Jackson Free Press

Credit for the Dallas Cowboy’s eight-game winning streak seemed to be split between the offensive line and running back Ezekiel Elliott entering their game against the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, Nov. 20. It isn’t like Dallas’ rookie quarterback, Dak Prescott, doesn’t get enough credit, but many seemed to think he was more of a game manager than a quarterback who can win games on his own.

The Ravens’ game plan was to force Prescott to try beating them with his arm.

That plan looked perfect early on, as Baltimore’s top-ranked rush defense bottled up Elliott for 26 yards on six carries in the first half. The Ravens even rattled Prescott, who started four for 10 on pass completions, gaining only 31 yards on the Cowboys’ first four drives.

Dallas punted on those drives, and everyone had to wonder if having Tony Romo as the backup quarterback was putting pressure on the young rookie. Then came first down and 30 yards for the Cowboys with under 10 minutes left in the second quarter and Baltimore leading 7-0.

Most of the time, a team facing first and 30 from its own 28 yard line would lead to a punt from the offense. But this is when Prescott began to take over and showed that he is a major reason for the Cowboys’ rebirth.

Prescott took off for 12 yards on first down, and on the next play, he ate up 12 more yards with a pass to wide receiver Dez Bryant, setting up a makeable third down and six yards.

Then, Prescott hit wide receiver Brice Butler on a 41-yard bomb to set up first and goal at the Baltimore seven yard line. The Cowboys scored three plays later when Prescott found Cole Beasley in the end zone to tie the game at 7-7.

Prescott shook off this rough start to end the game with 23 completions for 26 passes for 270 yards and three touchdowns. In the second half, he went 14 for 15 on passing, and Dallas began to take over the game.

The Cowboys salted away the game in the fourth quarter with a drive that lasted more than six minutes. Prescott went three for three on passing, but Elliot handled the bulk of the work. All the same, great play from the fourth-round draft pick at quarterback led the way for the Cowboys’ running game to take over in the fourth quarter.

Prescott made play after play throwing the ball in a game where the Ravens wanted to see if he would fail under the pressure. But Baltimore’s game plan blew up in its face when Prescott proved that he can make every throw needed to beat opponents.

It is likely that the rest of the teams on the Cowboys’ schedule will try to employ the same tactic down the road. Even though that seems like a sound strategy, the former Mississippi State University star has shown …

This college-football season has been underwhelming for most of the teams in our state, with close losses, injuries, mistakes and countless other struggles.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t players who are worthy of recognition, and we now know the 10 finalists for the 2016 C Spire Conerly Trophy.

Every four-year college and university nominates one player for this award. This year, the Conerly Trophy will be awarded to its 21st recipient. The ceremony will take place at the Clarksdale Country Club instead of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum as it has in the past.

Here are the finalists in the order that I think they will finish.

Hunter McEachern is the freshman quarterback for Belhaven University and nominee for the Conerly. Despite being in his first season, he served as the team captain for the 2-8 Blazers, and he set a school record for passing attempts with 76, completions with 48 and touchdowns with six. He threw for 3,722 yards on 337 completions with 31 touchdowns and 22 interceptions.

Mississippi Valley State University quarterback Austin Bray is the 1-10 Delta Devils’ pick for the award. He passed for 1,462 yards after completing 129 passes out of 239 attempts and finished the season with eight touchdowns and 11 interceptions, as MVSU struggled nearly every week on offense. He also rushed for 163 yards with four touchdowns.

Millsaps College went with defense for its Conerly nominee. Defensive lineman Alex Foust finished his senior season with 42 total tackles. He was a three-year starter for the Majors and finished second the Southern Athletic Association in tackles for a loss with 15.5 this season. He also finished second in the conference in sacks with 9.5 for the Majors, who ended the season with a 3-7 record.

Jackson State University named highly touted defensive lineman Javancy Jones for the Conerly. The senior missed time this season due to an injury and his mother’s illness, but he was still a force on the field when he was healthy.

Jones led the 3-8 Tigers with 17.5 tackles for a loss and four sacks, and he saw action at tight end, as he caught two passes with one ending in a touchdown. He was also JSU’s finalist for the Conerly last season.

Mississippi College also nominated a familiar name for the Conerly, as well, with wide receiver and kick returner Marcel Newsom tapped as the Choctaws' finalist for a second consecutive year.

He finished this season with 57 catches for 853 yards and five touchdowns for the 3-7 Choctaws, leading the Gulf South Conference in all-purpose yards with 180.6 per game and receiving yards with 94.8 yards per game.

Alcorn State went with linebacker Darian Anderson, who led the 5-5 Braves in tackles with 80 total.

He tops the Southwestern Athletic Conference in sacks with 10 and is one of the finalists for the Buck Buchanan Award, which the best defensive player at the …

Kicking field goals and extra points seems easy for every NFL team but the New Orleans Saints. In a major surprise, the Saints saw a place kick blocked for the second week in a row.

The Denver Broncos blocked a potential game-winning extra-point attempt and returned it for two points to beat New Orleans on Sunday, Nov. 13. Less than a week later on Thursday Night Football, the Saints saw the Carolina Panthers block a field-goal attempt.

Thanks to a penalty, the Panthers’ return of the block for a touchdown came off the scoreboard, but that didn’t stop wide receiver Ted Ginn Jr. from making a spectacular catch for a touchdown shortly after.

Instead of cutting the Panthers’ lead to 13-6 at the half, New Orleans watched as the Panthers ballooned to 20-3. That big lead helped Carolina hold on for the 23-20 win.

The first team to block a Saints kick wasn’t the Broncos but the New York Giants in week two of the season. New York returned that block kick for a touchdown in the Giants’ 16-13 win over New Orleans.

Special teams haven’t been very special for the Saints. In addition that blocked field goal, New Orleans kick returner Marcus Murphy fumbled a kickoff out of bounds at the one-yard line.

The kickoff looked to be heading out of bounds, which would have given the Saints great field position from a penalty. Murphy’s mistake came after Carolina scored its only points of the second half from a field goal, and it kept the Saints in bad field position for most of the third quarter.

Back in week three, New Orleans had two punt-return men crash into each other during a game against the Atlanta Falcons. The Saints players’ miscue allowed the Falcons to recover the ball.

While it might be easy to pour all the blame on the Saints’ special teams for the losses of the last two weeks, quarterback Drew Brees hasn’t helped matters. Against Carolina, he had two turnovers, a fumble from a sack and wobbly interception, and during the previous week’s loss with the Broncos, he threw two interceptions.

The New Orleans defense has improved as the season progressed and has played well enough to win the last two games. But turnovers from the offense, poor special-teams play, including a running into the kicker penalty in the Carolina game, and poor coaching have betrayed the defense.

Some of the blame on last night’s win certainly falls on the coaching. Head coach Sean Payton didn’t get the offense moving fast enough on its last touchdown drive. Instead, the Saints huddled up and took their time going down the field.

That slow play helped the Panthers to eat up the clock while the Saints methodically moved down the field needing two scores down 10 points. The offense should have played with more urgency, and that has to come from the head coach.

Unless the place-kicking …

Attorney General Jim Hood sent a letter to legislative leaders today reminding them that they must release the EdBuild contract to the Transparency Mississippi website, despite their own House Management Committee rules.

Last week, several news organizations attempted to get access to the contract between the Mississippi Legislature and the nonprofit EdBuild that the state is contracting with to examine the Mississippi Adequate Education Program. The contract with EdBuild is paid in part by the state and in part by private donors. The state is paying $125,000 of the cost, while undisclosed private donors are paying another $125,000, the AP reported.

The House Management Committee changed their rules last week, allegedly keeping all contracts private and not accessible via the state's Public Records Act.

Hood's letter says that while lawmakers do have the power under the Public Records Act to limit access to legislative records, they are not exempt from the Mississippi Accountability and Transparency Act, which requires all agencies to let the Department of Finance and Administration access their data and post the contracts on the Transparency Mississippi website. Hood told legislative leaders that they have two weeks to give DFA access to that information, as is prescribed in the Mississippi Accountability and Transparency Act.

The Senate has not changed their management rules yet to come into compliance with the House's new rule, but the Senate Rules Committee is scheduled to meet this week.

Speaker Pro Tempore Rep. Greg Snowden and Senate President Pro Tempore Sen. Terry Burton released a statement after Hood's letter was sent.

“When the agreement was approved in October, the terms of the Legislature’s contract with EdBuild to review school funding was shared with the public,” the joint statement says. “Over the last four days as House and Senate leadership continued to study the issue, Legislative legal staff concluded the contract should be posted to the Transparency Mississippi website. The contract has been released to the Department of Finance and Administration to be posted on the Transparency Mississippi website.”

The contract is up and available on the Transparency Mississippi's website this morning or you can read it here.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued updated enforcement guidance on national origin discrimination to replace its 2002 compliance manual section on that subject today.

“EEOC is dedicated to advancing opportunity for all workers and ensuring freedom from discrimination based on ethnicity or country of origin,” said EEOC Chair Jenny R. Yang said in a press release. “This guidance addresses important legal developments over the past 14 years on issues ranging from human trafficking to workplace harassment. The examples and promising practices included in the guidance will promote compliance with federal anti-discrimination laws and help employers and employees better understand their legal rights and responsibilities.”

On June 2, the EEOC published a proposed guidance for public input, and the guidance issued today reflects the Commission’s consideration of feedback received on the proposal from approximately 20 organizations and individuals.

The new guidelines define a "national origin group," or an "ethnic group," as a group of people sharing a common language, culture, ancestry, race, and/or other social characteristics. For example, Hispanics, Arabs, and Roma are ethnic or national origin groups, the guidelines say.

The guidance also addresses developments in the courts since 2002, as well as topics such as job segregation, human trafficking and intersectional discrimination. In fiscal year 2015, approximately 11 percent of the 89,385 private sector charges filed with EEOC alleged national origin discrimination, a press release from EEOC says. These charges alleged a wide variety of Title VII violations, including unlawful failure to hire, termination, language-related issues, and harassment.

The National Security Administration isn't big on public statements, so this one by Admiral Michael Rogers, the NSA's current chief, is raising some eyebrows.