Giants lose to the Dallas Cowboys 37-34

"Both teams were aware that Washington and the Eagles had just taken losses in their earlier games. The Giants got to play in front of fans for the first time this season. They were not their fans of course, but fans none the less with real cheering and booing. It was bittersweet for them, and frankly everyone watching so see Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott carted off the field after he injured his ankle In the third quarter.
Before that, even though the Giants gave up an opening drive field goal to the Cowboys, they held a 17-3 lead in the second quarter. They had responded to the Cowboys opening drive, moving all the way down the field and scored with an exciting Evan Engram 3 yard end around for a touchdown. That was followed by the defense scoring after Kyler Fackrell intercepted Prescott's pass and ran it back 46 yards for a touchdown. After that Graham Gano kicked a 55 yard field goal.
The Giants lead disappeared by the end of the half, as the Cowboys went on to score three touchdowns, the worst being a sack-fumble by Daniel Jones that was run back into the end zone. Still, Gano kicked a field goal right after that, so the score was close after the Cowboys last touchdown, with them up just 24-20 to start off the third quarter.
That's when Jones threw what looked to be a 31-yard touchdown pass to Darius Slayton, but there was an offensive pass interference penalty on wideout Damion Ratley. After Gano kicked a 54 yard field goal, the Giants were trailing by just one point. That's when Prescott went down, and Andy Dalton came in for him. Ezekiel Elliott finished that Cowboys drive off with a 12 yard touchdown run.
In the fourth quarter Gano kicked another field goal, and not much later the Giants were up 34-31 when Dalton fumbled the ball, and Blake Martinez recovered it at the Cowboys 17-yard line. Devonta Freeman soon scored, running the ball in from 4 yards out, and the Giants two point conversion worked. The Giants were up 34-31.
The Cowboys next tied the score with a field goal, but the Giants had a chance to close things out. After the kickoff, they had the ball at their own 24-yard line with 1:50 left. They managed to make only one first down before punting, and the Cowboys had the ball at their 12 yard line with less than a minute to play.
It sure looked like this game was headed into overtime, but Cowboys wide receiver Michael Gallup skillfully caught two long sideline catches that were so tight that each went under review. Then with three seconds left, the Cowboys kicked a field goal that gave them a 37-34 win. The Giants came real close in this game. The loyal Cowboy fans, who showed up at AT&T Stadium during these strange times, got some small measure of satisfaction after seeing their star quarterback go down as he did."

"Last week against the Los Angeles Rams, the defense showed improvement. They even kept the Giants in the game all the way to the end before Daniel Jones threw a red-zone interception that put things out of reach. Meanwhile, the Giants offense didn't score a touchdown for the second game in a row. So the story lines for today were how well the Giants defense would do against the Cowboys high powered offense, and could the Giants offense actually get their act together, and score some touchdowns against the Cowboys struggling defense.
The answer was 'yes and no' for both units. On offense, the pass blocking was poor for Daniel Jones, who took two sacks, one of which was a sack-fumble that cost the Giants 7 points. Jones was able to complete only 20 of his 33 passes, and 8 went to Darius Slayton, who was targeted 11 times, coming up with 129 yards. Golden Tate pulled in 4 of 5 for 42 yards. The run blocking looked better as was expected going up against a Cowboys team allowing 172.5 rushing yards per game, and Devonta Freeman and Wayne Gallman took advantage of that.
The defense got off to a nice start, limiting the Cowboys offense to a field goal, and that was followed up with an interception by Kyler Fackrell, who returned it 46 yards for a touchdown.
It goes without saying that no one likes to see a player from either team being carted off the field as we saw today with Dak Prescott. The Giants also lost linebacker Lorenzo Carter early on, and that hurt the teams efforts. Markus Golden replaced him, and though his pass rushing was good, his face-mask penalty late in the game started off a Cowboys drive that ended with a 40-yard field goal to tie the game at 34 with 1:56 left to go.
How does a defense greet a backup quarterback coming cold off the bench? They did it with a sack on his first play, and then they let him complete an overall 9 of 11 passes for 111 yards. During that span, Dalton even fumbled a snap that linebacker Blake Martinez recovered on the Cowboys 17.
In the end, they let Dalton step in and guide the Cowboys on his first drive to a touchdown, and he lead his team to two field goals to seal the win.
The special teams unit almost came up with a touchdown on a trick play, but it was called back because of a penalty. Slayton had a 31-yard touchdown reception taken away because of an offensive pass interference penalty.
Cornerback James Bradberry did a real nice job limiting explosive receiver Amari Cooper to 2 catches for 23 yards, or this game wouldn't have been as close as it was. The Giants hurt themselves with penalties today, and that's just one other reason they lost this game to the Cowboys 37-34. Next week the Washington Team shows up at MetLife Stadium. That's when we'll find out if this Giants team can learn from their mistakes, and maybe win a game."

Giants lost their seventh consecutive game to the Cowboys.

Giants scored their first touchdown since the season opener vs. Pittsburgh on Sept. 14.

Evan Engram is the first Giants tight end with a rushing touchdown since Aaron Pierce in 1996.

[Back to Team Giants] Click on the Team Giants logo to be informed of all Giants game previews, reviews and off season football news. Stop in and visit "Mike's Keys to the Internet" at  MikesKeys.com