National Football League

Did Cowboys offense improve with Dak Prescott's return?

Updated Oct. 24, 2022 6:56 p.m. ET

Dak Prescott's back for the Dallas Cowboys.

The Cowboys' $160 million man returned to the gridiron Sunday, guiding the 'Boys to a 24-6 win over the fledgling Detroit Lions. Prescott posted 207 passing yards on 19-of-25 (76%) through the air, while completing a late-game touchdown to rookie tight end Peyton Hendershot.

Meanwhile, Dan Quinn's defense was outstanding yet again, forcing Detroit into five turnovers, including two picks and three lost fumbles. Despite the defense's hounding display though, Dallas was enmeshed in a one-possession affair through the better part of three quarters, finally breaking away as the game came to a close.

And because Dallas struggled against Detroit's bottom-shelf defense, "Undisputed" cohost Skip Bayless felt unmoved by Prescott's command of the offense in his return.

"How much better did the offense look with Dak Prescott over Cooper Rush?" Bayless asked Monday. "It looked none better."

"I'll give Dak the five-week excuse, but I was not impressed," he explained. "I was unmoved by what I saw from my offense [Sunday] … and that is easily, by far the worst defense in pro football right here, right now. …

"And by the way, Dak had the all-time empty-calorie TD at the end of the game. He threw a two-yard TD to the undrafted kid Hendershot, and that made it 24-6. And that score is highly misleading. … All I know is that a defense that had allowed 429 yards per game gave up only 330, and all I know for sure is that with 12:21 left in the fourth quarter, [the Lions] were going for a TD that would've put them ahead 13-10."

Shannon Sharpe said that Dallas' offense looked better under Prescott than it has under Rush, but he revealed some concerns as well.

"The offense looked slightly better," he said. "I didn't see the pickup truck and the Rolls Royce difference. … I'm gonna chalk that up saying the guy was out for almost a month and a half. He's just now coming back and it is his throwing hand in which he's throwing the football. I did see him make a couple of throws that I don't think Cooper Rush would've attempted to make.

"So even though Dak is just coming back after this month-long layoff, I expected them to generate a little bit more offense than what they showed. … You did a good job of controlling the game, but Detroit could've been right back in the game."

Cowboys defeat Lions 24-6 in Dak Prescott's return in Week 7

Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharpe weigh in on Dak's return.

The Cowboys amassed 330 yards of total offense in Week 7, which is slightly better than the 312 they averaged with Rush at the helm. Prescott's 207 passing yards also surpassed Rush's 191.2 average.

But the sample size on Prescott is incredibly small. Sunday marked the first full game he played after an abysmal 134-yard outing on 14-of-29 (48.28%) passing in Week 1 versus Tampa Bay.