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2020-2021 Regular Season: When The Impossible Task
Becomes The Daily Ask
October 4,
2020 At 11:38 PM CST
By Eric M. Scharf-
- When it comes to the unending
discussion of whether or not Dak Prescott is elite, there are
opinions replete. “But, BUT” let us keep the focus simple and avoid
(?) the overreactive, protesting pimple.
Prescott – with “a little help from his friends (and despite some
collective mistakes which appear to have no imminent end)” – has
given it all he’s got, taking titanic aim and stacking up
significant numbers which are ALL THAT (to surely receive an
offseason contract extension so fat?). Dak has amassed nearly 1,200 yards with
eight touchdowns (five by hand and three by foot), yet his
statistically-amazing effort through four games (corrupted or not by
the deficiencies of lesser names) has not been timely enough to
consistently keep drives from going prematurely kaput. Those
fantastic figures (admittedly in the face of well-publicized,
mix-and-match o-line protection with occasional rejection) still
fail to fully and naturally, organically, routinely dictate the
HOW
and the WHEN more than every-now-and-then.
Expand Beyond Planned
“SHEESH! You and your HOW, your WHEN, again
and Again and AGAIN!”
you fire back (like any understandably-dedicated homer who feels the
leader of their favorite team is under unnecessary attack). “The
Tortured Cowboys Fan” is engaging in no such taunting invective,
just rhetorically-realistic perspective (on credit-worthiness that
really is perhaps a bit less subjective).
When your opponent is ahead by a large number, and that opponent
spends the rest of the game playing aggressive,
“pin-their-ears-back” defense in order to keep pummeling what (up
until that point) has been an offensive bumbler, but your
quarterback (armed with play-call corrections against further mental
infections) is able to help his embattled teammates overcome, then
your quarterback deserves full credit in sum. Enforcing your
competitive will (against a hard-charging opponent you have suddenly
turned into a helpless rodent) is the ultimate thrill.
When your opponent is ahead by a large margin, and that opponent
plays a “prevent (yourself from winning) defense” told not to charge
in, but your quarterback is able to help his besieged teammates
more-effortlessly fight back, then your quarterback deserves “did
his job” credit for getting his team on the right track (against a
defense ordered not to respond with hostile flak). Even though you
must still execute against a defense far less resolute, “taking what
the defense gives you” makes your winning result only partly true
(against an opponent “playing not to lose” through and through).
When your team’s normal, FIRST-HALF, by-design goal may be for your
quarterback to remain comfortably within his clock-controlling role,
but his field surveillance clearly-identifies quite a lot (more),
and he takes a(n unexpectedly early and) successful shot (to score,
Score, SCORE), he INDEPENDENTLY CHOOSES to expand beyond (what was
so safely, stubbornly) planned . . . and demonstrates true, ELITE
command. Your quarterback perhaps DECIDES that – with
a more
prominent KILLER INSTINCT – he will forever (?), unapologetically be
linked.
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- “W-What if that quarterback’s OWN defense is so, SO PATHETIC that he
HAS TO maintain maximum time of possession to keep the football away
from an opponent’s offense so fearlessly-energetic?!” you scream
(knowing full well that – without RELIABLE third down conversions to
avoid punting diversions – that approach becomes an
absolutely-miserable theme). If your defense regularly stinks during
most of each-and-every 60-minute game, your offense has ZERO
alternative but to remain alight with a score, Score, SCORE flame
(against both the very best or the very lame).
The Tortured Cowboys Fan has always separated the elite NUMBER from
the elite DECISION. An elite quarterback will show the evidence so
long as he has the defense-diagnosing confidence, unbound by
hesitance against any situational presence (opponents good or bad
and without his very best o-line protectors so sad) to regularly
deliver elite PRECISION. If a quarterback’s target (mistakenly)
drops an accurate pass or (under defensive pressure) breaks like
glass, that is one “happens all the time” thing. It is the
autonomous decision and doubtless precision, however, that gives the
word ELITE such a nice, rare, unique ring.
Before all the desired (by the player) and demanded (by the fan)
postseason success, a quarterback should WANT TO (or – in the case
of the 2020 Dallas Cowboys – NEED TO) expand beyond planned, yes?
While it is true that “just because you can does not mean you
should,” is it not also true that the survivalist, short-term nature
of professional sports compels you to always bring the
hyper-competitive wood?
Be Like Wick To Make It Click?
When your defense is clearly, undeniably struggling in such a way
that even the hopeful (but not inevitable) return-from-injury of
certain key defensive players holds no sway, EVERY offensive series
becomes a “situational football” captive . . . where every play-call
and every play-execution must be (unreasonably?) adaptive.
Situational football is a theme former Cowboys head coach Jason
Garrett used to regularly parrot but – even under new head coach
Mike McCarthy – America’s Team seems familiarly unable to even dare
it.
McCarthy “won” the Cowboys’ head coaching job, because he had
convinced GM Jerry and son Stephen that – MORE than ANY other
candidate could – he was no longer a creature-of-habit slob
incapable of bringing the situational, outside-the-box wood. "My
LIP
SERVICE makes you nervous. Yo, don't play dumb, ‘cause you know that
you deserve this." – Young Mc(Carthy?) indirectly to the powers that
be. As GM Jerry knows all-too-well, when you “ain’t got time for a
bad time,” a shorter-term, win-now decision (without the requisite
precision) can become a diabolically-debilitating crime.
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- “Sooooo . . .
why is THIS about Dak?” you exhaustedly inquire
(expecting another Dak-hating attack that prompts another “unfair”
fire). While it is technically “never fair” for any quarterback to
have such unreasonable, “carry the team” expectations heaped upon
him, the “impossible task” (as detailed in the “John Wick” feature
film series) has ALWAYS been a part of football. The quarterback
role (though not always the quarterback talent) remains THE
uniquely-positioned difference maker to close the gap when others on
the TEAM perform like crap.
“It is not fair” for prognosticators and fans to insist Prescott
publicly take mistake-minded teammates to (often brutal) game day
task like
Troy Aikman – or routinely pull an escapist
Tony Romo
Houdini – yet, in the presence of other star players or ENTIRE units
underperforming, the calls for “Super Dave Osborne,” err, “Super
Dak” will only grow longer and stronger. “Trusting the system” – to
an absolute fault (without a coach willing to more-regularly open
the flexibility vault) – only makes the occupier of the quarterback
role that much more of an “unfair” victim.
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“And, AND” – as The Tortured Cowboys Fan awaits a swift kick in the
teeth from pearl-clutching-fans who see this point as something
absurdly beneath – such an “outrageous” or “preposterous” standard
IS what being JUST an NFL quarterback does unswervingly bequeath.
When a key non-quarterbacking player – or (GASP) more than a few –
repeatedly fail to pull through, the impossible task becomes the
daily ask. “Elite,” TRULY ELITE quarterbacks in NFL history have
been “unfairly” forced to turn themselves inside out in order to
memorably, ridiculously save victory from the jaws of
teammate-creating defeat. So shall one Rayne Dakota Prescott have to
increasingly, relentlessly navigate that game day gauntlet if HIS
team hopes to compete (perhaps delivering victories that are
more-convincingly complete). So shall the proclaimed leader of
“America’s Team” have to be like Wick to make it click.
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- "I gave
Dak an impossible task. A job not even 'That Announcer Guy' could have pulled off.
The statistics he stacks this year will cement the foundation of the
one-dimensional team we are becoming (without the benefit of
medicinal numbing)." – Viggo “McCarthy” Tarasov.
Will They Or Won’t They?
2020 – for America’s Team – was supposed to be on the money but (for
all sorts of reasons on and off the field resulting in such a
collectively-tragic yield) there is nothing about this year (even to
Cowboys haters) that is even remotely funny.
While Dak has done everything within his compartmentalized role to
help dig the Dallas Cowboys out of their 1-2 hole, will the team’s
one-dimensional performances force the poor guy to practically sell
his soul before they can get on ANY kind of winning roll?
Will Prescott only be viewed as elite once he routinely – year after
year – puts much of his team on his back to compete? Will looking at
the playing-career of one Dan Marino (who – after an early Super
Bowl appearance – spent so many one-sided seasons having to FORCE
flight tower clearance) cause Dak’s determination to retreat?
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- Will
a fourth consecutive incomplete or “half-day” game – with a home
contest against Cleveland at hand – make the current challenge of
Dak Prescott and former trial of “That Announcer Guy” resemble one
in the same?
We shall see. We Always do.
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