RIO DE JANEIRO — Dak Prescott is not paying attention to the debate over the grass at Maracanã Stadium. The Dallas Cowboys quarterback said Friday that if the NFL lets Sunday’s game against the Baltimore Ravens go on, the field is good enough for him.
The surface has passed the joint thresholds set by the NFL and the NFL Players Association, according to the league. Heavy rain in Rio had worn it down in the weeks before the game.
Prescott trusts his cleats and has played on worse growing up in Louisiana. He added that he hopes he never ends up on the ground Sunday anyway.
“Not a lot goes into that for me,” Prescott said. “I trust my equipment, the cleats that I’m gonna have. I’m not really even looking into the news about how people feel about the field. If it’s the surface we’re going to play on, let’s go do it one way or another. I mean, obviously, if they’re going to allow the game to be played, it’s good enough.”
“And so where I’m from, I’ve played on worse. I’ve been tackled on concrete,” Prescott continued. “So the fact that the grass is soft, we’ll take it. I’ll take it anyways. I hope not to hit it anyway.”
Brian Schottenheimer Has ‘Other Plans’ For Maracanã Field
Coach Brian Schottenheimer has coached in six international games. He expects the field to be ready and has a fallback if it is not. The Cowboys practiced Friday at Flamengo’s training facility and walked through Maracanã on Saturday.
“No, I think it’s all part of the process,” Schottenheimer explained. “Like I said, this is not my first time playing internationally, and I have no doubts that the field is going to be in great shape. And I know they’re working tirelessly to make sure it is, and we have other plans if we need be. But our guys will be ready.”
Players get better footing in seven-stud cleats, according to Schottenheimer, and several young players tried them at Thursday’s practice after hearing about them in meetings.
“I’m certainly not an expert in shoes, but the guys feel more comfortable when they do wear those,” Schottenheimer said. “They tend to grab the soil better and have better footing. And we certainly have plenty of those for the guys that want to wear them. A number of guys actually wore them yesterday in practice, which was good to see.”
“I saw a couple of the young guys. They were listening in meetings because they brought them out,” Schottenheimer continued. “They had the equipment guys bring them out during pre-practice warm-up, and they tried them on, and most of them liked them.”
Wind, Weather On Dallas Cowboys’ Game-Day Checklist
The Cowboys play home games under a roof at AT&T Stadium. Before the team left Frisco, Schottenheimer said Thursday that playing outdoors in Rio puts wind and rain into the Cowboys’ decisions, down to whether they defer or receive after the coin toss.
“Yeah, but that’s every week,” Schottenheimer said. “That’s one of the benefits of playing in the dome is you don’t have much to worry about. Maybe the majestic lights that show up from time to time. But when you’re playing outdoors, man, you always got to be ready to adjust. You got to be ready for, is it raining? Is the surface, is it windy?”
“I mean, all those things are in our game day checklist, if you will,” Schottenheimer continued. “What’s the wind look like? How does that adjust the coin toss? Are we going to defer? Are we going to receive? Do we want the ball in the fourth quarter, have it the choice? So all those things are, we’ve talked through that more and more.”
Kicker Brandon Aubrey said Thursday that he would switch cleats only if conditions were extreme. Kickoff is 3:25 p.m. CT on CBS.
