At least they won.
That was the bare minimum the Cowboys could do after subjecting us to three hours of a slop fight masquerading as a football game. It was the only consolation after their three best defenders left the game due to injury, with the very best one of all (Micah Parsons) being carted off in the fourth quarter.
They should beat this Giants team, after all, the roster of which duct taped one electric playmaker (Malik Nabers) and a handful of outstanding linemen (Dexter Lawrence, Andrew Thomas, Brian Burns) to so much fringe roster bric-a-brac.
Dak Prescott always has handled every manner of the New York Giants, no matter the team construction. He has now won 13 consecutive games against them, tied for the second-best mark ever by a quarterback against a single opponent behind Bob Griese’s 17 against Buffalo.
If you are looking for one non-outcome-based glimmer of hope from Thursday night, you’ll find it in Prescott’s brilliance, in his repeated conjuring of something from nothing—the extra yards he wrested from throws into seemingly nonexistent windows, the hiccup-quick passes he snapped off before his offensive line could give in. He and CeeDee Lamb are the great elevators of a scheme that operates with Cro Magnon levels of sophistication. Nothing the Cowboys have done on offense at the quarter mark looks easy, because it is not designed to be easy. The design, such as it were, involves winning on talent, never mind that Dallas features perilously little of it at the skill positions. Yet there was Prescott turning Hunter Luepke, the should-be anonymous fullback, into a weapon; Jalen Tolbert, the error-prone third-year wideout, into a threat; Jake Ferguson, so workmanlike at tight end, into a playmaker. He made the absolute most of what little he had.
Your mileage may vary about whether the same could be said about the ground game—and whether you should be more alarmed that Dallas’ running backs are performing this badly, or that this may be their ceiling. Neither one excuses the desperation of deploying Lamb as runner, a strategy that is far more likely to succeed in getting Dallas’ best receiver hurt than salvage the rushing attack since, you know, CeeDee Lamb is not a running back.
The endgame was 293 total yards and a heaping of Brandon Aubrey field goals. (He finally missed one from 50-plus yards. He can be spotted a bad kick or three at this point.) It was enough last night. It wouldn’t be most others.
The other side of the ball brought better tidings. The run defense leveled up to something above “far and away the worst rushing defense in the league.” Mazi Smith supplied flickers of first-round pedigree. DeMarvion Overshown performed like Dallas’ next great defensive star. But plenty of warning lights blinked, from the slipshod tackling on a crucial Devin Singletary run on 4th-and-1 to a full highlight film of Nabers gouging a secondary that was battered even before Trevon Diggs hobbled off the field in the second half.
There were too many mistakes across the board. Too many penalties now germane to the Mike McCarthy Cowboys, too many players being asked to do too much. This problem extended from the backs to overmatched cornerback Andrew Booth, to Tyler Guyton being left to fend for himself as linebacker Kayvon Thibodeaux peeled up, over, around, and through him on Prescott’s blind side. (There’s at least a reason for that last one. The situation could have been avoided had Dallas signed Lamb and Prescott sooner to free up money to bring back Tyron Smith.)
It was a rough watch, all of it, and the competition will only stiffen. How can Dallas measure up to Pittsburgh, Detroit, and San Francisco after working this hard to outlast a now 1-3 Giants team? Why should we feel confident Mike Zimmer has the plan or the personnel to slow down the Lions and 49ers offenses, each one fashioned from branches of the oak-strong McVay-Shanahan play calling tree that has given the NFL—and Dallas, in particular—fits? Will Dallas even be close to full strength defensively after the rash of injuries? (There’s early optimism on that front.)
Thursday gave little reason to presume the answers to those questions will be positive. Well, apart from one: Dallas won. And after two weeks of complete aversion to success, that will have to be enough for now.
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