NFL MVP favorites Dak Prescott and Brock Purdy had very different days in Week 15
NFL MVP favorites Dak Prescott of the Dallas Cowboys and Brock Purdy of the San Francisco 49ers had far different days in Week 15.
Coming into Week 15 of this wild 2023 NFL season, the two leading candidates for NFL MVP were Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott and San Francisco 49ers second-year signal-caller Brock Purdy — and for good reason.
Prescott entered his Week 15 matchup with the Buffalo Bills leading the league in touchdown passes while also ranking in the top five in completion percentage, passing yards, and passer rating. He’d also led the NFC East-leading Cowboys to five straight victories.
Similarly, Purdy came into his Week 15 matchup with the Arizona Cardinals leading the league in passer rating, also ranking in the top five in completion percentage, passing yards, and passing touchdowns. He’d also led the NFC West-leading Niners to five consecutive wins.
But while the two MVP hopefuls came into the week with similar resumes, they certainly didn’t have a similar Sunday.
Entering the week boasting the league’s top overall offense, Dallas simply couldn’t get anything going against the Buffalo defense.
Over their first 13 games, the Cowboys had put up 381.5 yards per game while averaging a league-best 32.4 points. They’d put up 40 points or more on five occasions, and eight of their 10 wins had come by at least 20.
But the Bills flipped the script on America’s Team on Sunday, breezing to a 31-10 victory by holding Prescott and the Dallas offense to a season-low 195 yards. And many of those yards came when the outcome was no longer in doubt.
As for Prescott specifically, the eight-year veteran was accurate enough, completing 21 of 34 passes (61.8%), but was held to a season-low 143 passing yards. Dak also failed to throw a touchdown pass for the first time since Week 1 but did toss his first interception since.
What’s wild is that Josh Allen completed just seven passes for 94 yards. But that was planned, as he only attempted 15 passes. The Bills simply ran the ball right down the Cowboys’ throat to the tune of 266 yards and three touchdowns, 179 yards and two of those scores courtesy of James Cook.
All in all, it was a bad day for Prescott, whose NFL MVP hopes took a hit, and certainly for the Cowboys, who fell out of first place in the NFC East and don’t get a break next week as they hit the road again to face the Miami Dolphins.
But the day wasn’t a total loss as Dallas, despite the defeat, still clinched a playoff spot thanks to losses by the Green Bay Packers and Atlanta Falcons.
Unlike Dak and the Cowboys, Purdy and his 49ers had zero problems in Week 15.
Granted, they faced a far easier opponent in the three-win Cardinals, but let’s not forget that the first of those three wins came against Dallas back in Week 3.
In Week 4, Arizona traveled to Santa Clara to take on the Niners, and it did not go well as Purdy was close to perfect, completing 20 of 21 passes for 283 yards and a touchdown pass to Christian McCaffrey, who scored four total touchdowns that day as San Francisco took a 35-16 victory.
A similar story played out on Sunday in the Niners’ 45-29 victory.
While Purdy had a few more incompletions than he did back in October, he was still pretty darn good, connecting on 64% of his targets for 242 yards with four touchdowns, one of which went to McCaffrey, who had three total touchdowns, giving him seven on the year against Arizona alone.
As Purdy’s NFL MVP odds rose, so did San Francisco’s chances of taking the top seed in the NFC. With the victory, the 49ers, now 11-3, clinched the NFC West for the second straight season, guaranteeing them at least one home game in the postseason.
