We were planning on pinning this on the kicker, the poor man with the quiet eyes who spent the entire day being followed around by a network camera like he was hosting an art installation on internal tumult.
We were planning on pinning this on the quarterback, too. And while Dak Prescott’s final throws of the Cowboys’ season leading up to the two-minute warning in Sunday’s 19–12 divisional round loss to the 49ers were not pretty, were not economical and were almost game-endingly disastrous, they were not the reason Dallas still hasn’t made it back to the conference title game since the Clinton administration.