By Alex Al-Kazzaz
With an injury-depleted New York Giants team coming into Arlington, Texas, this game really should have been a walk in the park for Dallas. At least that's how the game was depicted on paper. But reality more often than not will suggest otherwise. It's how the game went that will tell the story. And this game was far from a one-sided contest.
New York came into this game coming off a frustrating home loss to the Detroit Lions. Dallas was fresh off a 40-3 win over Kirk Cousins & Company in Minneapolis. With both teams coming in with a 7-3 record and hungry for the NFC East's second playoff spot, it was clear that reality insisted that this game could be a hard-fought match. Dallas overcame a disappointing first half and got the job done. A 28-20 final score with Dallas improving to 8-3 with New York falling to 7-4.
In the beginning, when Mike McCarthy decided to unsuccessfully go for it on 4th and 2 in Dallas territory, things were already looking bad. Dallas was very lucky that New York had a touchdown taken away due to a penalty, and when Dak Prescott threw an interception, they were fortunate that AGAIN the defense bailed them out.
Dallas was able to make the score 7-3 on their offensive drive only for New York to immediately respond and make it 10-7. After back-to-back punts from both teams, Dallas was driving down the field but another Prescott interception saw another scoring opportunity go down the toilet. A Daniel Jones interception was nullified by a costly penalty by Trevon Diggs and New York was able to make it 13-7 going into half-time.
On the opening drive of the second half, Dallas nearly took half the 3rd quarter to find the endzone to make it 14-13. New York was stopped on fourth down on the next drive and Dallas immediately responded with another scoring drive to take an eight-point lead. New York punted and Dallas scored again. Another fourth-down offensive mishap ended New York's comeback hopes and while Dallas' offense didn't find the endzone and missed a field goal on their drive, New York was able to drive down the field and score with 1:05 left to make it 28-20. The onside kick was recovered by Dallas and that was it.
Another brilliant game for Micah Parsons. He sacked Jones twice thus getting his sixth-career multi-sack game and joining DeMarcus Ware with the most multi-sack games in a season. Dalton Schultz caught two touchdowns and had his third multi-touchdown game, which is the third-most for a tight end in franchise history. Finally, Prescott's two touchdown passes give him 153 in his career, which allows him to tie with Roger Staubach for the fourth-most passing TDs in franchise history. Ezekiel Elliott's 92 yards are a season-high. And CeeDee Lamb's six catches for 106 yards were spectacular. Unfortunately, his one-handed touchdown reception was ruled incomplete.
Dallas will host Indianapolis on December 4th. December isn't exactly the best month and friendliest month for the Cowboys, but they'll look to win out in order to secure a playoff berth and finish the season strong. The highlight of the month is a home game against Philadelphia, which is a must-win for Dallas to avenge their loss earlier in Philadelphia. Dallas is determined to make a deep playoff run. Now that December is just about here, the time has come for the team to fully prove and solidify itself as a contender.