ARLINGTON, Texas – Part of Sunday night felt familiar, watching the red-faced, clenched-jawed amble of Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones on his way to the postgame locker room. In front and behind, players gravitated between silence and agitated chatter. In the middle of the mix wide receiver Terrance Williams, who failed to get out of bounds for a last-second field-goal attempt, punctuated his walk with an obscenity.

“[Expletive] me,” Williams said.

View photos Dak Prescott posted a 69.4 QB rating in his regular-season debut against the Giants. (AP) More

“Everybody’s pretty mad in there,” Jones would say later, standing outside the locker room. “[They’re] pretty upset right now. Anything moving has got a good chance to get bitten in there right now.”

This was the familiar part. The obscene self-assessment and locker room hissing with disappointment. For a few moments after Sunday’s 20-19, home-opening loss to the New York Giants, it summoned remembrances of the 4-12 discontent from last season, when games slipped away weekly and Jones marched through the bowels of stadiums grinding the veneer off his teeth.

But this was only Week 1. The playoff hopes hadn’t been squashed. The seething would subside. And as the night wore on, the flip side of all of this frustration emerged. The Cowboys’ lament at 0-1 is different than last season’s familiar deflations. Unlike many of last year’s losses, this was a game Dallas believes it should have won – not could have won. This is a locker room that is very familiar with the difference.

When a team is grasping and hoping, but the ceiling can’t go any higher on a season, it’ll be angry about games it could have won. But when tangible improvement in depth and the quarterback spot show, the sting of dissatisfaction rises out of expectation. Last season, the quarterback situation was so screwed up for Dallas that the team stopped anticipating wins and started hoping for them. But these Cowboys are expectant again. And a large part of it is coming from the play of Dak Prescott.

“I can’t in any way show anything – or would show anything – but disappointment for these guys,” Jones said of the loss. “But I think we’ve got a chance to be a good team. Now. This season. A lot of it has to do with what I saw from Dak.

“He’s done it in preseason [and] didn’t look a bit different to me out there today than he did in the preseason. … He protected the ball and was really composed and, I thought, in control at all times. He had some times when his back was against the wall.”

Prescott’s numbers weren’t staggering: 25 for 45 for 227 yards with zero touchdowns and a 69.4 quarterback rating. But wideouts Cole Beasley and Dez Bryant both dropped touchdown passes that would have framed Sunday in a completely different light. And if Williams had gotten out of bounds at the end of the game, the Cowboys could have attempted what would have likely been a 60-yard, game-winning field goal for Dan Bailey, whose range appeared to extend that far in the pregame warm-ups.

View photos The Giants kept close tabs on Dez Bryant, holding him to one catch for 8 yards. (AP) More

Instead, the surrounding pieces at least partially scuttled Prescott’s regular-season debut. But not before he looked as calm and collected as the preseason, when Prescott’s play had some questioning whether he might supplant Tony Romo this season. It’s safe to say that Romo’s starting job is going to be waiting for him when he hopes to return (“Sooner rather than later,” according to Jones’ update on Sunday). But it’s also clear the Cowboys feel Prescott can win games for them in the interim and maybe beyond.

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