ARLINGTON - 'Bad.' 'Terrible.' 'Greedy.' Dak Prescott wasn't struggling to find the right adjective; he was offering up every negative adjective he could think of ... and they were all accurate.

On the first play of Sunday’s second quarter in the Dolphins at Dallas Cowboys meeting, Prescott went play-action. The fake handoff to Ezekiel Elliott. The pristine pocket provided by his O-line. The time ... eight seconds of it.

And then the throw, across his body, into a crowd of Dolphins, and an interception on what is by far his poorest decision, physically and mentally, of this young season.

“Just bad by me,” Prescott said after the game, a 31-6 blowout that made the error seem insignificant. “Great by the offensive line. I went through every read probably three times and then broke the pocket. Just bad by me. Just terrible.”

I say "insignificant'' but I know Prescott and mentors Kellen Moore and Jon Kitna won't treat it that way in film review. The decision was a violation of all the mechanical things that have propelled Dak to the top of the NFL rankings (and yes, with his numbers here -- 920 passing yards, nine TDs to two interceptions and a 74.5-percent completion number -- he's very much still up there).

“I was just being too greedy,” Prescott said. “One of those 'heat checks' or whatever you want to call it. Just trying to do too much in the first half.”

If you believe in the concept of "halftime adjustments,'' I give you Prescott following the gaffe. In the third quarter, with Dallas up just 10-6, Prescott rebounded to complete all nine of his passes for 137 yards and a touchdown - and he ran for another TD. 

Through three games, in the third quarter, Prescott is 22 of 22 passing for 384 yards and three touchdowns for a perfect QB rating.

There's your "halftime adjustments.''

The 3-0 Cowboys, eventually, looked like the NFC's best team. The 0-3 Dolphins, eventually, looked like the NFL's worst. One of the many differences was at QB. I've said it a lot: If 2019 Dak is good, 2019 Dallas can be great. And Dak has been so good that guys like me can write an entire story on how crummy he looked on one play ... because "looking crummy'' is now so rare.

More common: Prescott’s coaching, footwork, brain and instincts all synching together for a gorgeous exclamation-mark play. On third-and-20 from the Dallas 47 with 7:44 left in the first quarter, the Cowboys seemed relegated to accepting that there aren't many "third-and-20 calls'' in the playbook.

"Kellen (coordinator Moore)'s got a lot of great calls,'' Witten said. "I don’t know that they have them for third-and-20.

But what if you go "sandlot''?

Dak rolled to his right with tight end Jason Witten as a bodyguard. But both high-FBIQ Cowboys realized that they'd placed Dolphins cornerback Jomal Wiltz in an unenviable no-man's land; If Wiltz stays with Dak, the QB has room to run. If Wiltz steps up to clog the QB ...

Well, the Cowboys quarterback can halt just before reaching the line of scrimmage to dump the ball over the head of Wiltz for what became a 33-yard gain.

"A little backyard football,'' Dak called it.

Added Witten: "I saw Dak scramble and if you play long enough with him, you’re never out of the play. He extends plays as good as anybody in this league. So I stayed alive, turned it up and he gave me an opportunity to make a play.”

'Bad.' 'Terrible.' 'Greedy.' Yes, that was Dak's status on one play.

"Smart,'' "assertive'' and "undefeated''? That is Dak's status on the season.