ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Dak Prescott said Mike McCarthy’s halftime message was that the outcome mattered less than the character check after an inept first quarter put the Dallas Cowboys way behind in their coach’s home debut.

The star quarterback’s record-setting response in the second half led to an improbable 40-39 win over Atlanta on Sunday.

The wild rally keyed by a successful onside kick raised the obvious question of what kind of catalyst this could be for a franchise that doesn’t want to wait for McCarthy and his new players to get comfortable with each other before contending for championships.

“To show the resiliency to go out there and continue to fight and come out with the win, it does so much,” said Prescott, who became the first player in NFL history with at least 400 yards passing and three rushing touchdowns in the same game.

“Obviously, way better than starting 0-2, but going 1-1, and having a lot of confidence after we put ourselves in such a big hole. We just stayed at it, and everybody believes in each other. That was huge in so many ways.”

The Cowboys fumbled four times, losing three, and botched a fake punt while falling behind 20-0 in the first quarter. They still trailed by 15 with less eight minutes to go.

But after Prescott’s third rushing TD pulled them within two in the final two minutes, kicker Greg Zuerlein’s spinning onside kick, executed without a tee, wiped out a game’s worth of miscues and misfires, in part because Atlanta erred by not falling on the ball before it went 10 yards. Zuerlein kicked a 46-yard field goal as time expired.

“We weren’t supposed to win that game,” said running back Ezekiel Elliott, who was solid again with 89 yards rushing and a touchdown but is still looking for his first 100-yard game as the Cowboys prepare to visit Seattle on Sunday.

They did win, and McCarthy avoided matching the only other 0-2 start of his career — his first season with Green Bay in 2006, four years before he won the Super Bowl with the Packers on the Cowboys’ home field.

“You look at past experiences and look at any great season, you have big moments that you’re able to build off of,” McCarthy said. “This is a big moment to build off of, but the fact of the matter is that we’re 1-1. We understand that.”