The Boys are back to their Thanksgiving winning ways. The Dallas Cowboys have won their annual Thanksgiving Day game as they overcame their archrival, the New York Giants, 28-20 to overtake them in the NFC East standings.
Even though the score may look like this game was a close, nail-biting, one-score affair, the game itself couldn’t have been further from the truth. The Dallas Cowboys were the superior team by a mile over their archrivals as they outperformed the Giants in practically every single meaningful team statistic.
They had 130 more total offensive yards than the Giants (430 vs. 300), they finished with more passing (261 vs. 210) and rushing yards (169 vs. 90), they had more First Downs (26 vs. 21), they had more 3rd Down conversions (7/11 vs. 3/11), and they finished with a whopping 34:09 minutes of TOP against the Giants 25:51 TOP. In other words, the Giants were ran off the field from the get-go. Literally.
The Dallas running game was all over the Giants defensive frontline as Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard came to play in primetime. Rushing 16 times for 92 yards and 1 TD, Ezekiel Elliott showed that he still has a little juice left in his legs as he carried the Giants linebackers all over the field.
Then, when the Giants finally started to get control of Elliott, the Cowboys would release the second head of their monster running game: Tony Pollard. Pollard carried an equal load to Elliott as he had 18 CAR for 60 yards, which was instrumental in freeing up Elliott and the Dallas passing game.
LBs Jaylon Smith and Micah McFadden stood as little more than moving pylons against Elliott and Pollard as they were able to run at them with free will behind the Cowboys dominating O-Line.
Seriously, the O-Line of Terence Steele, Zach Martin, Tyler Smith, Conor McGovern, and Tyler Biadasz swallowed up the Giants D-Line, which consists of players like Dexter Lawrence and Leonard Williams, and spat them out with regularity. Tyron Smith better come back quickly for the Cowboys or else he might find himself sitting on the bench as a backup.
In all honestly, the only reason why this game didn’t turn into the blowout that it did during the second half was because of Dak Prescott and the Cowboys inconsistent passing game.
Prescott was horrible in the first half as he only managed to lead the Cowboys to that one Elliott touchdown, while also turning the ball over twice as he completed 11/16 passes for 105 yards and 2 INTS. Like I said in the Cowboys game against the Packers, the only reason why this team will not make it to the NFC Championship game is if they have to rely on Prescott to pass them to victory.
I don’t mean to sound harsh, but he is just an overpaid game manager who is also a great leader. That’s just the reality of the situation, and the reason why the Cowboys went into halftime down 13-7.
I mean, it’s not like the Giants offense was anything special in this game. Daniel Jones only went 21/35 for 228 yards and 1 TD, while Saquon Barkley had an extremely off night as he only carried the ball 11 times for 39 yards and 1 TD. Brian Daboll has done a great job with this Giants roster as he has gotten them to overperform well above expectations, but I’m not sure he can squeeze too much more out of them. And especially this offense.
Jones is not the quarterback for the Giants future, and these are the kind of games that prove that. He was unable to capitalize on the many mistakes the Cowboys offense made in the 1st Half, which ended up costing them in the end.
In fact, it hurt them the moment they came out for the second half as Dak Prescott led the Cowboys down the field and connected with Dalton Schultz in the endzone to give the Cowboys a 14-13 lead. A lead that they would hold for the rest of the game.
Prescott made up for his 1st half mistakes by continuing to target and connect with Ceedee Lamb (6 REC, 106 yards), Michael Gallup (5 REC, 53 yards), Jake Ferguson (3 REC, 57 yards) and Schultz (4 REC, 31 yards, 2 TDs) as he added two more TDs to push the Cowboys lead up to 28-13, which they would hold onto as the Giants obviously could only make it a one score game by the end.
Nonetheless, this game was a great equalizer for the NFC East standings as the Cowboys (8-3), who were clearly a better team, overtook the Giants (7-4) with this win.
I still believe both teams will make it to the playoffs, but it is going to be tough for the Giants to advance any further as they are now destined to face off against either the Vikings or the 49ers in the Wild Card round.
As for the Cowboys, they’re in prime position to challenge the Eagles for the division title and 1st place in the NFC.
Oh, and happy Thanksgiving to everyone reading this as well as RIP John Madden.
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