The Record Newspapers - Hometown News For Orange County, Texas

Jason Witten has been around the game of football for most of his life and knows a great team when he sees one.

After retiring from the game after the 2017 season and going into the ESPN booth as an analyst in 2018, he saw something in his Dallas Cowboys team that he hadn’t seen in the 14 years as a tight end—enough talent to get to the Super Bowl.

Witten was so certain of his evaluation that he talked to Head Coach Jason Garrett and owner Jerry Jones about possibly coming out of retirement and rejoining his old team.

He resigned his position with ESPN and began working out to get back into playing shape.

Witten was right about what he saw in the 2019 Dallas Cowboys team with quarterback Dak Prescott and running back Ezekiel Elliott both being at the top of their game and former teammate Kellen Moore now the offensive coordinator.

Moore was a backup quarterback to Tony Romo and was ahead of Prescott on the depth chart in Dak’s rookie year.

While on the bench with Moore, Prescott learned so much just listening to the veteran quarterback and credits Moore with most of his early success as the Cowboys starting quarterback.

Although the 2019 NFL season is only two weeks old, Dak Prescott has moved to the forefront of the league by directing two victories nearly flawlessly as he plays the final year of his rookie contract in hopes of having it extended like the Cowboys did for Elliott (six years, $90 million).

Prescott hasn’t had a stretch as good as this in his NFL career which shouldn’t hurt his chances at getting a monstrous contract during this negotiating period.

After leading the Cowboys to an overpowering 35-17 victory over the rival New York Giants in the season opener with a perfect quarterback rating of 158.3, Prescott came back Sunday at Washington to engineer scoring drives of 97, 83 and 75 yards after an interception to lead the Redskins 31-14 before a “garbage touchdown” made the final score 31-21.

Again, Prescott carved up the Redskins’ defense for 26-of-30 passing for 269 yards and three touchdowns and 69 yards rushing.

At one point, Dak connected on 18 straight passes.

He became the first Cowboy quarterback to compile seven touchdowns in the first two games of the season since Don Meredith in 1966, according to an Associated Press article in Monday’s edition.

Two of his touchdown passes were hauled in by Witten, who caught one in each game.

With Sunday’s two-yard grab late in the second period, the 37-year-old Witten became the fifth tight end in NFL history with 70-plus touchdown catches.

Going into Sunday’s game against the hapless Miami Dolphins at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, the Cowboys are favored by a whopping 21 points.

They are coming off back-to-back weeks of 30-plus points against NFC East Division opponents.

The Cowboys front office upped Elliott’s workload to 23 carries against Washington on which he accrued 111 yards and a touchdown.

If the two-time NFL

rushing champion can do it this year, he will join Emmitt Smith and Jim Brown as the only NFL running backs to win three rushing titles.

In the opening game against the Giants, Dak was the fourth quarterback in NFL history with 400-plus passing yards and 4-plus touchdowns and zero interceptions in the first game of the season in NFL history.

“Dak is taking advantage of what the defense is giving him,” Jones commented after Sunday’s game.

“To me, that is the story of the day.” New offensive coordinator Kellen Moore has created optimism around Dallas that Prescott has the tools to demoralize NFL defenses with his plethora of great receivers.

And if the secondary hampers some of these targets, they have Elliott to loosen up that secondary.

These are some of the reasons Jason Witten has “unretired” as the Dallas Cowboys’ top tight end and hopes they are still playing the first week of February.

KWICKIES…Going into last night’s game against the Texas Rangers, the Houston Astros needed only two more victories to hit that coveted 100-win plateau after sweeping the Royals last weekend at Kansas City.

Houston’s magic number before last night’s game was five—which means any combination of Astros’ victories or Oakland losses total five, the Astros will be AL West Division champions.

The also have identical records with the New York Yankees as the two teams compete for a first-round bye in the upcoming playoffs.

Drew Brees will miss several games as the injured thumb on his throwing hand heals.

This will be a devasting loss for the New Orleans Saints who were defeated handily 27-9 against the rival Los Angeles Rams.

The Houston Texans made a big play at the end of the game when Jacksonville’s Leonard Fournette was stopped inches short of the goal line after head coach Doug Marrone decided to go for the win with a two-point conversion after scoring a late touchdown.

The gave the lucky Texans their first victory of the season 13-12.

JUST BETWEEN US…On October 1, Sunset Grove Country Club’s board of directors will initiate a new method of subsidizing their bottom line by charging non- members a $25 fee for riding with a member in his golf cart. So, if a member invites you to play golf with him and ride on HIS personal golf cart, it will cost you extra after you pay the normal guest fee.

It looks to me like a form of extortion, like the days of Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall.

It will probably run off more non-members and their guest fee than it will bring in extra income.

When asked to comment about this matter, Club Manager Kerry Lamb said it was the board of directors doing and not his.