SEATTLE -- Dak Prescott knew he was starting the preseason opener against the Los Angeles Rams. He knew he would replace Tony Romo after a few plays in the second preseason game against the Miami Dolphins.
Thursday night in Seattle was most like a regular-season moment for a backup quarterback.
Just three plays in, the Dallas Cowboys lost their starting quarterback, Romo, to a back injury. Though Romo could have potentially returned to the lineup in a regular-season game, the Cowboys chose to stick with Prescott.
Prescott said the last time he came in off the bench was his sophomore year at Mississippi State.
"It's no different," Prescott said. "I prepare just like I'm going to start the game, and I'm ready at all times, like I'm going to start the game. I gotta go in at any second, so it wasn't any different."
Facing third-and-8 from the Dallas 38, Prescott found Cole Beasley for 12 yards on his first play, but the drive stalled. On his second drive, he relied on Ezekiel Elliott's legs to move the ball until he found Jason Witten down the seam.
The ball was underthrown, but Witten was able to reach around the linebacker and pull the ball down for a 17-yard score.
"I told him, 'I love you, thank you for catching that,' " Prescott said. "I needed that."
It was Prescott’s fifth touchdown pass in three preseason games.
On his fifth drive of the game, Prescott was able to lead the Cowboys to a Dan Bailey field goal, executing a two-minute drive by completing 8 of 9 passes for 64 yards. He completed passes to five pass-catchers -- Beasley, Brice Butler, Devin Street, Geoff Swaim and Alfred Morris.
He was able to overcome a first-and-20 situation by wisely checking the ball underneath to set up the 40-yarder by Bailey that tied the score at 10-10 at the end of the half.
"That's something I feel comfortable in," Prescott said. "That's what I did all my college career, is moving the ball on the run, hurry-up offense. So anytime I get in that situation I get a little excited about it, and I just try to go out there and do my best."
He finished the first half completing 15 of 19 passes for 106 yards. He played two series in the third quarter with the backups, calling it a night with 116 yards on 17-of-23 passing. He was sacked once and ran twice for 12 yards.
"I'm just amazed at the numbers of snaps and the quality snaps, and against the varied situations that he's getting it against," owner and general manager Jerry Jones said. "He got it in two-minute there right before the half. It's just amazing that he's going to get to come in here and finish up here next week and get those kinds of snaps. I said the other day he's going to end up with more snaps than Romo had his entire play time before he was the starting quarterback. By any rational thinking he should be getting better every situation, and so we've got him on what I have thought would've been two or three times as many snaps over a two, three-year period of ideal situations for a young quarterback getting in position to be a player."
Given how Thursday turned out, the Cowboys might need him to be a player a lot sooner than in two or three years if Romo goes down in the regular season.