{"id":861159,"date":"2026-04-08T15:58:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T15:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/861159\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T15:58:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T15:58:19","slug":"emmitt-smith-defends-dak-prescott-blames-2025-season-on-sorry-ass-cowboys-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/861159\/","title":{"rendered":"Emmitt Smith defends Dak Prescott, blames 2025 season on ‘sorry ass’ Cowboys defense"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dallas Cowboys legend Emmitt Smith has come out in defense of quarterback Dak Prescott<\/a>. Mainly about some of the national talking points surrounding Prescott. Dallas did not make the playoffs last season and for those blaming the quarterback, Smith went after them. He thinks the blame should be put on the \u201csorry ass\u201d defense the Cowboys put out there in 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year, the guy was a top-five quarterback,\u201d Smith said<\/a> via 105.3 The Fan. \u201cNobody wants to talk about that. But everybody wants to talk about, \u2018Well, he\u2019s a top-five quarterback but he hasn\u2019t made the playoffs.\u2019 All that isn\u2019t on him. When you have a sorry ass defense that we had last year \u2014 let\u2019s be honest with each other. When you have a sorry defense like we had last year and you have Dak putting up the numbers he did last year\u2026 you don\u2019t have a defense. Defense wins championships, defense will get you into the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prescott threw for 4,552 yards, 30 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions a season ago. The Cowboys finished seventh in the NFL at 27.7 points per game. All six teams ahead of them were in the playoffs and even made deep runs. Smith even mentioned the work of running back Javonte Williams<\/a>, adding to the dynamic aspect of the offense.<\/p>\n

But the defense, led by Matt Eberflus<\/a>, finished 30th in yards allowed. Opposing teams were able to throw all over them, while numbers against the run are slightly better vs. the run \u2014 as Jerry Jones promised after trading Micah Parsons<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Smith admits watching the defense was difficult. However, the blame, in his eyes, goes to the work Eberflus did. Christian Parker takes over for the Cowboys, and Smith believes there is one key there to make things click.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was painstakingly hard,\u201d Smith said via the Dallas Morning News<\/a>. \u201cGuys out of position left and right. In my mind, that had a whole lot to do with coaching. Yes, you\u2019ve got a young defensive coordinator coming in. Yes, he\u2019s very talented. Can he connect with the players and do they understand his scheme? These players have to buy into his scheme.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prescott is hoping to put up a similar season in 2026. Some key contributors are back, like Williams. George Pickens<\/a> still has to figure out his situation after being franchised tag. Smith suggested the wide receiver plays the year on the tag<\/a>. Simply running it back while improving the defense should result in a Cowboys playoff appearance, in Smith\u2019s opinion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dallas Cowboys legend Emmitt Smith has come out in defense of quarterback Dak Prescott. Mainly about some of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2066],"tags":[230,12817,229,257,2461,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-861159","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-cowboys","8":"tag-cowboys","9":"tag-dak-prescott-11-haughton","10":"tag-dallas","11":"tag-dallas-cowboys","12":"tag-dallascowboys","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116369916210593260","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=861159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=861159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=861159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=861159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}