FRISCO, Texas — Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott was a full participant in practice on Thursday and has guaranteed he will return to action Sunday against the Denver Broncos at AT&T Stadium.
Prescott was held out of last Sunday’s 20-16 victory against the Minnesota Vikings for precautionary reasons due a right calf strain, suffered on the final play of the 35-29 victory against the New England Patriots on Oct. 17.
He spent the last two weeks doing extensive rehab work with athletic trainer Britt Brown, the team’s director of rehabilitation. Prescott was held out of team drills in the week leading up to the Vikings game and it was Brown who recommended to the Cowboys that Prescott not play against the Vikings.
Owner Jerry Jones and coach Mike McCarthy sided with Brown and Prescott, who lobbied to play, acquiesced, allowing backup Cooper Rush to get his first career start in the shocking victory that extended the Cowboys (6-1) winning streak to six games.
Prescott felt he could have played last week as he said he had no limitations in his ability to run the offense.
There was no way the Cowboys were going to keep him out two straight weeks.
“No, no, no. They got their two weeks with the bye. We’ll give them that,” Prescott said following practice Thursday.
“I’m feeling good. Obviously, I had two weeks to do a lot of rehab and recover, get everything that I needed to, the different modalities. I feel good. I’ve had two great days of practice and I’m looking forward to Sunday.”
While the Cowboys supported Rush and were excited about his play in helping their extend their winning streak and further cement their place atop the NFC East, they were glad to see Prescott back at practic on Thursday and they are all looking forward to getting practice back on the field.
“It’s just natural,” said receiver Cedrick Wilson. “That’s who we’ve been working with for the first 8 weeks. I felt Coop got in there and did a great job also, whenever it’s his time again he’ll be able ready to ball out once more.”
Cornerback Trevon Diggs said Prescott gives the team confidence and a sense of invincibility.
“He’s our leader, our ringleader,” Diggs said. “We follow him. Everything. He’s out there, we know it’s time to go. When he’s out there practicing, he’s going to practice at a high level so the defense has to practice at a high level. It just brings everyone together.”
And Prescott, who is a considered a leading candidate for league MVP, expects to not only pick up where he left against the Broncos but be better than he was before.
Through the first six games, he completed 73.1 percent of his passes for 1,813 yards, 16 touchdowns and four interceptions. His passer rating of 115 is the highest of his career.
He has thrown three-or-more touchdowns in four consecutive games.
“Be better. That’s my expectation going into everything,” Prescott said. “I think I’ve had two good days of practice and continue to get better, put the final stamps on the game plan and go out there and be better than I was a couple of weeks ago against the Patriots.”
Prescott, who said he is pretty close to 100 percent, acknowledged that he wanted play against the Vikings but in the end agreed to go along with the big picture perspective.
Reaching the Super Bowl 56 in Los Angeles is the team’s primary goal and they Cowboys didn’t want the calf injury to linger and become a week-to-week issue.
“I want to play in the game. I want to play in every game,” Prescott said. “It’s a blessing to do this. Every opportunity that we get to go out there, you don’t get many of them, you want to take advantage of it. But in the same sense, I got over it quit. I knew the perspective, I knew where we were coming from. This is a long journey and we are a team, we didn’t play for a long time. I had to keep that in mind when the decision was made.”
So what did he learn by sitting and cheering on his teammates from the sideline?
“That I don’t necessarily like to watch. That I like to play,” Prescott said.
He will be playing on Sunday against the Broncos.
