FULL BOX SCORE

1. It wasn’t pretty, but the Cowboys got a much-needed win. After multiple home losses, the Cowboys’ frustration boiled over in Week 4. No one was happy. Mike McCarthy came up short with a reporter. Players spoke openly about responsibility and taking care of details. Dallas needed a win. Things looked pretty good on Thursday when the Cowboys took a 14-6 lead, like Dak Prescott And CeeDee Lam were carving out the Giants’ secondary. But the penalties kept piling up, starting with Lamb’s celebration penalty after his TD. There were too many flags that turned second-and-short players into third-and-longs on offense. In defense it was stupid things like jumping offside and too many men on the field. There were even four special teams flags everywhere on an ugly wash night. But Dallas’ battered defense kept the Giants out of the end zone, and the offense did just enough Brandon Aubrey ‘s late field goal miss – his first of the season – left the door uncomfortably open. It wasn’t pretty at all, but the Cowboys got back to .500.
2. Why didn’t Brian Daboll go for it on fourth? The Giants trailed 14-9 at halftime and got the ball to open the third quarter. They started humming offensively, with Daniel Jones hitting five plays of 8 or more yards on that drive alone, wearing down a tired and thin Cowboys defense. The Giants faced a fourth-and-goal on the Dallas 3-yard line, and with more than 23 minutes remaining, Daboll nailed the easy field goal. But why turn a one-score lead into a one-score lead? Sure, the clock worked in his favor, but the Giants had been driving up and down the field all game… and settling for slightly longer field goals. This was the closest the Giants had gotten to the end zone all game, and Malik Nabers and Wan’Dale Robinson made up for the lack of a run game. The Giants went for it three times on Monday evening: once prior to this game and twice afterward. So Daboll showed some aggressiveness when he needed to. But when they were three yards from the goal line, he shriveled up. It was an oddly passive moment, and the Giants crossed midfield just once on their last four drives. That was a missed opportunity.
3. The Cowboys defense responds with a valiant effort. The Cowboys heard all week about their 32nd ranked run defense, and they entered this game short-handed in the secondary, with starting cornerback Caelen Carson (who replaces the injured Da Ron Bland) inactive with a shoulder injury. They started Andreas Boot in his place to bench him at halftime after the Giants picked him early. Amani Oruwariye took his place and held on well, making the game-defining interception in the waning seconds. It was an evening where the reserves had to shine, like Demarcus Laurens (foot) left the game and Trevon Diggs had to get an IV in the locker room. Micah Parsons also had to peel himself off the turf. This was a failed defense four days after a heavy home defeat. The pass rush struggled to get home Thursday, and Mike Zimmer’s defense struggled through five grueling field goals, all eight plays or longer. But in the end, the Cowboys held the Giants to 5 for 16 on third downs, erased their run game entirely early and limited New York to 4.7 yards per play. Zimmer has heard criticism of his defense over the past two games, but Thursday’s efforts should limit the screeching in the coming week.
4. Jones, Nabers have their moments, but Giants are stuck. Jones has played at a much higher level since his poor performance in Week 1, stringing together three respectable performances in a row. He connected on 29 of 40 passes for 281 yards, converted a key fourth-down conversion and even drew Dallas offside with a nice hard count. Things looked good until the fourth quarter, when Jones was 7 of 15 for just 45 yards and the desperate move came late. He had relied on Nabers and Robinson all night, who scored 23 of his 29 completions, but when Nabers left the game late with a concussion, the offense fell flat. Nabers had another great performance with 12 catches for 115 yards, but couldn’t corral a fourth down pass with 3:30 remaining. Jones failed on his last three passes and the Giants fell to 1-3. The Giants have something special in Nabers and Jones has responded well, but they aren’t going to win too many games on field goals alone.
5. Dak’s efficient night allows Cowboys to play from the front. The Cowboys looked pretty locked down offensively on two early touchdown drives, containing the Giants’ pass rush and attacking their shorthanded secondary to go up, 14-6. Things didn’t go so smoothly after that, as the Cowboys continued to fail on third downs – they were 3 to 10 for the game. Penalties were a big problem, putting them in many long-range situations. The Cowboys’ run game wasn’t great, but there were plenty of contributions coming from it Rico Dowdle (41 yards rushing, TD catch) and Hunter Luepke (three third- and fourth-down conversions) to keep things moving a bit. Ezekiel Elliott played only 10 snaps, but the Cowboys only played 51 plays. In the end, there were just enough early fireworks from Prescott and Lamb – two highly paid stars who also heard the boo birds this week – to finish off the Giants and earn a division road victory. They will have to be better and cleaner in the future, but the Cowboys had just enough juice.

Next Generation Cowboys-Giants Stats (via NFL Pro): The Giants’ offense ran 23 designed rushing plays for a net 27 yards in Week 4 against the Cowboys, yielding minus-49 rushing yards above expected, the lowest total RYOE on designed runs by the Giants in the NGS era ( since 2016). On designed runs, Giants ball carriers averaged minus 0.1 yards before contact while being contacted behind the line of scrimmage on 48% of those runs.

NFL Research: Malik Nabers has recorded five or more receptions in each of his first four NFL games, tying for the fourth-longest streak to start a career since at least 1970. The record is six, held by CeeDee Lamb of the Cowboys .