three times. Both of Prescott’s interceptions went off his receivers’ hands, and the defense missed 16 tackles on 72 snaps, according to PFF’s single-game charting for Week 5.

The schedule offered an excuse. Dallas had played three games in 11 days, a stretch that started in Rio de Janeiro and ran through Houston before it ended in Arlington. Prescott turned it down. “I’m not going to blame it on travel. I am not going to blame it on a quick week. It’s the NFL,” he said.

The Cowboys do not play again until Sunday, Oct. 18, at Green Bay (8:20 p.m. ET, NBC), so the word gets 10 days to hang in the air. Head coach Brian Schottenheimer has work to fill them. “Yeah, I’m going to look at everything,” Schottenheimer said after the loss, and a defense allowing 168.4 rushing yards per game, the most in the NFL, is the first place to look.

Jerry Jones remains open to trades, and Dallas has already been linked to five edge rushers ahead of the Nov. 10 deadline. Prescott’s own view of the calendar was brief. “Thankfully, it’s only five games into the season,” he said.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

Get the latest news and rumors, customized to your favorite sports and teams. Emailed daily. Always free!