Dak Prescott wants to play for .500 finish in Cowboys' third game without playoff hopes

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Dak Prescott seemed a bit less sure about playing in a meaningless season finale than he did about a Christmas Day game that also had no connection to the playoffs.

Until the question of the final record for the Dallas Cowboys came up. The star quarterback was much more certain then.

Dallas (7-8-1) kept alive its chance to avoid a losing season with a 30-23 Christmas victory at Washington. The Cowboys will be back on the road to finish the season against the New York Giants on Jan. 3 or 4.

“Big difference,” Prescott said when asked about 8-8-1 vs. 7-9-1. “A lot of pride. To the point, I want to play. Any season of me being out there, I've never had, in all my life career, a season under .500. So that tie is going to come into play really well.”

Prescott and his teammates probably don't know it's been 23 years since the Cowboys had consecutive losing seasons. Dallas had three in a row from 2000-02 in the only three seasons of Dave Campo's head coaching career.

A year ago, Prescott missed the final nine games with a torn hamstring as the Cowboys finished 7-10 in coach Mike McCarthy's last season. Brian Schottenheimer, a first-year head coach after a quarter-century as an NFL assistant, certainly has the incentive to beat the Giants.

The tricky part is that Prescott endured a season-high six sacks against the Commanders. Each time the franchise QB is dragged down under these circumstances, collective breaths are held in team owner Jerry Jones' suite and beyond.

“Of course I don’t want to get him hit six times,” Schottenheimer said. “We also ran 80-something plays. I thought he did a great job with his legs, but I don’t want Dak to get hit like that. But I think we know how to do it at a higher level than we did tonight.”

Prescott cut a reporter short early in the week on the question of playing against the Commanders, in part because it was Christmas. He wasn't nearly as emphatic after the game.

“I love this game. I love any opportunity that I get to play it,” Prescott said. “I understand the reasons why maybe not, and if that’s the approach with that, I’ll handle that then.”

Malik Davis' first career 100-yard game led to the first 200-yard rushing game of the season for the Cowboys. Dallas finished with 211 yards despite lead RB Javonte Williams finally relenting in the second half after trying to play through a stinger.

Davis finished with 103 yards on 20 carries — twice his previous career high — while Williams had 54 yards rushing and his 11th TD. Davis had 308 career yards in 24 games before facing the Commanders, and 43 of those came on a touchdown on Thanksgiving against Kansas City.

Second-half touchdowns have disappeared in Schottenheimer's offense. The Cowboys haven't reached the end zone after halftime since a 44-30 loss to Detroit on Dec. 4. They've been inside the 20 only three times in those three halves.

KaVontae Turpin isn't having much of an encore to his 2024 All-Pro season as a kick returner. But an 86-yard touchdown catch that was the NFL's longest on Christmas offered a reminder of the value of the diminutive receiver's speed.

LB Logan Wilson, a midseason trade acquisition, was active but didn't play. Kenneth Murray appears to be the clear choice over him, but he had no solo tackles and was pinned inside on rookie RB Jacory “Bill” Croskey-Merritt's 72-yard scoring run.

TE Jake Ferguson was out of the game for good with a calf injury not long after a nifty touchdown catch when he tipped the pass to himself. ... The Cowboys have had a rash of concussions, and the latest is rookie CB Shavon Revel.

87 — Plays for the Cowboys against Washington, their most in a game since 2018. Among the other six games with more than 87 plays, none was more recent than 1985.

The Cowboys and Giants both finished 6-10 in 2020 after New York's 23-19 victory in the finale. Believe it or not, both teams still had a chance to catch Washington going into the game. Washington won the NFC East at 7-9 with a victory at Philadelphia that night. Prescott missed the final 11 games after the gruesome lower leg injury sustained against the Giants.

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