Prescott returns to where it all began

FRISCO, Texas — So many questions asked of Dak Prescott revolve around two years ago, when the Dallas quarterback led the Cowboys to an NFC-best 13 victories as a rookie before losing his playoff debut.

There’s a new angle to that old story line now that the 2016 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year has his first postseason victory. Prescott and the Cowboys are headed to Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for an NFC divisional matchup with the Rams on Saturday night.

That famous venue was the site of Prescott’s NFL debut in a preseason game that marked the league’s return to LA after a 22-year absence. His dazzling day wasn’t a huge deal then because the Cowboys had no reason to believe Tony Romo wouldn’t be their quarterback.

Two years later, it’s a signature moment in the sudden transformation at quarterback for the Cowboys, triggered when Romo was injured in

another preseason game. And now it could be the setting for Prescott to reach something Romo never could: a spot in the NFC Championship Game.

“I guess I couldn’t imagine it being back in the Coliseum against the team I started off my career, but I’ve always talked about the confidence I’ve had in myself and this team,” Prescott said. “Nothing has changed.”

This is Prescott’s second shot at a divisional victory after Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers stole the first with some last-second magic. Just as Romo had nine years earlier, Prescott lost at home as the NFC’s top seed in his team’s postseason opener.

Dallas missed the playoffs last season, in large part because of a sixgame suspension for Prescott’s fellow first-year star from a year earlier, running back Ezekiel Elliott. A 3-5 start this year with a sputtering quarterback and offense had the Cowboys looking like also-rans again.

They’ve run off eight victories in nine games since, with a much more efficient Prescott throwing to a new No. 1 receiver. Amari Cooper was acquired in a trade with Oakland, one game before the surge to a second NFC East title in three seasons with Prescott and Elliott.

Armed with last week’s 24-22 wild-card victory over Seattle, and a clutch run on a QB draw that helped seal it, Prescott will try to match the star Rams quarterback-running back duo of Jared Goff and Todd Gurley while facing NFL sacks leader Aaron Donald.

“Whatever the situation is,” Dallas Coach Jason Garrett said, “rookie minicamp, first opportunity playing in a previous game against the Rams with all those players you mentioned, or on into the regular season that year or any year, he just handles the success and the adversity of this game really, really well, as well as anybody I’ve been around.”

In some ways, Prescott is as polarizing with fans as Romo was. While his predecessor was criticized for not winning enough big games, Prescott is perceived as a game manager with accuracy issues. The critics were loud when the Cowboys were losing. They aren’t completely silent now.

Prescott said he was with a friend when he happened to hear his name in a talk radio conversation recently.

“He wasn’t talking very highly,” Prescott said. “I just kind of laughed. Obviously the comment I made, he knew to turn it down so I couldn’t hear it. They don’t necessarily bring it around me. They know it serves no regard to how I do or how I feel about my game.”