Well, it’s over. After Sunday’s 34-17 loss for the Dallas Cowboys at the New York Giants, the team finished at 7-9-1, their second in a row with a losing record. Also gone is their previous nine-game win streak against the Giants. The Giants pushed this streak to the limit in Week 2 when Russell Wilson nearly beat the Cowboys in Arlington, before Dallas won on a Brandon Aubrey field goal in overtime. They ended the streak officially in Week 18 with rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart, and building a two-game
win streak of their own for the first time since weeks 11-14 of 2023 (a season in which they were swept by the Cowboys by a combined score of 89-17).
The Cowboys and Giants had to find their own motivation, reasoning, and game plans for their head-to-head matchup in New Jersey. For the Cowboys under Brian Schottenheimer and the Giants being led by interim head coach Mike Kafka, they came up with similar reasons about wanting to still compete hard and build whatever momentum is possible to carry into next season. By winning consecutive games for the first time in multiple seasons and having a 100+ yard rusher for the first time in 23 games, the Giants outdid the Cowboys in this area, but also cost themselves the number one overall pick in the process.
The Cowboys showed no interest in padding Dak Prescott’s individual record against the NFC East and streak versus the Giants specifically, in a way that somehow would have felt even more hollow than much of the late-season games the Cowboys found themselves in once out of contention.
For the final time for quite a long time, let’s get to some notes on the Cowboys season finale.
Statistically, this will go as yet another game where the Cowboys offense was poor in the second half, but obviously the context of making a change at quarterback in an already meaningless game from the start needs to be remembered here. With that said, for the entire afternoon the Cowboys lost the battle of field position once again, meaning they were taking the hard road to putting up any points at all, controlling the game with their own offense on the field, or allowing their defense to have ample space behind them to defend. This started from the opening kickoff as Aubrey’s kick hit one of the up men for the Giants, allowing them to start from the 40-yard line. Although the Cowboys defense forced their only legitimate punt of the game right after this, said punt pinned the Cowboys offense at their own one.
Prescott proceeded to fumble a center-quarterback exchange to put the Giants right back to work on an even shorter field, where they got the first points of this game to lead 3-0. In the sad state of impossibly low expectations for the Cowboys defense this season, holding the Giants to three straight field goals in the first half had to be considered a win, but the Cowboys only managed one touchdown and a field goal of their own, and a turnover on downs to answer these points and never lead by more than four.
The second Giants field goal to go ahead 6-3 did come after a second straight week of Jadeveon Clowney getting a third-down sack in the red zone to hold the opponent to three points, which was the first of a career-high three sacks in the game for Clowney.
On offense for the two scoring drives in the first half from Dallas, there were a few highlights to feel good about as well. The Cowboys got all of their tight ends involved on the first drive to tie the game. After a rollout completion to Luke Schoonmaker, the Cowboys used a motion from Brevyn Spann-Ford as a blocker and sprung Jaydon Blue for a ten-yard burst. The very next play featured Jake Ferguson lined up in the backfield and also seeking out a defender for a Blue run that set up 1st-and-goal, but on 3rd-and-goal a fade for George Pickens had no chance and led to the Aubrey kick. Pickens and CeeDee Lamb both finished the game with just one catch.
For the briefest of moments in a game for just the diehards to care about, the Cowboys offense showed their multiplicity and physicality. Blue in his first extended work of the season and later fellow rookie Phil Mafah looked like backs that could have given Dallas even more depth to their run game, the kind of which would have helped them control games when remembering Javonte Williams’ strong season as a FA addition as well. The Schottenheimer offense had easy to spot differences from offenses of the past for the Cowboys this season, and the most noticeable was likely their condensed formations, frequent motions, ability to run the ball between the tackles, and the short to intermediate passes this set up.
The fact the offense was so very rarely in position to play this way thanks to the defense constantly giving up points with no resistance is a shame, but something that lays out a clear goal for what the Cowboys must improve on and what they already have positively to build on for next season. That goal will overwhelmingly be to improve on defense in Dallas, but the offense could actually use a lot of refining in some of these areas to truly be elite in them as well.
Even with the Cowboys getting a pair of career-first touchdowns from rookie running backs Jaydon Blue and Phil Mafah, it was the Giants using their backs and tight ends better to take the lead and hold on to their fourth win of the year.
On a 4th-and-2 in the red zone, the Cowboys went for it up 10-9 and the coverage stuck to Pickens who was targeted incomplete, and the Cowboys turned the ball over for a second time in the first half. The defense would have their weekly meltdown on the ensuing drive, first when Kenneth Murray was called for a late hit out of bounds penalty. Later on a 3rd-and-16, Murray and rookie Shemar James were the two linebackers in the middle of the field in a “safe” defensive look for the Cowboys. With Dart under some pressure and rolling to his left while Murray started the play lined up far to his right, Murray abandoned the middle of the field and inexplicably rushed in on the pocket from depth. Dart got a little flip pass to TE Daniel Bellinger out of his hands well, well before Murray was ever close to him, and after James along with Donovan Wilson took a bad angle at him, Bellinger turned the broken play into a backbreaking touchdown and 16-10 Giants lead they never surrendered.
The Cowboys had the dreadful combination of poor defenders at both linebacker and safety all season, and an offense that never quite went far enough in attacking opposing linebackers and safeties to maybe close this gap just a little bit. James and Wilson were exposed in this way yet again at the start of the second half when Tyrone Tracy motioned out of the backfield and ran a deep middle route against them for another touchdown.
Even after Tracy did his best to keep the Cowboys in the game by fumbling the ball on a screen pass that was recovered by Clowney and led to Mafah’s touchdown, the Cowboys defense could not find enough of a foothold in this game to make any of it matter. Joe Milton threw a pick on the very first play of a drive following a Giants field goal to go back ahead by two scores, and the Giants made quick work shredding the Cowboys defense again on the sudden change. A third-down throw into the flat for Tracy set up a 1st-and-goal that Devin Singletary bowled over the Cowboys defense to score on, and after a three and out by the Cowboys, the Giants pushed Tracy over 100 yards rushing while bleeding the clock with their 34-17 lead.
The Cowboys defense had the dishonor of being the first to allow a Giants running back to go for 100 yards this season on the same day they became the first Cowboys defense ever to allow 500+ points in a season.
As I do every year when the time to write these final game notes of the season comes, I’d like to personally thank anyone that followed along with my coverage of the team yet again this season. In a difficult season to ultimately put into words, fun was still had trying to make the most of each week and dive into the matchups, and as always I learned more and more about the game while working alongside some amazing people. I continue to hope that if I’m achieving one thing and one thing only by talking about the Cowboys, that thing is keeping Mark Lane’s memory alive and making my former co-host proud. The personal note I bet he’d be most proud of that happened before this season even began? Getting engaged back in July. At least my future wife will know I’m loyal, sticking with the Cowboys for as long as I have, and not knowing any other way at this point than sharing that experience with you the readers. Thank you!
