Dallas Cowboys quarterback Trey Lance continued his efforts to steal the QB2 title off of Cooper Rush on Saturday night when he led the team to a preseason 27-12 win over the Las Vegas Raiders.
Lance completed 15-of-23 passes for 151 yards and a touchdown and added another score through the ground while rushing for 34 yards on the night. The performance was significantly better than last week's opener against the Los Angeles Rams and that isn't lost on Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy.
The coach sent a firm message about Lance after the game was over, claiming the young quarterback "took a step" forward.
"I thought we improved today starting with Trey," McCarthy told reporters postgame. "The third down conversions, we missed a couple there. But two 14-play drives, that's incredible for preseason football. It just shows you his understanding and confidence, and he just needs to continue to play. He needs reps. He needs to play in live games particularly in the drop-back phase because he's doing a very good job managing everything else. So I thought he clearly took a step today."
McCarthy has preached patience when it comes to evaluating Lance since early in the offseason. For him to praise his play postgame and describe his performance as a step in the right direction is noteworthy.
Lance still needs to beat out Rush to be the direct backup to Prescott but the competition received a much-needed spark with Lance's positive outing.
"I think when you stand up here and you talk about your quarterback running the offense, the pace of operation, those are steps that every quarterback has to take," McCarthy explained. "And I thought our tempo was really good tonight the way we were getting out of the huddle and he was commanding. He saw plenty of pressure. It isn't like (Raiders DC) Patrick Graham is just going to line up and stare at our defense all night. I think we saw a good amount of pressure that we had to deal with. The touchdown, quarterback draw, they had a guy free off the edge and he beat the pressure up inside with the draw. So really good experience for him tonight."
Fortunately for Lance, there are more chances to gain experience waiting for him. That includes one more preseason game left to be played as the team will take on the Los Angeles Chargers at AT&T Stadium next Saturday at 4:00 p.m. ET.
Related: Cowboys rookie edge continues to proves he's beyond NFL ready
Most Popular
Comments / 0