NFL1000: Cowboys Need to Ride with Dak Prescott over Tony Romo

Whether they like it or not, the Dallas Cowboys have a tough decision to make in the near future.

Thanks to rookie Dak Prescott, the franchise is flush enough at the quarterback position to survive while veteran Tony Romo is sidelined with an injury. Romo broke a bone in his back during a preseason game against the Seattle Seahawks in late August and only recently returned to limited practice. Sooner than later, though, one would expect Romo will be ready to roll.

In the past, that's been great news for the Cowboys and their fans. Romo is the best Cowboys quarterback since Troy Aikman, and he's accomplished enough to assume he'd be the starter when ready. That certainly was the case in 2015, when injuries prevented Romo from playing in all but four games, and the backups—Brandon Weeden, Matt Cassel and Kellen Moore— were decidedly sub-optimal.

Few thought Prescott, selected in the fourth round of the 2016 draft out of Mississippi State, would be the answer to Romo's increasingly injury-marred status. If the Cowboys saw it, they would have taken him sooner, no?

But Prescott has been as impressive as any rookie signal-caller in recent years, helping his team to a 6-1 start and establishing Dallas as perhaps the NFC's best team. The Mississippi State product currently ranks 12th overall in Pro Football Focus' quarterback rankings and in the top 10 in Football Outsiders' opponent-adjusted metrics.

Moreover, against the Eagles' tough defense Sunday night, Prescott proved he could overcome protracted bad patches of play to make a difference when necessary. The Cowboys, who fell into a 20-10 hole with 6:20 left in the third quarter, roared back to win in overtime, 29-23, courtesy of Prescott's five-yard game-winning touchdown pass to Jason Witten with 7:48 left.

Prescott was ordinary for most of the game, completing 19 of 39 passes for 289 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception—but that didn't seem to matter in the end.

"He didn't blink," Dez Bryant said after the game to Rob Phillips, Senior Writer for the Dallas Cowboys official website. "It's as simple as that. I've been saying it since day one. The man is special."

"I don't care how bad I play. I'm not going to give up," Prescott added. "I've got great, unbelievable teammates around me giving me confidence, no matter what I've done."

It sounds like a changing of the guard. And if that's the case, what do the Cowboys have in Prescott for the long term? Here are five plays from the Eagles game that put Prescott's overall skill set in perspective.

When Prescott is on and reading his targets, he's as good a deep thrower as you'll find. On the year, he has seven completions on 17 throws over 20 yards in the air for 211 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions, according to PFF. Prescott's 7.7 percent deep-throw rate is one of the NFL's lowest, so it's clear the Cowboys are being conservative, but this 53-yard pass to Dez Bryant in the first quarter is picture-perfect.

Pre-snap, Prescott motions running back Ezekiel Elliott to the left slot, forcing the Eagles to bring a defender down. Cornerback Leodis McKelvin is on Dez Bryant one-on-one in Philly's Cover-3, and McKelvin takes Bryant pretty well out of bail coverage. It's just that the throw is better than the coverage.

Romo's response from the sideline says it all.

This is a 15-yard Elliott run, and focus on Eagles linebacker Stephen Tulloch (No. 50). He's lined up between left tackle Tyron Smith and left guard Ronald Leary. At the snap, Prescott hands the ball to Elliott, who charges up the middle.

After the handoff, Prescott moves a bit to his left, and you can see Tulloch hesitating just a bit before he breaks to Elliott. When you have a running back this quick, "just a bit" is all it takes. Tulloch can't recover in time, and Zeke is on his way.

That run took the ball down to the Philly 7-yard line, where Prescott walked in for a rushing touchdown on the next play. Again, watch Tulloch here. This time, he's understandably fixated on not focusing on the wrong potential runner, so he crashes down hard on Elliott, who takes the play fake to the right side. This leaves a huge gap for Prescott.

I'm amazed at teams who try to run read-option concepts when they don't have mobile quarterbacks defenses have to take seriously as runners. The Eagles did that last year with Sam Bradford, and you'd see defenses charging to the back and leaving Bradford alone. You won't see that with the Cowboys with Prescott under center because he's an equivalent threat to run.

Throughout this game, Prescott had a few struggling points. He would miss open targets in tighter windows, seemingly not having the confidence to pull the trigger. Consequently, he would also throw into coverage situations that would have led to more than one interception had his receivers not bailed him out. This throw to Terrance Williams in the late third quarter is one such example.

Williams is the outside man on the right side in a 3x1 set, and he cuts inside to the end zone with McKelvin covering him. Jason Witten runs a drag route to the left, and Cole Beasley runs a curl to the goalpost, though he missteps on the way. Prescott rolls right to avoid pressure the moment defensive end Brandon Graham beats right tackle Doug Free back with a spin move.

Free still has Graham in check, so this seemed an unnecessary move. It also cut Prescott's options down to Williams. He wasn't going to throw across his body to Beasley or Elliott, who ran a quick route up the middle. He probably couldn't even see Witten.

Prescott's problems multiplied when Williams fell down at the back of the end zone. Here, his best move may have been to just throw the ball away—yes, it was 3rd-and-5, but an interception wasn't going to help, and it looked as if McKelvin had a bead on the ball. Williams had to get up and interfere with McKelvin to save the pick. Philadelphia declined the offensive pass interference call, and Dallas kicked a field goal to trim the Eagles' lead to 20-13.

Prescott's game-winning throw to Witten in overtime came from a similar concept outside of structure. This time, he bails early to the left with a 3x1 set in front of him, with Witten again to the inside nearest the formation on the right side, and Elliott running a drag route to the left. But because Prescott is running to his left, he can see Witten, who's wide open in the end zone. That level of improvisation will give as much as it takes away, as long as a team doesn't bank too much on it.

In a way, that touchdown pass tilted the field toward keeping Prescott as the starter even when Romo is ready to go. It says a lot about a low-drafted rookie when he's able to overcome a fairly pedestrian performance to help his team come back against one of the NFL's best defenses, and it's games like this that can galvanize a team around a quarterback. Yes, Romo is the franchise, and he's paid as such. And maybe Prescott wouldn't regress if he was benched until Romo's next seemingly inevitable injury.

But when you have a locker room behind one guy, and you're winning, and it's working...well, I'm on the side of the Cowboys keeping Prescott in there and working with him to minimize his rookie mistakes.