Cowboys owner Jerry Jones: ‘Probably fair’ to say Dak Prescott is in a slump

Dak Prescott arguably played one of the worst games of his NFL career Sunday, but the Dallas Cowboys managed to edge the Washington Football Team by a score of 27-20 despite the quarterback’s rough outing.

That said, a narrative has emerged in recent weeks that Prescott is not at the top of his game at this time, and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones reluctantly agreed with that perception during a radio interview on Tuesday.

“I don’t want to say that, slump, but that’s probably fair,” Jones said in his appearance on 105.3 The Fan. "But it’s such a multi-faceted evaluation that I would say our offense is definitely away from where we were playing five and six games ago from the standpoint of production.”

The Cowboys are 3-3 since Prescott returned to action following a one-game absence due to a right calf strain. In those games, Prescott has eight touchdown passes and six interceptions while completing 63% of his passes for 1,568 yards for an 82.8 quarterback rating. In the Cowboys’ six games leading up to his injury, Prescott had 16 touchdowns to four interceptions on a 73% completion rate while throwing for 1,813 yards and posting a 115.0 rating.

In Sunday’s win, Prescott went 22-of-39 passing for 211 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. Prescott has had multiple interceptions in two of his last four games.

Given Prescott’s struggles, Jones was asked if the franchise quarterback is fully healthy.

“Yes he is. Yes he is,” Jones said. “He missed a lot of time in training camp, and he missed a lot of time early with that calf injury, and some say his mechanics are off a little bit, his feet and his motion aren’t quite where they ought to be, I hear all that. By the way, that’s discussed. But is there merit to it? I don’t think so. Just as he’s had to his entire career, he’ll figure it out. … He will mentally and physically (get through this).”

Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy agreed that Prescott is not battling an injury.

“Yeah, he’s healthy,” McCarthy said Monday, via the team’s official site. “He’s a little sore. He took a few hits in the game, but yeah, he’s healthy.”

McCarthy went on to dispute the notion that Prescott is in a slump.

“It’s different in football. A lot of things go into it. I don’t think Dak is in a slump,” McCarthy said. “I think everything has not gone the way we would like, these are things that we can improve. That’s the goal for this week.”

Regardless of whether Prescott is indeed slumping, the two-time Pro Bowler certainly isn’t playing up to his standards in recent weeks.

Despite Prescott’s perceived struggles, the Cowboys sit atop the NFC East at 9-4 and three games clear of the 6-7 Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Football Team with four games left to play. Dallas will look to get a late-season run going when the team faces the division-rival New York Giants (4-9) on the road Sunday.