UPDATE: Jerry Jones told reporters Prescott will require surgery on a thumb injury and miss “several weeks” after hitting his hand twice on a fourth quarter drive, via ESPN.
Original Story: The Dallas Cowboys offense looked about as bad as it could in the season opener against the Buccaneers, as Tampa’s defense dominated, holding the Cowboys to just three points on the night in what became a 19-3 win for the Bucs.
The Dallas offensive line struggled with Todd Bowles’ pressure looks, with numerous false starts, some holdings, and allowing a lot of pressure to get to Dak Prescott. The star quarterback also struggled, pressure or not, completing just 14-of-29 passes for 134 yards and one interception, as he looked rusty and out of sync throughout the game. The only real reason for hope for Cowboys fans going forward was that getting healthy in the receiving corps would give him more weapons down the field, as the Bucs keyed in on CeeDee Lamb and Dalton Schultz, leaving Prescott without any real trusted targets.
However, late in the fourth quarter with the Cowboys down 16 and trying to mount some kind of comeback, Prescott hit his throwing hand not once but twice on Shaq Barrett’s hands as he came through with pressure just as the QB let go of the ball. After that second hit, Prescott jogged over to the sideline holding his hand, got looked at by the team doctor, and immediately took off for the locker room.
#Cowboys QB Dak Prescott got hit on his throwing hand. Cooper Rush is in the game as Dak gets checked out.pic.twitter.com/IAQFCW81KH
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) September 12, 2022
One would presume Prescott was going to get an X-ray and hopefully it was just the Cowboys being precautious in a lopsided game to take him out, but it certainly raises the level of concern in Dallas about the immediate future considerably. Cooper Rush came in and wasn’t able to do much, which isn’t a surprise when thrown into the fire with no notice in the middle of a drive, but as we’ve seen in the recent past, the Cowboys offense does not fare well when Prescott misses time.
We’ll learn more about his injury and status moving forward in the coming days, but for now what was a disappointing loss in the opener becomes a reason for a bit of panic in Dallas as they await word on Prescott’s health.
