Timber wood
This year, the Cowboys can be thankful for the finite nature of losing streaks. Just a few days ago, they pulled off a chaotic win over the Commanders on the road to snap a five-game losing streak. Then, on a short week to play their classic Thanksgiving game, the Cowboys snapped their home losing streak, beating the Giants 27-20 for their first win at AT&T Stadium since December 30 of last year.
They did so with a healthy helping of Rico Dowdle, along with some inspired defensive play. The Cowboys got the ball to start the game and started moving the ball quickly. Two big pass plays to KaVontae Turpin and CeeDee Lamb helped flip the field, but an incomplete pass on third down brought up a field goal, which Brandon Aubrey made with ease.
Then it was the Giants’ turn, and a chance for Drew Lock to make his first start of the year after Tommy DeVito was injured in his first start of the year this past week. New York got off to a hot start, successfully converting a fourth-and-short before Lock ripped off a huge 29-yard scramble that was initially ruled a touchdown. Replay confirmed he had stepped out just one yard short, but the Giants ran in for the score on the next play to go up 7-3.
The Cowboys took the field again looking to respond, but a face mask penalty on the offense backed them up to second and 21. Cooper Rush handed it off to Dowdle on a draw, and the running back surged forward through several broken tackles to rack up 22 yards and the first down. He followed it up with a 13-yard run that lit the offense on fire. Before long, Dallas was in field goal range again, and they drilled a field goal after the first of several drops from CeeDee Lamb came on third down.
Following the field goal, Aubrey kicked off the ball and Dallas forced a fumble on the return. New York managed to recover it, but then turned it over anyway on the first play of the drive in spectacular fashion:
DeMarvion Overshown batted a pass, caught the ball and ran it in for a touchdown. It got the Dallas defense fired up, and they played lights out for the rest of the first half. The Giants would net just nine yards on their next four drives, getting a field goal in there solely because of a punt return that started the drive off at the Dallas 29. New York finally got the ball moving in the two-minute drill right before halftime, but they didn’t score any points and went into the break trailing 13-10.
The Giants got the ball to start the third quarter, but they turned it over after just three plays. Eric Kendricks punched the ball out when Lock tried to scramble past him, and Carl Lawson fell on it. The Cowboys offense took over just 38 yards away from points, and a screen pass to Turpin on third down set them up in goal-to-go.
On second and goal, Rush rolled out on a play action bootleg before turning upfield to run in for the score. As he went down short of the endzone, the ball came out and was recovered by a defender in the endzone. However, replay showed that Rush was down by contact prior to the fumble, giving them the ball back. On the next play, Rush hit Brandin Cooks – in his first game back from injury since Week 4 – for a touchdown to go up 20-10.
The Dallas defense forced a three-and-out on the next drive, giving the ball back to their offense again. After moving the chains a couple of times, Rush hit Jalen Tolbert on a deep shot down the sideline that picked up 36 yards and flipped the field. A few plays later, Dowdle powered in for a touchdown to put Dallas up 27-10.
The Giants went on to score 10 unanswered points in the fourth quarter, but the Cowboys had already transitioned into a run-heavy approach to grind out the clock. By the time New York cut it down to a one-score game, there were just over two minutes left and Dallas was able to move the chains and take a knee to celebrate the win.
Dowdle had another big game, breaking triple digits for the first time this year with 112 rushing yards on 22 carries. He had four different runs of 10+ yards and broke multiple tackles throughout the game, stabilizing the offense even as Lamb missed the last few drives of the game with an apparent injury.
The defense took another big step forward despite missing Trevon Diggs for the second straight game. Josh Butler, who had a career game last week, left early with a scary looking knee injury, but Lock still had very few places to go with the football. He was sacked six times and turned it over twice, while the Giants running backs averaged just 3.5 yards per carry.
This now moves the Cowboys up to 5-7 on the year and gives them their first winning streak since the beginning of October, when they followed up a win over the Giants by beating the Steelers. Their next game will come at home on Monday Night Football against the currently 4-7 Bengals before traveling to face the 3-8 Panthers, which opens up the conversation of Dallas perhaps going on a run despite seemingly being out of the hunt entirely just a few weeks ago.
It’s still too early to tell if the momentum will continue, but for the first time in a very, very long time, the vibes in Dallas are actually good again.