Post by Matt Meyer, Sports Morning and College Football Coverage Producer @bluto51 on Twitter
Fun Monday night in New York. Two decent teams played a competitive and entertaining game, save a few penalties, and the result went the good guys’ way. Cowboys 23 Giants 16.
Pressure bursts pipes and the Cowboys made Daniel Jones’ life miserable. Five sacks, 12 hits, and over 20 pressures. I don’t know how anyone could function. Even with Micah Parsons overcoming an illness, Dallas still harassed Jones all evening. Hello DeMarcus Lawrence…feel free to stay awhile. Hope his foot isn’t hurt too bad. I know he came back in the game but I worry about that. Pat Jones knows a thing or two about what great defense looks like and he was really impressed with how the Cowboys played. Yes, Dallas will see better offenses than New York, but so far this season, the Cowboys have allowed 19 points to Tampa Bay, 17 to Cincinnati, and 16 to the Giants. That’s winning football. Run defense could use to tighten up, but leading a pass happy league in sacks works.
I’ll tell you what else is winning football. 30 carries for 176 yards as a team. Makes life a whole lot easier for any QB. Cooper Rush was pretty good again, 21-31 for 215 yards and a TD, a one handed grab of a perfect throw by CeeDee Lamb. Running game really took off when Jason Peters came in at left guard. That interests me.
Back to Rush. Look folks, Dak Prescott is the better player and he will be the starter when he’s healthy enough. What Rush’s play shows is 1) the Cowboys don’t have to rush Prescott back, not that they should anyway, and 2) this formula works. Run the ball, set yourself up in good situations offensively, high percentage throws. Imagine having that philosophy with a more talented QB. Yes, I know the Cowboys are 30th in scoring offense, but two of the three games they’ve had a backup QB and a depleted group of targets, and the other game, they went against arguably the best defense in football. Prescott, Gallup, and Washington are all coming back at some point, and the first two are key to this team can making any kind of run.
If you know me, you know I’m a very pessimistic fan. Part of that is I try not to homer out over my team. Part of that is just being a Cowboys fan and being used to my team being overrated and disappointing, often at the same time. This game with Washington does worry me a little bit. The Eagles embarrassed the Commanders’ offense last week, racking up more sacks (9) than Washington had points (8). However, short week for Dallas, people starting to sing their praises a little, and I can assure you that Ron Rivera has his team focused. Dallas ran Washington out of AT&T Stadium a year ago on a Sunday night. That doesn’t happen this weekend.
Dallas 20 Washington 17.