Post by Matt Meyer | @Bluto51 on X
It was a Happy Thanksgiving in North Texas this year as the Dallas Cowboys beat a division rival for the second week in a row, getting past the New York Giants 27-20 on Thanksgiving Day. Dallas won a game inside AT&T Stadium for the first time since December 30th of last year, improving their record to 5-7 on the season. Cowboys have won 8 straight and 15 of the last 16 against the Giants.
Cowboys trailed 7-6 after two long drives resulted in Brandon Aubrey FG’s. On the first play of the Giants’ second possession, DeMarvion Overshown tipped a Drew Lock pass high in the air, retrieved it, and took it to the house for a 23 yard TD. One of the best plays of Dallas’ season. After an uneventful 2nd quarter, the Cowboys took control in the 3rd, as Overshown recovered a fumble on the Giants’ 3rd play of the 2nd half, leading to a Brandin Cooks’ TD catch six plays later. After a New York 3 and out, Dallas marched 70 yards in 9 plays, and Rico Dowdle found the end zone from 9 yards away, putting the Cowboys up 27-10. The Giants would add a FG and a TD, but Dallas would pick up a first down on the final possession of the game to close it out.
I still don’t think the Cowboys have any hope of making the playoffs, but they have played better the last couple of weeks. Dallas has been solid defensively, allowing 9 and 10 points in the first three quarters of the last two games. Closing out Washington proved difficult as the Cowboys needed a couple of KO returns for TD’s, one on an onside kick, to hold off the Commanders’ rally. Ten of the Giants’ 20 points came in the 4th quarter after the game had been decided. Getting Micah Parsons back has made an immeasurable difference, and hopefully DeMarcus Lawrence can return from his foot injury soon. DaRon Bland has returned at one CB spot, but on the other side, Trevon Diggs has missed the last two games with groin and knee injuries. It’s been a struggle in year 1 of Mike Zimmer’s return to Dallas, but Overshown has played terrific and the defense is different when Parsons is on the field.
Offensively, Cooper Rush has settled in after a rocky start replacing Dak Prescott this year. After struggling mightily in his first start against Philadelphia, Rush has thrown for 796 yards over the last three games. Rush has thrown 5 TD’s and 2 INT’s in 185 attempts this season, with 4 scores and 1 pick over the last three contests. Dallas would prefer to not ask Rush to do too much, and Dowdle could have a big hand in that. Against the Giants, Dowdle became the first Cowboy to gain 100 yards on the ground since Tony Pollard in week 3 of last season…a 26 game span…the longest in Cowboys history. Hopefully Cooks can take some pressure off of CeeDee Lamb and be the 2nd WR threat that Dallas has missed this season. Be nice to get TE Jake Ferguson back as he’s missed the last couple of games after sustaining a concussion against Houston.
Cowboys are back on Monday night this week as they host the Cincinnati Bengals at 7:15 on ABC and ESPN. The Bengals have had as frustrating a season as the Cowboys, perhaps even more frustrating. Cincinnati has lost 6 games in which they’ve scored at least 25 points and 4 games in which they’ve scored at least 33. Seven of the Bengals’ 8 losses have been one score games, and 2 of them have been by 1 point. That’s a whole lot of numbers that add up to one word…frustration. Joe Burrow leads the NFL with 3,337 passing yards, and Ja’Marr Chase leads the league with 1,142 receiving yards. Bengals have struggled defensively but they do have the league leader in sacks, Trey Hendrickson. Stop him and you have a chance to move the ball and score…but it ain’t easy. I’ll be interested to get a feel for how the Cowboys approach this one. Do they air it out, knowing it’s going to take a lot of points to win? Or does Dallas try to possess the ball with Dowdle, something they haven’t done much of this season, and keep the ball out of Burrow’s hands? On passing downs, they better give help to whichever OT Hendrickson lines up against. With Rush under center and a below average offensive line that’s banged up, Dallas doesn’t have enough firepower to keep up with Cincinnati. Bengals 34 Cowboys 24