ARLINGTON, TX – The Dallas Cowboys (8-3) gobbled up the New York Giants (7-4) this season, sweeping them after a 28-20 win on Thanksgiving Day in AT&T Stadium.
Dallas started off the game with two bumpy drives that didn’t go anywhere on offense. The Cowboys decided to take the fourth down and missed it, giving New York the ball within the 40 yard line. That gave the Giants great field range to put some points on the board and they managed to get a field goal out of it. New York was up 3-0 with nine minutes left in the first quarter.
At the end of the first quarter Cowboys had 80 total rush yards while Dallas’s defense held New York to just six.
On the next Cowboys possession QB Dak Prescott threw an interception but New York couldn’t convert. The next drive for Dallas you could see rhythm coming together on offense. Between Tony Pollard, Ezekiel Elliott, CeeDee Lamb, and Michael Gallup they were getting the ball down the field. Elliott scored his third touchdown in the last two weeks and Dallas took a 7-3 lead.
The Giants answered with a 44-yard throw from QB Daniel Jones to WR Darius Slayton at the one yard line which turned into a touchdown for New York giving the Giants a 10-7 lead.
Following another Prescott interception the Giants held that lead going into the half 13-7 after grabbing a field goal with three seconds left.
Dallas had the ball coming out of the half and Prescott and his WR1 could not find rhythm. What was going to be a forced punt turned into an automatic first down after the Giants defense bailed out the Cowboys offense yet again with penalties. Cowboys converted with a 15-yard touchdown from Prescott to Schultz to take a 14-13 lead.
The defense followed up with a massive stop that was led by Micah Parsons who recorded his 11th sack of the season after sacking QB Daniel Jones on third down. Parsons finished the night with 12 sacks on the season, putting him 1.5 sacks away from tying for the lead with Patriots Matthew Judon.
The Cowboys started to play complimentary football after this, the defense made a great stop and the offense answered with a 6-yard touchdown from Prescott to Schultz that was aided by a 21-yard one-handed catch from Prescott to Lamb the play before. Dallas took a 21-13 lead with two minutes remaining in the third quarter.
The tight ends were on a roll after this, the very next touchdown came from TE Peyton Hendershot. The tight ends had a great night producing 21 points for this Cowboys offense. Not taking away any productivity from the wide receivers, they had a great game as well. CeeDee Lamb finished the night with six catches for 106 total yards and Michael Gallup saw more targets than usual, he finished with five catches for 63 total yards.
Head Coach Mike McCarthy had talked about Dalton Schultz and his injury early this week. He said, “The bye week was huge for (Dalton Schultz). I feel like Dalton is back. He’s definitely close to where he was prior to the injury. He’s an all-time pro. I have to try to beat (him) to the stadium on gameday, and I go really early. He does all the little things.”
The Cowboys will have a long weekend and regroup next week to take on the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday, December 4 in AT&T Stadium.
