“I would say I played average and average is by no means good enough right now, it was never good enough for me,” Prescott said. “I can't say I was happy or excited after any of those games I played, but I'm able to understand that there are more plays out there that I can make, whether it's It's up to the design or not.”

It was a busy farewell week for Prescott, who got engaged to his now-fiancée Sarah Jane while still finding time to work at the facility and work alone. While some players prefer to unwind and get away from football as much as possible in their free time, Prescott is not that inclined and spent his time both at the facility and at home.

“I can’t stagnate. That’s hard for me, so I have to work,” Prescott said. “If there are times when I have a couple of hours in the day where I can squeeze it in, especially whether it's the bye or whatever, I'll make sure I get it done.”

He dedicated some of that time to reestablishing his connection with CeeDee Lamb, something the Cowboys' offense desperately craved after their breakthrough year in 2023. And it sounds like the extra week paid off.

“All I can tell you now is that things have been better the last few days,” Prescott said.

While the Lamb-Prescott connection has gotten a lot of attention, Dak fans Jake Ferguson think they also need to get on the same page more after their second-year bond resulted in 761 yards and five touchdowns. Prescott views Ferguson as the leader of this team and a much-needed aggressor heading into Sunday night.

“When you talk about physicality, aggressiveness and communication, he's a guy you can turn to and he will,” Prescott said. “I know after playing last year against the team we're going to play, it felt like we were bullied and we said we're going to get through this game and we need some attackers. And he was the guy we transformed. “I took on that responsibility very proudly.”

Prescott knows he has to both do more and play better to get this machine back to its peak. He'll have the chance to do that on Sunday night against the 49ers, where he'll be hoping for his third career win against San Francisco in six games played against them and Dallas' first win against the red and gold since 2020.