So much for trying to carry momentum in the next year. With the final score of 34-17, the Dallas Cowboys’ 2025 season is now over. The New York Giants, with nothing but pride to play for, soundly beat
the Cowboys to send Dallas into the offseason with a whimper. After a comedy of errors in the first half, the Cowboys opted to sit Dak Prescott in the second half, likely to protect him from any unnecessary injuries. With the loss, the Cowboys fell well short of expectations and to a 7-9-1 record.
The Cowboys have battled their demons of poor fundamental football and a lack of cohesion on the defensive end. The changes coming in the offseason will feel like a much-needed exorcism of sorts. In the big picture, the Cowboys helped their draft positioning. However, losing is never fun or easy, even if there are benefits in the long run. Let’s lay a few roses on the ground as we lay this dreadful season to rest. Here’s how the Cowboys fell flat against the Giants.
Effort and Tackling
We know that personnel is a problem. The Cowboys don’t have enough talent, particularly in the back seven of the defense. That said, that doesn’t excuse them from playing with proper technique and tackling in space. Corey Ballentine had an opportunity to get the defense off the field on 3rd and 11 when Jaxson Dart threw a short pass to Darius Slayton. Unfortunately, Ballentine was unable to make the open field tackle, and Slayton got away for 17 yards and a first down. Later on in this series, New York would score a field goal that wouldn’t have happened if Ballentine had made the stop. The same applies to how the Cowboys struggled to contain plays to the outside against New York. On one occasion, Caelen Carson was supposed to keep containment to the outside of the play, but instead lost his leverage and allowed Tyrone Tracy to get to the edge and pick up a critical first down. Then there’s the unbelievable masterpiece of poor angles and effort:
There’s no way that this should happen. Everyone on defense needs to take the proper angles so that Daniel Bellinger doesn’t have an easy outlet to the end zone. Watch the clip a few times and count out how many defenders could have been in a better position to make the tackle before Bellinger runs into the end zone. Entering this week’s game, the Cowboys have missed 106 tackles this season, the eighth most in the NFL. Tackling has been a season-long issue for the team that gave us one last ugly reminder in the season finale.
Joe Milton is a work in progress
Joe Milton has a lot of talent that would entice many offensive coordinators in the league to work with him. He’s got a cannon for an arm and mobility. However, the rest of his game still needs to be developed. His interception to Bobby Okereke is a prime example of that. Milton was decisive in his read, so credit for that, but not anticipating in that spot before making the throw is where it burned him. Milton also has to improve his accuracy. You’ll see receivers running open, but Milton doesn’t yet have enough touch to put the ball in a good spot. Also, he’s a little late to see when his receivers come open, and he tries to overcompensate a closing window by adding more velocity on his throws, leading to misfires. Milton is only in his second year, so there’s room to improve, but he needs to get in the lab to correct some of these issues.
Coaching
Lastly, the coaching in this game was not allowing the players to be at their best. Going back to Milton, the first two plays of the second half were so predictable. The Giants were licking their chops and waiting for the Cowboys to run the football, where they had back-to-back tackles for loss on two runs to Jaydon Blue. If you’re going to put Prescott on ice for the remainder of the game and his season, at least let Joe Milton come out swinging. The defense isn’t excused from poor coaching either. There is way too much confusion among the players at this stage of the season, and sadly, it has become commonplace.
When you watch the Giants on the two-point conversion to Slayton, you see how disjointed and frantic the defense is before the snap. Nobody knows who they’re responsible for. Taking it further, there was also the decision of Brian Schottenheimer not to decline a penalty near the end of the first half that resulted in a sack. Jadeveon Clowney, who by the way, was incredible against the Giants with three sacks, playfully asked coach Schottenheimer to decline the penalty so that rookie Donovan Ezeiruaku could get a sack. Schottenheimer declines the penalty to put the Giants at 2nd and 14, only for Kenneth Murray to commit an untimely, unnecessary roughness penalty one play later on the Giants’ sideline that results in the drive continuing and Bellinger’s touchdown.
Miscellaneous mistakes
With Murray’s penalty accounted for, the Cowboys committed nine penalties for 94 yards of field position given away to the Giants. Caelen Carson didn’t have a great game in run support, but was also in on the penalty problem. He committed a back-breaking pass interference foul with the Giants only ahead by seven points and Dallas with a chance to tie the game. It was 3rd and 19 from New York’s 18-yard line. Dallas would’ve gotten great field position on a possible punt, and KaVontae Turpin starting to find his groove in the return game, could have been a big play for Dallas.
Instead, the Giants score three more points on the drive, and New York adds to their lead. You can tell that the long season had taken its toll on the players, and their frustration started to boil over. After New York took a two-score lead after a touchdown reception from Tracy, the team had had enough. Ezeiruaku was ejected in a scrum of Giants and a Cowboys defense at its breaking point. What you saw was a team that is angry but doesn’t know where to pick up the pieces, and mercifully, it’s over.
