ARLINGTON, TEXAS — What either the Dallas Cowboys (4-7) or the New York Giants (2-9) will hope is a happy Thanksgiving, depending on the day’s outcome: the NFC East’s bottom two teams will go head-to-head for the third time ever on the holiday; Dallas with the upperhand, having won both of the previous matchups, dating back to 1992 and most recently in 2022.
Football on Thursday:
The Cowboys and Giants game will be one of three games played on Thanksgiving day. Dallas has played annually on the holiday since the beginning of the Super Bowl era, winning the past two years, notably beating the Giants 28-20 in 2022.
A regular rivalry:
These two teams have already met this season, on a Thursday back in September—it finished in favor of the Cowboys, who beat the Giants 20-15 in the Meadowlands. It was Dallas’ second win of the season back then; the Cowboys having just snapped a five-game losing streak with a 34-26 division win over the Washington Commanders on Sunday, while the Giants just lost their sixth-straight, only scoring seven points in their 23-point loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 12.
Different QBs than expected:
It won’t be the quarterback matchup many expected to see this Thanksgiving, without Dallas’ starting QB Dak Prescott who will be out for the remainder of the season after undergoing surgery for a torn hamstring, and no Daniel Jones as QB1 in New York, the Giants having recently released him. Cooper Rush has stepped in for Dallas, and head coach Mike McCarthy has said he’s been waiting to get Trey Lance some snaps at the right time. Tommy DeVito, on the other hand, is starting again for the Giants. He recorded his first career start at AT&T Stadium in his rookie season last year, and while he’s expected to start on Thursday, he has a sore throwing arm, so fans may see Drew Lock get some minutes. Lock signed with the Giants back in March after playing a season in Seattle with the Seahawks. He played one snap in last week’s loss to the Buccaneers when DeVito went down briefly.
Stat leaders:
Rookie wide receiver Malik Nabers leads the Giants in receiving yards with 67 receptions for 671 yards—208 of those yards came after the catch. His three touchdowns in the air match that of running backs Tyrone Tracy Jr. and Devin Singletary on the ground; Tracy leading the team in carries with 116 for 587 yards. Third on the rushing leaders list for the Giants? Former starting QB Daniel Jones, who is no longer with the team. RB Rico Dowdle has 488 of Dallas’ rushing yards, nearly triple of Ezekiel Elliott’s, who has the Cowboys’ second most. WR CeeDee Lamb, who had a touchdown in Week 4’s win, has a total of 841 receiving yards this season; he’s had 59 catches for 820 yards and four TDs in total through nine games against the Giants.
McCarthy’s thoughts:
“If you need a definition of urgency, we’ve had it around here,” McCarthy said. “We’re still pretty far down in the valley of adversity right now, so we’ve… made one step in the right direction” he said, being that they won, on Sunday, for the first time in over a month. “We’ve still got a lot of climbing to do.” Only three days are between Dallas’ Week 12 and 13 games, so he said the rest and recovery is critical heading into Thursday.
