Statistically, Dak Prescott is one of the best 4th-quarter clutch QBs to ever play the game

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QB1.

Fan sentiment may not be all that high right now, but the Cowboys are on a two-game winning streak after a tough, ugly win over the Steelers. Feelings seem to be split on Dak Prescott’s performance, too. The quarterback single-handedly kept the Steelers in the game all night long, throwing two picks and fumbling in the red zone. He also completed five of seven passes on the Cowboys’ final drive, saved the day by falling on Rico Dowdle’s goal line fumble, and threw the game-winning touchdown with 15 seconds left on the clock.

Nobody is going to point to this game as an all-time great for Prescott, but it did show off one of his most enduring traits since entering the league: his clutch factor. There are many times throughout his career that Prescott has been asked to lead a game-winning drive and answered the call. In fact, he’s done it 23 times now in his career.

That ranks Prescott ninth among active quarterbacks, directly ahead of both Josh Allen (19) and Patrick Mahomes (18). And of the eight quarterbacks ahead of Prescott on the list, all of them have been in the league longer than Prescott; the youngest one is Derek Carr, who was drafted two years prior to Prescott. For those wondering about all-time game winning drives, Prescott’s touchdown pass to Jalen Tolbert bumped up to 40th in NFL history, tying him with Hall of Famers YA Tittle, Ken Stabler, Dan Fouts, and Terry Bradshaw.

As impressive as game-winning drives are, something that’s even better is multiple game-winning drives. That’s the term that Scott Kacsmar coined in a piece he wrote this summer, where he examined quarterbacks who have had to lead multiple game-winning drives in one game. In reflecting on last year’s Super Bowl, Kacsmar wrote:

Lost in the chaos of the game’s finish – the last seven possessions without a kneeldown were all scoring drives – was the fact that 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy put his team ahead three times in the fourth quarter and overtime, but still lost the game because the defense could not stop Mahomes. That is the only playoff game in NFL history where a team had three go-ahead drives in the fourth quarter and overtime and still lost....

Hard to lose a game like that in the NFL, but the knock on the 49ers would be settling for the field goal on the opening drive of overtime. That’s what makes Mahomes extra dangerous in this new playoff format that his performance against Buffalo a few years ago helped create....

....we are looking at how good Mahomes is historically at bringing his team back multiple times late in games. Call it a multiple game-winning drive. Not only did he lead the drive that put his team ahead for good in a win (that’s the definition of a game-winning drive), but there was another drive earlier in the fourth quarter where he put his team ahead in the same fashion. That should count for something too.

The percentage of a QB's game-winning drives where he had to put the team ahead multiple times:

Mahomes 31.8%
Dak 30.4%
Herbert 28.6%
Eli 26.2%
Hurts 25%
Moon 24.3%
Steve Young 23.5%
Rodgers 15.2%
Brady 12.5%
Peyton 10.7%
Montana 9.1%
Elway 4.3%https://t.co/5hyILeaCXd

— Scott Kacsmar (@ScottKacsmar) July 22, 2024

As Kacsmar’s research went on to show, and as he listed in the above tweet, Prescott found himself right behind Mahomes when looking at the percentage of game-winning drives that saw the quarterback have to do it multiple times. Prescott’s 30.4% rate in this statistic ranked ahead of the likes of Eli Manning, Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, and Peyton Manning, all of whom are often cited as masters of leading the comeback.

Not only is that good company to be in, but Prescott’s win over the Steelers has now pushed him to the very top of the list, ahead of even Mahomes. In other words, no player in NFL history has managed to successfully lead multiple game-winning drives in the same game more often than Prescott. Not Mahomes, not Brady, not Rodgers, not either Manning brother.

What does this mean? Well, for starters, it means Prescott hasn’t always been able to rely on his defense. That’s been wildly evident for a while now; in fact, Prescott led at least four game-winning drives in each of his first three seasons in the NFL, and he’s had at least two in each season under Mike McCarthy except for the season, when he only played in five games.

Beyond that, though, this speaks to the natural ability Prescott has consistently shown throughout his career to step up when things matter most. Sunday night was far from Prescott’s best - in fact, it was just his eighth game with three or more turnovers in 126 career games played - but he came in clutch and led a game-winning drive not once but twice to get the job done. He did it the way literally nobody else in the history of the sport has been able to do, and that should count for quite a lot.