What we learned from the Cowboys’ win over the Giants on Thursday night

FULL BOX SCORE

1. It wasn’t pretty, but the Cowboys got a much-needed win. After back-to-back home losses, the Cowboys’ frustration boiled over at the start of Week 4. Nobody was happy. Mike McCarthy came up short with a reporter. The players spoke openly about responsibility and concern for details. Dallas needed a win. Things looked pretty good on Thursday as the Cowboys took a 14-6 lead Dak Prescott And CeeDee Lamb split up the Giants’ secondary. But the penalties kept adding up, starting with Lamb’s celebration penalty after his TD. There were too many flags turning second-and-shorts into third-and-longs on offense. On defense there were silly things like offside jumps and too many men on the field. There were even four special teams flags on an ugly wash night. But Dallas’ struggling defense kept the Giants out of the end zone, and the offense was just enough Brandon Aubrey A late missed field goal – his first of the season – left the door uncomfortably open. It wasn’t pretty by any means, but the Cowboys got back to .500.
2. Why didn’t Brian Daboll try it on fourth down? The Giants trailed 14-9 at halftime and got the ball to open the third quarter. They started humming offensively Daniel Jones On that drive alone, he managed five plays of 8 or more yards, wearing down a tired and weak Cowboys defense. The Giants faced a fourth-and-goal at the Dallas 3-yard line, and with more than 23 minutes left, Daboll made the easy field goal. But why reduce a one-point lead to a one-point lead? Sure, the clock was working in his favor, but the Giants had been pacing the field all game… settling for slightly longer field goals. This was the closest the Giants came to sniffing the end zone all game, and Malik Nabers and Wan’Dale Robinson made up for the lack of a running game. The Giants tried three times Monday night – once before that game and twice after. So Daboll showed a certain aggressiveness when it mattered most. But when they were 9 feet from the goal line, he shrank. It was an oddly passive moment, and the Giants crossed midfield just once on their final four drives. That was a missed opportunity.
3. The Cowboys defense responded with courageous effort. The Cowboys have been learning about their 32nd-ranked run defense all week and entered this game undermanned in the starting cornerback Caelen Carson (Who replaces the injured person?) DaRon Bland) inactive with a shoulder injury. They began Andrew Booth in his place, only to have him benched at halftime after the Giants selected him early. Amani Oruwariye took his place, held on well and made the game-winning interception in the final seconds. It was a night where the reserves had to shine Demarcus Lawrence (foot) left the game and Trevon Diggs had to get an IV in the locker room. Micah Parsons also had to peel off the lawn. Four days after the heavy home defeat, the defense was ailing. The pass rush struggled to get anywhere on Thursday, and Mike Zimmer’s defense struggled through five grueling field goal drives, all eight plays or longer. But in the end, the Cowboys held the Giants to 5 for 16 on third down, completely erased their running game early and limited New York to 4.7 yards per play. Zimmer has heard the criticism of his defense over the last two games, but Thursday’s effort should keep the noise down for next week and beyond.
4. Jones and Nabers have their moments, but Giants falter. Jones has played at a much higher level since his poor performance in Week 1, stringing together three respectable performances in a row. He completed 29 of 40 passes for 281 yards, converted a key fourth-down conversion and even pulled Dallas offside on a nice tough count. Things looked good until the fourth quarter, when Jones was 7 of 15 for just 45 yards and the desperation pick came late. He had relied on Nabers and Robinson all night, catching 23 of his 29 completions, but when Nabers left the game late with a concussion, the offense fell apart. Nabers had another great performance with 12 catches for 115 yards, but was unable to catch a fourth pass with 3:30 left. Jones failed his final three passes and the Giants fell to 1-3. The Giants have something special in Nabers and Jones has responded well, but they won’t win too many games on field goals alone.
5. Dak’s efficient night helps the Cowboys play from the front. The Cowboys appeared to be pretty much in control offensively on two early touchdown drives, keeping the Giants’ pass rush under control and attacking their undermanned secondary to take a 14-6 lead. Things didn’t go quite as smoothly after that, as the Cowboys kept failing on third downs – they were 3 for 10 for the game. Penalties were a big problem and put them in a lot of long distance situations. The Cowboys’ running game wasn’t great, but there were enough contributions from them Rico Dowdle (41 yards rushing, touchdown catch) and Hunter Lüpke (three third and fourth down conversions) to keep things moving a bit. Ezekiel Elliott played only 10 snaps, but the Cowboys ran just 51 plays. In the end, there were just enough early fireworks from Prescott and Lamb — two well-paid stars who also heard the boos this week — to finish off the Giants and earn a division road win. They need to be better and cleaner in the future, but the Cowboys had just enough juice.

Cowboys-Giants Next Generation Stats Insights (via NFL Pro): The Giants offense completed 23 designed rushing plays for a net gain of 27 yards in Week 4 against the Cowboys, yielding minus-49 rushing yards over expectations, the Giants’ lowest total RYOE on designed runs in the NGS era (since 2016). On designed runs, the Giants’ ball carriers averaged minus 0.1 yards before contact, while they were touched behind the offensive line on 48% of those runs.

NFL Research: Malik Nabers has five or more receptions in each of his first four NFL games, marking the fourth-longest streak to start a career since at least 1970. The record is six, held by CeeDee Lamb of the Cowboys.