DENVER -- Dak Prescott wasn't sure if he was pressing in Sunday's 42-17 loss to the Denver Broncos.
He wanted to take another look at the game when he got back home before he could characterize what went wrong for him and the Dallas Cowboys.
Without needing the benefit of seeing the game again, Prescott knew one thing.
"It doesn't matter who you play when you play the way I played, you're not going to win many games in this league," Prescott said.
The Broncos sacked Prescott twice and hurried him seven more times. He made too many throws with the pocket collapsing. He could not step into throws. He was late with some throws. He was too early on some. He never appeared as calm as he normally is. Unable to connect in the passing game, the Cowboys were unable to get the Broncos to change their scheme.
"When they play that style of defense you have to be able to consistently attack them in the passing game," Garrett said. "At different times I thought we were able to do that. And other times we simply weren't. We didn't make the plays for whatever reason."
On the Cowboys' final play of the first quarter, Prescott was hit awkwardly as he was going to the ground on a 7-yard run. He immediately had both ankles taped but he did not appear to be laboring during or after the game.
"I got tangled up, but I'm good," Prescott said.
Owner and general manager Jerry Jones was asked if Prescott looked flustered. He took his answer in a different direction, which speaks to part of the reason why Prescott was so successful as a rookie. The Cowboys didn't put the onus on him to make it happen. In each of Ezekiel Elliott's final 14 games, he ran for at least 80 yards.
That kept pressure off Prescott. With Elliott gaining 8 yards on nine carries, Prescott had to do more in adverse conditions.
"It is the first time that I've seen us play when Zeke was as neutralized as he was today," Jones said. "This was the first for me to see that but for anybody. And yes, I think you got to give them credit. They took away the play action and they took away from of our ability to move. Do we have the ability to adjust and go to other things? Sure we do."
The Cowboys might not see a better secondary this season. Maybe they will when they see the New York Giants in the rematch in December. Next week's foe, the Arizona Cardinals, have a top corner in Patrick Peterson, but do they have the combination of pass rush and secondary?
A year ago, the Cowboys were 1-1 after two games with Prescott as quarterback and they won 11 games in a row. Prescott isn't about to panic.
"We're going to learn from this," Prescott said. "We're going to be better because of this. Honestly, thankfully it's Week 2 and not later in the year. There's a lot of football left to be played this season. We have an extra day to get going before we play again on [next] Monday. So this is something we'll learn from. We'll look at the film and we'll definitely get better from this and correct our mistakes."