Preston Smith gets his shot at former college teammate Dak Prescott

By Anthony Gulizia - The Washington Times - Thursday, September 15, 2016

ASHBURN | Preston Smith knew the consequences were going to be sharp and swift if he ever even thought about hitting Dak Prescott during their time together at Mississippi State.

“If you ever hit Dak, that might have been your last practice,” said Smith, who had nine sacks in his senior season at Mississippi State in 2014.

Of course, defenders are never allowed to hit their own quarterback in practice, but Smith always would remind Prescott of the times he could’ve. Opponents never really fared much better that year, when Prescott passed for 3,449 yards and 27 touchdowns, and rushed for 14 more as he led the Bulldogs to the program’s first No. 1 national ranking.

“I’d always get there and he might have gotten the ball off before we got a sack, but he’d always just run past us,” Smith said. “I always said, ’Only if I could hit you, then you’d know.’”

The Washington Redskins second-year outside linebacker will finally get that chance on Sunday when the Dallas Cowboys visit FedEx Field. There won’t be any non-contact jersey to prevent Smith from getting to his former Mississippi State teammate — just the Cowboys’ hulking offensive line, anchored by All-Pro left tackle Tyron Smith.

During Smith’s surge toward the end of his rookie year, when he recorded five sacks in his final three regular-season games, one came against Smith and the Cowboys. He knows that challenge of beating Smith again will be difficult on Sunday.

“I just have to bring my A-game, make sure I don’t give him the same look and do something different every time,” Smith said.

Prescott was named the starting quarterback for the Cowboys after Tony Romo broke a bone in his back in the third preseason game against the Seattle Seahawks. In the first three preseason games, Prescott’s success became one of the more intriguing storylines of the summer.

The fourth-round draft pick was thrust into the backup role after Kellen Moore broke his leg during training camp. Prescott continued to impress his teammates and coaches in the preseason, completing 39 of 50 pass attempts, or 78 percent, for 454 yards and five touchdowns, and no interceptions. He also rushed for two touchdowns in the second preseason game against the Miami Dolphins.

“You know, one of the best things he does is he works and he prepares,” Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said on Wednesday in a conference call. “He has real command of what we’re asking him to do and he’s really grown very quickly, and it has a lot to do with the approach he’s taken.”

Smith, meanwhile, watched from afar.

“I just texted him, told him I was proud of him,” Smith said. “Little trash talking mixed in because that’s what we always did in college. I’d always talk trash, but I told him I’m proud of you and everything you accomplished but, that he won’t be doing any of it against us.”

In Prescott’s regular-season debut against the New York Giants, which the Cowboys lost, 20-19, he completed just 25 of his 45 pass attempts for 227 yards and zero touchdowns.

He wasn’t sacked, though, and was only hit three times, which is something Smith and the Redskins hope to change this week. In Washington’s 38-16 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night, the Redskins defensive front only generated four pressures and sacked Ben Roethlisberger once.

Smith certainly had his chances, often times coming close to the Steelers quarterback but just late enough to finish the play. In the second quarter, with the Steelers facing third-and-8, Smith rushed from the right side of the Redskins formation and bull-rushed left tackle Alejandro Villanueva. After he knocked Villanueva off his mark, he turned the edge and began his pursuit of Roethlisberger.

The Steelers quarterback stood tall in the pocket and fired a 13-yard completion to wide receiver Antonio Brown. The drive carried on for eight more plays and ended with Roethlisberger’s 29-yard touchdown pass to Brown.

“You always want to make those plays, always want to finish strong,” Smith said. “But, I just need to move past it, make plays and make sure I finish. I missed two and they both stuck with me because they could’ve been two sacks. Those could have been important to the drives they were on.”

In the offseason, Smith got a trio of custom paintings installed in his house of him sacking Ryan Tannehill, Sam Bradford and Tyrod Taylor. There’s plenty of room for more, though.

“I told Dak to get ready to be added to the wall,” Smith said.