ARLINGTON — Patrick Mahomes had a no-look pass. He scooted away from his East Texas neighbor, DeMarvion Overshown, on a scramble.
There was another play in which the Chiefs quarterback ran away from Donovan Ezeiruaku, and as he was falling, completed a pass. Mahomes hopped as if he thought the linebacker was inches from his heels.
Then there was Dak Prescott.
The Cowboys quarterback was just as good. He completed 27 of 39 passes for 320 yards with two touchdowns in the Cowboys’ 31-28 victory over the Chiefs on Thursday.
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Prescott has thrown four 300-yard games this season, the only quarterback to do that in 2025.
On Thanksgiving Day, Prescott was on the big stage putting on a show against Mahomes, the three-time Super Bowl winner.
The two men have split the two meetings against each other.
Prescott doesn’t savor it in a sense because he wants to defeat Mahomes on a bigger stage.
“It’s a team game,” Prescott said. “We’re 1-1, hopefully we’ll play again on a bigger stage in a more meaningful game.”
Mahomes is known for his magic and late fourth-quarter comebacks.
Prescott had some magic himself. There was a flip to running back Javonte Williams for a touchdown as he avoided the rush. He fired a pass to the front corner of the end zone to receiver George Pickens to convert a two-point conversion.
Before the play, coach Brian Schottenheimer’s headset went out and there were all sorts of profanities. Prescott was calm and ran over to the coach to get the call as the play clock was winding down.
“That’s just Dak and I being tied together,” Schottenheimer said.
And there was one of the biggest gambles of the game.
The Cowboys were up seven and got the ball back with 9:26 in the fourth quarter.
It was an opportunity to work the game clock. Run the ball.
Not Schottenheimer.
He called a deep pass.
On first and 10 from the 10, Prescott, from play action, fired a deep pass to CeeDee Lamb for a 51-yard completion. It moved the Cowboys to the Chiefs 39. It was a gutsy call, but Schottenheimer said his confidence in Prescott allowed for that play to happen.
“It speaks to the confidence Schotty has in us,” Prescott said. “The coverage is what dictates CeeDee getting the big ball.”
Later on that drive, on a third-and-two, Prescott rolled to his right and, off-balance, connected on a 17-yard completion to Ryan Flournoy.
The drive ended with a 25-yard field goal from Brandon Aubrey to give the Cowboys a 10-point advantage with 5:16 left. That drive gave the Cowboys the cushion needed against Mahomes, a known late-game killer. He has 24 game-winning drives in his career, but just one in 2025.
Maybe that speaks to how difficult this season has been for the Chiefs and why they’re on the outside looking into the postseason.
The Cowboys, meanwhile, are ascending and hopeful for a push toward the postseason in the last two months of their season.
“We’re playing good football and I don’t want to minimize that,” Schottenheimer said. “You guys know what we’re capable of on offense and I think the defense has just taken so many strides over the last couple of weeks. When I see our defense play, I see violence and I see passion. I see everybody running to the football.”
Schottenheimer had high praise for Prescott.
Why wouldn’t he?
This game started with a Prescott turnover, an interception on the third play of the game. On the second possession, Lamb broke up a pass that was almost intercepted. But after that first turnover, the Cowboys’ offense took care of business.
It scored on the next three possessions before Williams ran for eight yards to end the half. The Cowboys, needing so much work to make the postseason, did their part on Thanksgiving Day.
Thanks to Prescott.
“I thought he was incredible, I really do,” Schottenheimer said. “Throw an interception on the second or third play of the game is never how you want to start. We actually, we’re in a hot [route]. He tried to beat it with a throw and the corner did a nice job and he kinda baited him into it. But that’s who we are as a football team. We go out there and we turn it over in the first couple of plays and they go, I think two plays they scored a touchdown, and we never panicked. We’re not going to panic, this team, why would we panic? We got all the confidence in the world and in one another and we’re going to figure it out.”
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