Battered and injured, the defense fought its way back this time

EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ – In the last four days it was hard to imagine that the defense would be attacked again.

They have literally put in the effort in the last two games. Metaphorically, they were crucified by the fans and the media.

But on Thursday night against the Giants, they suffered even more bumps and bruises as they watched their best players hobble off the field in the medical tent, in the locker room and hobble back and forth between plays. And yet on Thursday night, in true bend-but-don’t-break fashion, the Dallas defense showed more guts, more fight and more heart than we’ve seen all year.

The offense sputtered and failed to break away from the Giants, who prevailed just enough to keep the game close. To me, it just felt like the Cowboys defense was a wet paper sack that was soaked on the ground and was going to burst at some point – like a Giants touchdown to finally take the lead.

But it never happened because the Cowboys wouldn’t let it. And the reason they didn’t allow it was the run defense.

This 32^ndThe top-ranked run defense rose to the challenge. The Giants ran the ball 24 times…gaining 26 yards. That’s an average of 1.1 yards when scoring at home – and it should be because everyone at home was complaining. This run defense has been rightfully crucified over the last two weeks and I knew we would really find out what it was made of in this game.

Giving up yards to Alvin Kamara and Derrick Henry is one thing, but if it happened with Devin Singletary, Daniel Jones and the Giants, then we knew there would be major problems with this run defense all year long.

And who knows, maybe it hasn’t been resolved yet, but for this game the Cowboys wouldn’t allow the Giants anything on the ground. And apart from an early big pass to Malik Nabers, the defense really didn’t allow a deep ball over the head.

So if you don’t give up big plays in the passing game and barely give up a yard per run on the ground, it’s difficult for any offense to maintain rhythm. Better yet, it’s almost impossible to score a touchdown, and the Giants never did.

Stop teams from scoring touchdowns and you usually win. The Cowboys did both on Thursday night.

But I just couldn’t get over how physical this game was for the Cowboys, who had never played a Thursday night away game on just four days’ rest in franchise history. I couldn’t believe this statistic was true, but it’s amazing that they’ve never had a week as short as this one. After taking a physical loss to the Ravens and then having to play that game with the Giants like that, you knew it was going to be torture.

But it was even worse than I expected. Micah Parsons, your best defensive player, was in the medical tent twice during the game. Those are perhaps the first two times in his career that I can remember, with the second time being the most concerning as he awaits an MRI on Friday for his ankle injury.

DeMarcus Lawrence suffered a foot injury and had to go to the locker room. Trevon Diggs left the game in the fourth quarter with dehydration. DeMarvion Overshown and Marist Liufau both left the game but returned to action. Not to mention the fact that the Cowboys had already lost cornerbacks DaRon Bland and Caelen Carson and safety Markquese Bell was also out this week.

Yes, I get it, the Giants aren’t necessarily going to put up any offensive magic, but with all the injuries the Cowboys suffered before and during the game, it was an amazing performance by this defense, one that I have had in the I’ve taken a lot of photos in the last few weeks.

And on Thursday evening they licked a few more times. But not enough to break her.