Prescott & Cowboys, off to 3-0 start, get big Sunday evening test at New Orleans

With the Dallas Cowboys at 3-0, their fans are beginning to see America’s Team as a team of destiny.

Hold on: The combined records of the three opponents they vanquished is 1-8.

Sunday night comes a true test for Dallas when it visits New Orleans. Yes, even without Drew Brees (thumb surgery), the Saints are formidable, as they proved in winning at Seattle last weekend.

So we should find out a whole bunch about the teams from Big D and the Big Easy in a juicy prime-time matchup.

“They’re playing awfully well right now,” Saints coach Sean Payton says of the Cowboys, stressing the offensive output. “We just went through the numbers. Third down, they’re No. 1 in the league, defensively they’re second in the league.

“Each category — big play, yards per play, they’re running it well, the quarterback’s playing well. I think that their design, their talent, all of those things. You can’t help but notice the quarterback (Dak Prescott) and the success he’s having. That’s nothing new for him. He’s been successful. But, when you see the combination of running backs (Ezekiel Elliott, rookie Tony Pollard) and I think just the right amount of veteran presence from a (Randall) Cobb and a (Jason) Witten, a few of those guys, (Travis) Frederick the center is back, that’s very important.”

The dynamic Prescott, who has passed for 920 yards and nine touchdowns already this season, enters Sunday night’s game in the Superdome with some added personal incentive to produce a memorable performance.He grew up in the Shreveport area — the one part of Louisiana nearly split between Cowboys and Saints fans — and will be making his first NFL start in his home state.

His biggest previous game in Louisiana was in 2014 at LSU, when his dynamism put a dent in the Death Valley mystique and ended the Bulldogs’ 14-game losing streak against the Tigers. That was also Mississippi State’s first victory in Tiger Stadium since 1991 — two years before Prescott was born.

Now Prescott will try to help the Cowboys win in the Superdome for the first time since 2009, when they ended the Super Bowl-bound Saints’ 13-game winning streak.

“It’s always fun, knowing this environment, knowing the Superdome, knowing how their fans are going to be, the intensity, the atmosphere,” Prescott said. “I’m excited to go in there with my team, the brotherhood we have, an us-against-the-world mentality.”

Stopping Dallas can be hard enough when Prescott is extending plays with his scrambling ability, finding receivers such as Amari Cooper and piling up about 302 yards passing per game, which ranks fourth league-wide. Never mind the fact that Dallas’ running back tandem of Elliott and Pollard, who both gained 100-plus yards against Miami last week, leads a ground game that ranks third in the NFL with 179 yards per game.

When playing against an offense like that, Saints cornerback Eli Apple said he takes only one approach.

“Go and get it. That’s all you can do. Make plays, fly around, enthusiasm and have fun with it,” Apple said. “We’ve got to deliver the punches.”