Cowboys biggest problem is not receivers – it's Dak

Throughout the off season, the Cowboys wanted you to believe that the team had enough talented passcenters for Dak Prescott to succeed in the offensive without Jason Witten (who retired) and Dez Bryant (who was cut). Almost defiantly, the franchise did not sign a player of Bryant or Witten caliber, choosing to trust a broad group consisting of Cole Beasley, Michael Gallup, Deonte Thompson and Allen Hurns.

But having been ruled out of Charlotte after scoring just eight points, Dallas's first game of the season raises more questions. A single game is not the size of a sample, but maybe the question is not whether Prescott has enough people around him, but can he pass the ball to guy he has?

Sunday, Prescott picked up where he left off in 2017. Short and weak against the Hurns in third and eleventh. Short and low at a wide open Jarwin Blake on the third and seventh place. At the beginning of the third quarter, Beasley did not have an even bigger opening. Behind Gallup on a shallow cross in the fourth quarter.

Prescott did not put his team in the middle of the field until the third quarter and began to look like at the beginning of the fourth quarter. He should have been able to find accomplishments in the Carolina area cover, but he only got three of the 10 shots that went at least 10 yards. For the seventh time in 11 games, the third-year quarterback failed to touch the ball.

"I was gone," admitted Prescott shortly after the 16-8 loss. "Those kinds of things you have to go back and watch the movie. I must understand why I was gone. Did I rush? Did I feel pressure? What were the things that caused this? Was it just that I missed the pass? That's not all I can judge right now.

Credit Prescott for appropriating the problems, as he did this summer when he discussed what went wrong last year. He played poorly in a game where offensive coordinator Scott Linehan appeared to lack creativity in his games. Dallas has never won the match against Carolina defense. The Panthers' front seven could handle the course alone but would sometimes bring an eighth defender into the box. Ezekiel Elliott could only get 15 runs for 69 yards.

"Every week they will load the box," Elliott said. "If they do not, they will pay. So, I mean, it's useless to talk about it again. We know that they will charge the box. They know we like to run the ball.

For four months, the proud group of Cowboys receivers learned that they were the equivalent of trash in football, and two of them rejected this idea after the match. I asked Gallup, a rookie, if this game had helped the story that Prescott did not have many targets to reach.

"I would not say that," Gallup said. "Most of the game [the wide receivers] answered the call when the balloon was in the air and that it was a catchable bullet, most of the time we did it. I think we just need to do what we can control.

Faced with a similar question, Beasley said, "The strength does not lie in one guy, but in the group. That's what many people will not understand, but it's good. We do not need people to understand. We will go out and put it on the movie. If you watch a movie, you'll see some guys open. That's what we bring to the table and we have to keep doing it every game. "

As promised, the Cowboys played a healthy rotation to the receiver. Of the 64 offensive strikes, Beasley played on 43, followed by Hurns of 38, Thompson 30, Gallup 29 and Terrence Williams. while no one else has more than three catches and 30 yards. Tavon Austin only saw 10 snapshots, and he rushed for a yard.

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But Prescott could not care; he was concerned with his group of receivers.

"We're not talking about the guys we had or the guys that were missing, it's about the guys on the pitch tonight and we gave it all," Prescott said. "I promise we will do it again next Sunday and we will improve our performance."

And there should also be concerns for Prescott.