Dak Prescott heard "embarrassing" in the AT&T Stadium tunnel after Thursday's 24-16 loss to the previously winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In the press room, he pushed back on the word, and on the way it was delivered.
ESPN's Todd Archer reported that a third-party contractor positioned outside the players' exit yelled the word as Prescott walked toward the locker room. Prescott said the man looked away when he made eye contact, then spoke again when Prescott turned his head.
"Feel free to speak your mind -- just speak it. Don't cower away from the reaction that you're going to get," Prescott said. "If you're saying it's embarrassing, say it's embarrassing. If you're saying it to me, then say it to me."
DallasCowboys.com's Patrik Walker reported the same exchange and Prescott's insistence that he hated it becoming the story. The larger point Prescott kept returning to was not the heckle. It was the expectation the Cowboys failed to meet.
Supposed to win, short of that word
Prescott refused to call the defeat embarrassing because, he said, that label would discredit Tampa Bay and its coach, Todd Bowles. "I feel like I'm discrediting the NFL if I use that and particularly the Tampa Bay Bucs, the great Todd Bowles, a coach, and defensive-coached team," he said, per the team's site. He called the result "right up there close to embarrassing" without crossing the line.
What he would own was the paper expectation. "In this league, you've got to win the games you're supposed to win," Prescott said, crediting head coach Brian Schottenheimer's locker-room message. "And when a winless team comes into your home stadium in a Thursday night primetime game, yeah, we're supposed to win that."
Archer noted the historical sting: it was just the sixth time in franchise history Dallas lost to a team that entered 0-4 or worse, and only the second time at home (the other in 1975 against Green Bay).
The tape behind the frustration
The Cowboys were held to a season-low 16 points, their lowest total since a Week 3 loss to Chicago last year, Archer reported. Prescott threw two interceptions on tipped passes. KaVontae Turpin lost a fumble on a kickoff return.
Dallas ran for 50 yards. Defensively, the Cowboys allowed more than 20 points for the fifth straight game this season and the 12th straight overall, matching a team record. They allowed 241 rushing yards, including a 72-yard run by Bucky Irving, and 165 yards before contact, the most by any team in a game this season, per ESPN.
