The Dallas Cowboys lose a game on Sunday for the first time since Week 1. Against the Denver Broncos, Dak Prescott and Co. looked unusually without a chance for long stretches. After the game, the playmaker did not mince his words.

Munich – Dak Prescott and Co. had expected something different. Against the Denver Broncos, the Cowboys lost 16:30 and were dominated for long stretches of the game.

“We got our butts kicked in every aspect of the game today,” a congested Prescott stated after the game. The franchise quarterback returned to the team after overcoming a calf injury, but was unable to find his footing for long stretches of the game.

Prescott: “It wasn’t because of the injury “

With 232 passing yards and two touchdowns thrown, Prescott’s comeback reads decent on paper, but appearances are a little deceiving. The two touchdowns didn’t come until “garbage time” when starters were spared on both sides of the field.

“I was running a lot to get out of the pocket, so I didn’t feel the injury. It wasn’t because of that,” the playmaker explained. In fact, the 28-year-old still looked a little rusty after his three-week break.

His coach confirmed this impression: “He had a tedious and hard game. The speed in a game is something you can’t prepare for or train for,” said Mike McCarthy after the game.

Pass offense key in game

The fact that the Cowboys’ offence was virtually unable to get going for long stretches of the game was also down to Prescott’s lack of accuracy. While he usually conjures up the NFL’s best value on the field with a 73.1 percent successful pass rate, he didn’t even get half of all passes to the man against the Broncos.

“Of course I wasn’t as clean in my passes as you’re used to,” the signal-caller also admitted: “I missed a long time last year and then came back successfully, so I’m not going to blame the two weeks for that now,” Prescott continued.

Ultimately, it just doesn’t seem to have been the $160 million man’s afternoon: “I missed some pitches and we just weren’t ourselves. We just couldn’t get it done,” he gave as an explanation.

Cowboys show morale

The Cowboys probably have little to worry about in terms of the performance of their most important player, as the final minutes proved. While other teams would probably have redeemed their starting quarterback at such a high deficit, McCarthy kept his protégé on the field.

Prescott found his rhythm again and prevented a complete embarrassment with the late points: “We needed those minutes from him. I was happy that it clicked in the end, we can certainly learn from that in the coming games,” said McCarthy.

The protagonist was not content with the disappointing performance either: “I didn’t think about leaving the field. I couldn’t have been persuaded either. We needed that energy and rhythm from the closing stages,” Prescott took away for the tasks ahead.

“When you get beat up like that, you have to show character,” concluded the MVP candidate this season. In the coming games, “America’s Teams” should then show that character again from the start when they get down to business in Week 10 against the Atlanta Falcons.