NFL Winners and Losers: Cowboys have not done enough to help out red hot QB Dak Prescott

When the Dallas Cowboys signed Dak Prescott to a contract worth $60 million per season, Jerry Jones had a vision.

“We got the structure of the team in a place that gives us a shot to compete for the championship,” Jones said in September of 2024. “We’re going to be able to get players around him that give us a chance to compete for a Super Bowl.”

Prescott is living up to his end of Jones’ proclamation. Jones and the Cowboys have not.

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The Cowboys look like the 2024 Cincinnati Bengals, with a quarterback giving an MVP-level performance and everyone else letting him down. The Dallas defense, which has been bad all season, couldn’t stop the Panthers on Sunday and they drove down for a game-winning field goal as time expired to win 30-27.

The Cowboys scored 27 points and lost. A few weeks ago they scored 40 points and tied the Green Bay Packers. If you want to blame Prescott for Dallas’ 2-3-1 record, you’re misguided.

Prescott threw for 261 yards and three touchdowns Sunday with a 124.8 passer rating. He couldn’t get a touchdown in the fourth quarter on Sunday when the Cowboys drove deep downfield trailing by three, and couldn’t move the ball at all with a chance to take the lead late. But Prescott, who is still without top receiver CeeDee Lamb, played well enough to win. He needs some help. He’s been a popular topic as a potential MVP, but his teammates aren’t going to help him get any of those votes.

There have only been two NFL MVPs from non-playoff teams. Johnny Unitas won in 1967, when the Colts didn’t make the playoffs despite an 11-1-2 record. O.J. Simpson won in 1973 with his iconic 2,003-yard season. Even winning MVP from a wild-card team is rare. The last time a non-division winner won MVP was Adrian Peterson in 2012, and the last time it happened for a quarterback was Peyton Manning in 2008.

Basically, if the Cowboys don’t make the playoffs, Prescott has about no shot to win MVP, and it’s not a great chance if the Cowboys don’t win the NFC East. And Prescott can only do so much. The Cowboys haven’t put a playoff team around him, much less one that could win a Super Bowl.

It has been easy to take shots at Jones for trading Micah Parsons and then watching his defense fall apart without the star pass rusher. They’re easy shots because they’re spot on. The Cowboys moved further away from being a Super Bowl contender with that trade. Prescott is playing as well as any quarterback in the league this season, especially when considering he’s doing it without Lamb, and it hasn’t even resulted in a winning record after six games.

Maybe the Cowboys can make some improvements at the trade deadline and get some of those players that Jones promised they’d get to compete for a Super Bowl. Maybe there’s a pass rusher available. Maybe someone like Parsons. That would help out Prescott, and some help for him is long overdue.

Here are the winners and losers from Week 6 of the NFL season:

WINNERS

Drake Maye: You know Maye has arrived as one of the NFL’s best quarterbacks when he has 261 yards and three touchdowns, and it seems like he could have done even more.

The Patriots won 25-19 on Sunday at the New Orleans Saints, but they were hanging on at the end. New England had a tough time putting the game away. But the Patriots held on and are 4-2 after a bad loss to the Raiders to start the season.

Maye is one of the breakout stars of the early season. In his second season he looks like he’ll be a future MVP candidate. He threw three touchdowns Sunday and it wasn’t even his best. The Patriots have a bright future with him.

Pittsburgh Steelers defense: The Steelers defense had a rough start to the season. Dominating the Cleveland Browns with rookie Dillon Gabriel at quarterback doesn’t mean they’re back, but it’s a second straight positive performance.

The Steelers’ win over the Browns was rarely in doubt. Cleveland couldn’t consistently move the ball. The Steelers weren’t much better on offense for the first half, but Aaron Rodgers warmed up in the second half with a pair of touchdown passes and Pittsburgh pulled away for the 23-9 win. Cleveland didn’t score a touchdown. Before last week’s bye, the Steelers defense played much better against the Minnesota Vikings, who have their own offensive challenges. But if the Steelers defense can keep improving, it might be enough for them to win a disappointing AFC North.

Indianapolis Colts, barely: Every team has flat spots on the schedule. It’s a long season.

Sunday was one for the Colts. They were facing the Cardinals, who were starting Jacoby Brissett in place of an injured Kyler Murray, and they needed everything just to squeak out a win at home. Jonathan Taylor scored with less than five minutes remaining to give Indianapolis the lead and then the defense got a fourth-down stop deep in their territory to seal the 31-27 win.

The Colts are 5-1. Sunday was their first truly poor performance this season, but it was still a win. They have to show going forward that it was just a letdown spot in a long season.

Jaxon Smith-Njigba: The Seattle Seahawks have a star at receiver.

Smith-Njigba was the best player on the field in the Seahawks’ impressive 20-12 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars, who were 4-1 coming in. Smith-Njigba had 162 yards and a touchdown, continuing his hot start to the season. The biggest play of the game came when the Jaguars put in cornerback Greg Newsome II, who was just acquired in a trade with the Browns this week. On his first play with the team, Smith-Njigba torched him for a 61-yard touchdown.

The Seahawks are 4-2 and in contention for the NFC West. Sam Darnold is playing well. The defense has improved. And a big reason the Seahawks are winning is their emerging superstar wideout.

LOSERS

Miami Dolphins: Even when things look good for the Dolphins, they go bad.

Tua Tagovailoa hit Darren Waller for a go-ahead touchdown with less than a minute to go against the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday. It looked like a big moment for Tagovailoa and another cool chapter to Waller’s comeback story. But the Dolphins can’t stay out of their own way. They allowed a long kickoff return. Then Dolphins defensive end Jaelan Phillips couldn’t drag down Justin Herbert for a sack, Herbert stayed up and found Ladd McConkey, then Dolphins safety Dante Trader Jr. whiffed on McConkey in the open field. McConkey gained 42 yards, which is all the Chargers needed to set up a field goal to win 29-27.

The Dolphins defense again let down, allowing Kimani Vidal — the Chargers’ third option at running back who had 173 rushing yards coming into Sunday — to rush for 124 yards. Miami can’t stop the run. The Dolphins’ defense and special teams couldn’t finish after the offense did its part to take a lead with less than a minute to go. The Dolphins are 1-5 and it doesn’t look like it will get much better.

Lamar Jackson: The Los Angeles Rams didn’t even play that well on Sunday. They didn’t need to.

The Ravens have plenty of injuries, including their two-time MVP quarterback, and it’s worth wondering what Jackson will be coming back from a hamstring injury. The Ravens had another uncompetitive loss on Sunday as the Rams slowly pulled away in the second half to win 17-3. Tyler Huntley gave Baltimore a bit of a boost off the bench, replacing Cooper Rush (who was replacing Jackson), but it wasn’t enough.

The Ravens are 1-5, which is one of the more stunning developments of this NFL season. The Steelers are 4-1 in the AFC North after a fairly easy win over the Browns. The division race isn’t over, but the Ravens are far behind.

Baltimore gets a bye next week and will get healthier. Jackson presumably will return from a hamstring injury and the Ravens can start to make a run, though the defense will need to show some improvement for that to happen. The 1970 Bengals, 2015 Chiefs and 2018 Colts are the only teams to make the playoffs after a 1-5 start. Baltimore has very little margin for error left, and it’s only mid-October. Jackson might need to be a superhero just to get the Ravens into the playoffs at all.

Aaron Glenn: The New York Jets are 0-6 and perhaps the NFL’s most unwatchable team. And the coaching isn’t helping either.

Glenn shouldn’t be considered a bad hire yet, but there are warning signs. A 13-11 loss to the Denver Broncos in London was beyond ugly, and the end of first half management was a fiasco. The Jets got the ball with 3:22 left, trailing 10-6, with a situation most NFL teams covet: They could score at the end of the half, then get the ball to start the second half. And the Jets were practically content to let the half run out. There was no urgency. On the NFL Network broadcast, Kurt Warner and Rich Eisen couldn’t believe it. The half ended at the Jets’ 47-yard line, with New York letting the clock run out. That mattered in what ended up being a two-point loss. Receiver Garrett Wilson was agitated and said something to Glenn as the team headed back to the locker room.

The Jets might not have been able to get in field-goal range anyway. Justin Fields threw for 45 yards and was sacked nine times in a hideous performance that could get him benched. The Jets had 82 yards total, with a stunning -10 net passing yards. That’s not all on Glenn. But there are no signs of life from the Jets.

NFL Winners and Losers: Cowboys have not done enough to help out red hot QB Dak Prescott

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