Cowboys' Dak Prescott Reveals Trade-Deadline Hopes: 'Go Do It!'

"Hope,'' somebody once said, "isn't a plan.''

But maybe, as the 4-5 Dallas Cowboys approach the Tuesday NFL trade deadline while pondering what exactly they are following Sunday's weird 27-23 win at Indianapolis  ...

"Hope'' is all they've got.

Maybe that's the thinking behind team leader Dak Prescott's relative rosy review of what he thinks owner Jerry Jones and the Dallas front office should do in the coming hours.

"Obviously, credit Jerry, credit the front office and those guys of (thinking) 'If you can always add, go do it," Prescott said. "Even if you think you have enough, if you can make sure you have enough and get better, go do it. I encourage that. But, yeah, they've done a hell of a job with the team they've put together.

"It's on us now. Period."

Prescott's statements merit piece-by-piece analysis.

Has the Dallas front office done its part?

Five weeks ago, the Cowboys traded for Steelers Pro Bowl cornerback Joey Porter Jr. in a go-for-it move.

That's evidence in the affirmative.

But how is this team "put together'' in a way that gives Prescott or Jones or anybody else confidence in this team's playoff prospects?

"At this point," Jones told the team's flagship station 105.3 The Fan before the game, "I don't see it."

Maybe that has more to do with inactivity than with investment.

But the Cowboys are sort of in playoff contention in the NFC East - especially if you believe the New York Giants aren't a very good 5-2-1 team.

Of course, they pounded this same Dallas team in Week 1, so nobody in Cowboys Nation has earned the right to think that.

Dallas was awful in a home loss to a then-winless Bucs team and was even worse last week in a home loss to a bad Arizona club. And it almost happened again against the aimless Colts before the Cowboys won by a sliver at game's end.

Add it up. Does that sound like the makings of a contender?

Said coach Brian Schottenheimer: "We just came off a big win with missing some key guys, and we ended up playing really well. So I love our team. I love our roster. I love the way they worked and performed tonight. I'm really proud of them."

The Cowboys have eight games left this season. Five of the foes are, according to the standings, "better'' than Dallas.

Is this wobbly bunch going to get it together to beat the 49ers and the Seahawks and the Rams and the Jaguars and the Giants? And should they invest future capital in a trade meant to help them do so ... while surely privately worrying that it won't be enough?

"Our record, we've done it to ourselves," Prescott said. "We put ourselves in this position. It is what it is. At this point, just thank God for the opportunity that we have to fight out of this hole that we've put ourselves in.''

The question is, "Is the hole so deep that not even a blockbuster trade will provide an escape from it?''