Dak Prescott had to face the same opponent, in the same stadium, one day before the one-year anniversary of his season ending ankle injury in 2020. It was the Cowboys Giants in week 5 in Dallas for the second straight year and many questioned if Dak would be impacted mentally. It started off shaky with a couple of turnovers but in the end he threw for three touchdowns and over 300 yards in a convincing victory.
The Giants were not a daunting opponent by any means. They were already plagued with injuries before losing running Saquon Barkley to an ankle injury in the first quarter, Daniel Jones with a concussion in the second quarter, and they also lost wide receiver Kenny Golladay in the same game. Still, any game against a division opponent cannot be taken lightly and the Cowboys accomplished what they needed to get done. Dallas now sits comfortably in front of the NFC East division with a 4-1 record.
Saquon Barkley was predicted to be a significant factor in this game but he had only carried the ball twice for a total of 9 yards before a freak accident involving Cowboys cornerback Jourdan Lewis resulted in what appeared to be a badly sprained ankle. Barkely immediately doubled over in pain and the TV footage showed significant swelling on the outside of his left ankle just minutes after he suffered the injury.
Daniel Jones was injured when he was tackled just short of the goal line by Cowboys rookie linebacker Jabril Cox on a bootleg from the 1 yard line. Jones struggled to keep himself upright after the collision and stumbled back towards the huddle while Cowboys safety Jayron Kearse and others rushed to his aid. After a woozy Jones was taken off the field on a cart, the New York Giants (1-4) pulled even at 10 apiece on backup QB Mike Glennon‘s first snap of the season. On that play, Glennon handed the ball off to Barkley’s replacement Devontae Booker on fourth down from the Cowboys 1 yard line. Seeing Jones being carted off was eerily similar to watching an emotional Dak Prescott get carted off the field a year earlier with everyone in the building knowing that his season was over. Glennon and the Giants hoped to reproduce the heroics that the Cowboys back-up from a year ago (Andy Dalton) pulled off in a 37-34 last second victory. Unfortunately for Joe Judge’s squad, the Giants simply could not keep up with the high powered Cowboys offense. Glennon went 16 of 25 for 196 yards and a touchdown in the game but he had also had two costly interceptions. The first interception Glennon threw was to the red hot Trevon Diggs. Diggs is leading the league with a remarkable 6 interceptions in just 5 games! Diggs has now become the second Dallas Cowboys player to accomplish that feat. The first player to do so was Don Bishop in the 1961 season. The second interception was returned for a score by Anthony Brown in the final two minutes.
Dallas (4-1) has now won four games in a row since a loss to the reigning Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the season opener. Prescott remained hot and tossed TD passes to three different receivers. The first was a 49 yard bomb to CeeDee Lamb. That was followed up by a 24 yard strike to Amari Cooper. The third was a clever pass in the flat to Ezekiel Elliott who high stepped it into the endzone from 4 yards out. The last TD pass came shortly after an injury scare for Zeke who had missed two plays after falling awkwardly on his back. Thankfully, Elliott does not appear to have any lingering ill effects from that episode. Elliott finished the game with more than 100 yards rushing. It was the first time he has recorded back to back 100 yard games since the 2019 season. The Cowboys running game once again eclipsed the 200 yard mark overall and the offense finished with a grand total of 515 yards.
Last year, the Cowboys came away with the victory over the Giants in front of a limited crowd of spectators due to the pandemic but the loss of Dak Prescott had loomed far larger than the final result. This year, Dak Prescott was able to celebrate the victory with his teammates in front of more than 90 000 fans at AT&T Stadium. After three consecutive home victories, Kellen Moore and the red hot Cowboys offense look unstoppable. Next week, they will travel to New England and face the ultimate test; the evil genius/mastermind Bill Belichick and the Patriots.
*Photo by Joe Glorioso; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode