The Dallas Cowboys inched closer to their first playoff berth since 2018 with a 21-6 win over a depleted New York Giants roster on Sunday. Defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence forced a fumble and made two other big plays that directly led to 15 points for the NFL-East leading Cowboys. Dallas could clinch the division title with a Washington loss or tie on Tuesday against the Eagles. They also have a realistic shot at the number one seed following the Saints upset, shut out win over Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Once again, the Dallas Cowboys defense was the difference forcing 4 turnovers while the offense continued to struggle. Dak Prescott threw a touchdown pass to Dalton Shultz and Ezekiel Elliott scored on a 13-yard run but the offense had to settle for 3 Greg Zuerlein field goals as they repeatedly could not get it done in the redzone. Giants kicker Graham Gano kicked field goals of 35 and 42 yards but New York (4-10) had an even harder time finding the endzone than the Cowboys did. The Giants have now lost their third straight game with backup Mike Glennon starting for the injured Daniel Jones (neck). Meanwhile, the Cowboys (10-4) have reeled off 3 straight victories despite being in the midst of an offensive slump.
This game was not as close as the final score indicated but would have been a lot worse had the offense been as lethal as they were earlier in the season. Dallas had four takeaways in three straight games for the ninth time in team history, and for the first time since 1994. The Cowboys never trailed in this game and the Giants never looked threatening against a defense that only registered 1 sack but was in Mike Glennon’s face all day forcing mistakes. The Cowboys defense recorded 3 interceptions, including Trevon Diggs’ NFL-leading 10th interception. The three interceptions gave Dallas a league-high 23 picks on the season. The Cowboys also got interceptions from Jourdan Lewis (a.k.a. Ball Gawd) and Malik Hooker. Lewis’ pick came after DeMarcus Lawrence hit Glennon while he was throwing the ball. That led to the first score on an Ezekiel Elliott’s TD run on a draw play. Prescott’s 1-yard TD pass to Dalton Schultz capped off a short third-quarter drive that started after Lawrence and Neville Gallimore stuffed Glennon on a fourth-and-1 sneak from the New York 29. Prescott finished the game 28 of 37 for 217 yards and 1 TD. Schultz caught all eight of his targets for 67 yards. The Cowboys offense was very conservative and rarely took shots down the field. The run game looked a lot better than it has in recent weeks but that was expected given the competition. The return of Connor Williams into the starting lineup also may have impacted the run game. Still, the Cowboys offense is a far cry from the explosive unit that was carving up defenses earlier this years. Growing concern among Cowboys fans has likely not subsided despite the improvement and the victory.
The Dallas Cowboys have completely flipped the script from earlier in the season when the offense carried the defense. Now, the defense is winning games while the offense struggles to find its way. The emergence of the Dallas defense has coincided with the return of some of its biggest difference makers with DE DeMarcus Lawrence being the most significant. Lawrence was sidelined from a broken foot he suffered in week 1 against Tampa Bay and this is only his second game back. Lawrence wreaked havoc on the Giants offensive line and set up 10 of the 15 first-half points with his big play ability. On one play, Lawrence managed to punch the ball out of Saquon Barkley‘s hands and teammate Carlos Watkins recovered it at the Giants 46 yard line with only :41 seconds left in the half. That stalled a potential scoring drive for the Giants who were going to get the ball back in the second half; and, after Zuerlein hit a 27-yard field goal, it extended the Cowboys lead to 15-3. Zeurlein also converted from 26 and 42 yards, but missed two extra points kicking into a crosswind.
The Giants’ didn’t have much to celebrate about in this game, other than maybe ending Cowboys rookie LB Micah Parsons‘ run of getting a full sack in six straight games. New York also managed to keep the score respectable. Last time they met the Cowboys on Oct 10th, they got blown out by a score of 44-20. One silver lining for New York was that they got an opportunity to allow young QB Jake Fromm to get his first NFL action and he looked calm and poised as he led the Giants down the field against the Cowboys defense in garbage time.
*Photo by Joe Glorioso; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode