Dallas City News

Cowboys hold off NFC East rival Giants in defensive battle – Todd Archer and Jordan Raanan, ESPN

Cowboys avoid 1-3 hole and squeak past the Giants on Thursday Night Football.

Dallas picked up its second win of the season with a final score of 20-15, but star edge rusher Micah Parsons was carted off the field late in the game with a left ankle/foot injury. He said afterward that X-rays were negative and he will get an MRI on Friday.

Giants’ rookie receiver Malik Nabers also exited the game in the fourth quarter after suffering a concussion.

Here are the most important things to know from Thursday night for both teams:

Dallas Cowboys

Promising trend: When Lamb has some sideline issues, the best seems to come out of him. During last year’s loss at San Francisco, Lamb kept to himself on the sideline and then followed with six games with at least 11 catches and seven games with more than 100 yards. In last week’s loss to New Orleans, Lamb had a spat with Prescott and did not speak to the media after the game. On Tuesday, Lamb was apologetic and said he would be better. In the first half alone, he had six catches for 94 yards (both season highs) and a touchdown.

Eye-popping stat: Brandon Aubrey has played 21 games for the Cowboys. He has three field goals of 60 yards in his career, including a 60-yarder in the third quarter against the Giants. That’s one off the NFL record held by Brett Maher, who made four with the Cowboys over two different stints. Aubrey made a 60-yarder last week against the Ravens. He is 2-for-2 from 60 yards this season. The rest of the league is 0-for-2, according to ESPN Research.

Cowboys hope winning battle vs Giants, 20-15, didn’t cost them much more via injury – K.D. Drummond, Cowboys Wire

Cowboys won the battle, but suffered some casualties along the way.

The Dallas Cowboys finally got back in the win column, but they hope they didn’t suffer a much larger defeat. In taking out the division rival New York Giants, 20-15, the Cowboys were better in a ton of issue areas they’ve had recently. Dak Prescott was precise in his passing, CeeDee Lamb got going with over 100 total yards and a score and the defense was as strong as they’ve been in a long time.

After allowing almost 500 yards rushing in the last two games, they held the Giants to just 26 on 24 attempts, a lowly 1.1 yard-per-carry average. The defense kept the Giants out of the end zone after New Orleans and Baltimore had conveyor belts in Weeks 2 and 3 and sealed the game with an interception. But the biggest concern now is the health of superstar Micah Parsons.

Parsons left the contest twice, the first for a stinger concern that he quickly returned from. But late in the game, Parsons was landed on when his teammate pushed a Giants offensive linemen on the back of his legs. Parsons was taken into the locker room on a cart.

The team was working without DeMarcus Lawrence, who suffered a foot injury early in the third quarter and never returned. The club also lost Trevon Diggs and Zack Martin for a few plays each.

But thanks to two first-half passing touchdowns off the arm of Prescott, the Cowboys were able to overcome. The Giants scored a field goal on their opening drive but Dallas answered with a long, methodical response that ended with a Rico Dowdle receiving touchdown, his first score of the season.

Dallas Cowboys Irritating Game Against the NY Giants – Cody Warren, Inside the Star.

Why not all is well that ends well.

The Third Quarter

The Giants received the second-half kickoff. Daniel Jones and the Giants’ offense moved the ball well against the Cowboys’ defense on this series. The Dallas Cowboys’ defense seems to be an extreme version of bend but don’t break, as the Giants would get another field goal. The Cowboys led 14-12.

The Cowboys offense seemed to find some resemblance to a run game in this series. Rico Dowdle and Ezekiel Elliott ran the ball well, but, shocker, a penalty killed the drive. The Cowboys settled for a field goal. The Cowboys would go up 17-12.

The defense decided to show up on this series as rookie Marshawn Kneeland made a big play by getting to Daniel Jones for a five-yard loss. The series would end in a punt. The next offensive series was not good. Run negated by a penalty, run for a loss, run for eight yards, and a pass for three yards. Resulting in a punt. This would basically end the third quarter.

The Irritating Fourth Quarter

The bend but don’t break defense showed up again as the defense held the Giants to a field goal. The Cowboys led 17-15. Dak Prescott and the offense would take over and move the ball down the field, but stall out around the Giants 22-yard line. The series ended in a field goal.

The Cowboys led 20-15. The defense finally decided to start playing and forced a turnover on downs, giving the Cowboys’ offense the ball at the Giants’ 45-yard line. The Cowboys could only move the ball 13 yards on seven plays, ending the drive on Brandon Aubrey’s first missed field goal from 50-plus yards.

The Giants took over at their 32-yard line. Daniel Jones tried to force the ball down the field, but the series and game ended on an interception by the Dallas Cowboys defense. It was not a great game, but some improvement could be seen. The Giants were a terrible team, and they seemed to move the ball down the field too easily. The Dallas Cowboys’ defense must step up to get out of their slump. The offense was not spectacular, but not having a running game kills the offense.

The Dallas Cowboys won, which was a good one, but the Cowboys are not an impressive team at this point. With the number of chances given to the Giants in this game, any other team in the NFL would have beaten the Cowboys.

Cowboys QB Dak Prescott was remarkable in win against Giants on Thursday night – RJ Ochoa, Blogging the Boys

QB1 was excellent in his continued dominance over the Giants.

The Dallas Cowboys offense came to life in their win on Thursday night against the New York Giants. That life did not sustain itself for the entire game, but that is a conversation for a different day. This is the winner’s day and the Cowboys have bought themselves time to breathe.

One of the highlights from Thursday night’s win was clearly Dak Prescott and the form in which he played. Prescott finished 22 of 27 for 221 yards with two touchdowns on the night. His completion percentage over expected was +14.7% so it was a highly efficient evening where he made quite the batch of lemonade with what he had to work with.

The thing is it was a remarkably efficient night for Prescott. According to Next Gen Stats (shout out NFL Pro) Prescott completed 13 of 14 passes specifically that were fired under 2.5 seconds. These specific throws went for 143 of his total yards and included both touchdowns.

Regarding these plays specifically, Prescott held a completion percentage over expected of +21.2%. Once again, it was a highly efficient night for him.

The victory marked Prescott’s latest against the Giants, in fact his 13th in a row. The Cowboys have now won 14 of their last 15 games against their division rivals with the lone loss coming in the 2020 season finale when Prescott did not start. New York last beat a Prescott-led Cowboys team when Dak was just a rookie (they swept Dallas that year).

A big reason for Prescott’s success was the re-emergence of CeeDee Lamb. He had quite the night.