The Dallas Cowboys lost starting quarterback Dak Prescott for the season after he suffered a compound fracture and dislocation of his right ankle that required surgery to repair Sunday.

Andy Dalton entered the game with 6:30 left in the third quarter and eventually led the Cowboys to victory. He went 9-of-11 for 111 yards, including two big throws to Michael Gallup late in the fourth quarter to set up the game-winning field goal.

Dalton is 70-61-2 and led his former team, the Cinnicinati Bengals, to five straight playoff appearances. However, he was never able to get over the hump of securing his first playoff win. The Cowboys season is far from over, especially considering the division they play in. At 2-3, Dallas is in first place in the NFC East.

With 31,000 career passing yards on his resume, the question isn’t if he can be successful in this offense? It’s if he can overcome one of the worse defenses in the NFL.

The Cowboys next five games are against the Arizona Cardinals (3-2), Washington (1-4), Philadelphia Eagles (1-3-1), Pittsburg Steelers (4-0) and Minnesota Vikings (1-4).

It’s not out of the realm of possiblity the Cowboys come away from that stretch 3-2.

Following the Vikings games, Dallas has one team left on its schedule who has a positive record in the Baltimore Ravens (4-1)

Dallas will revisit Washington on Thanksgiving before playing Baltimore, the Bengals (1-3-1), San Francisco 49ers (2-3), Eagles and New York Giants to conclude the season.

It’s also important to mention Ezekiel Elliott had his highest yards per carry in his 91-yard effort Sunday (4.8).

It was also his first multi-rushing touchdown performance of the season. Though Dalton has a plethora of weapons to distribute the football too, Dallas may return to making Elliott the true feature player of this offense.

He hasn’t had a game of 20 plus carries since their week two win over Atlanta.

However, he did go three straight weeks with six or more receptions. When Dalton entered the game Sunday there was a heavier emphasis on the screen game, which could be a trend moving forward due to how inconsistent the offensive line has been this season.

Dalton will get his first start with Dallas Monday night against the Arizona Cardinals.