Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Turnovers are bad!
Did you know that Tony Romo and Dak Prescott have the same career record in the playoffs?
They are both 2-4 in postseason play and while the latter still has a lot of football in front of him this particular piece of truth has made life pretty miserable for Dallas Cowboys fans (it’s me, hi I’m the problem. it’s me) over the last few weeks.
In situations like this people like to reference how the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again all while expecting different results. I don’t know that the Cowboys are necessarily doing that by forging on with Dak Prescott, but I will admit that it is starting to feel like we have seen this movie before where the franchise quarterback is left to take all of the heat without any friends to help him along the way.
To better understand this situation I decided to ask my very close personal friend (maybe?) DeMarcus Ware. The one and only D-Ware stopped by the Blogging The Boys universe on Wednesday thanks to his partnership with Sleep Number and we discussed a wide-variety of things, including his hopefully-coming-on-Thursday-night spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Among the topics that Ware and I danced back and forth between was this whole Romo and Prescott thing. I asked him what he thought and this is what he had to say (jump to the 6:10 mark for this specific back and forth).
“I think you can’t compare the two players. They’re two different players. Romo was a phenomenal player, Dak is a phenomenal player as well, but one thing you can tag to both of them is turning the football over.”
“I’m a very honest guy and when the big games happen, they turn the football over. If we don’t turn the football over they will probably go down, and Romo would probably go down as one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play, especially if he would have won a Super Bowl. Right? And the same thing with Dak. He would have sort of broke that streak.”
“Without turning the football over, I know that they would have beat San Fran in that game, and would probably have beat the next team, too. And been in the freaking playoffs. And they’re probably in the Super Bowl. So I’m still a little salty about that.”
Every football fan knows that Dak Prescott threw what felt like a billion 15 interceptions this season despite missing five games with a thumb injury. It was objectively an outlier for him in that department but Ware’s point is about how many turnovers came, it is about when they happened.
The Cowboys saw their season end in the Divisional Round against the San Francisco 49ers and Dak threw two interceptions in that game specifically. He had one near the end of the first half when it looked like Dallas was destined to come away with at least a field goal (even though the Brett Maher of it all was a factor) but thanks to his turnover the 49ers actually came away with three points. We are talking about a six- and potentially 10-point swing in a game that Dallas lost by seven.
It is going to be one long offseason for the Cowboys if it isn’t obvious. Maybe I should get a Sleep Number bed to help me be more comfortable throughout it. We want to again thank them and DeMarcus Ware for the time.
Sleep Number is the Official Sleep + Wellness Partner of the NFL, and currently 80% of active roster players benefit from the improved sleep performance on Sleep Number smart beds.
Only the Sleep Number smart bed is proven to effortlessly improve the quality of your sleep and harness powerful insights to support overall health and wellness.
While he may not be in the NFL anymore, many of the things DeMarcus worked on to improve his performance, energy, and recovery remain the same – including his sleep.
