Giants win over the Cowboys 23-19

"You could see that the Giants were fired up from the start. They were pulling out all the stops on the opening drive. Tight ends Kaden Smith and Evan Engram each had first down catches. Wayne Gallman had a first down on one of his two 8 and 10 yard carries. Daniel Jones showed he could also be a threat on the ground for the Cowboys with a 7 yard scramble. Sterling Shepard topped things off with a 23 yard end-around run, taking the ball into the endzone for a touchdown.
The only concerning note after all this was that Graham Gano missed the extra point. Gano had made 29 straight field goals from all kinds of distances, and in this last game of the season matchup with the Cowboys, you didn't want to see him have a bad day. The Cowboys gained just 15 yards with Andy Dalton taking a sack from Blake Martinez. After the punt, Jones ran for three yards before hitting Austin Mack with a first down pass, but then he fumbled a handoff to Wayne Gallman, turning the ball back over to the Cowboys at the Giants 27 yard line.
Just when things were going well, the Giants had to make a mistake.
Once again the Giants sacked Dalton to kill this Cowboys drive, but they couldn't stop the field goal, so the score was 6-3 in favor of the Giants. Not too much happened after that, until the Giants scored a touchdown midway through the second quarter. It was Shepard again, this time catching a 10 yard pass from Jones. The Cowboys started getting their act together until Dalvin Tomlinson hit Dalton with an 8 yard sack. They ended their drive with another field goal.
With less than a minute left, Jones connected with wide receiver Dante Pettis, and he just barley cleared the endzone for a touchdown. I figured that would be it, but the Cowboys had just enough time to try a long 57 yard field goal to end the half, and it was good. The Giants were leading 20-9 after scoring three touchdowns, and the best part was that they were holding the Cowboys to field goals.
That changed in the second half, as we were treated to the usual Giants-fan-trepidation. Jones pass to Evan Engram batted up from his hands and was intercepted. The Cowboys turned that into a touchdown, and scored a field goal after that. Later in the fourth quarter I was nervous when Gano came in to try his first field goal of the day. I knew he had kicked two extra points after missing that first one, but this was a long 50 yarder, and a miss would give the Cowboys nice field position. The kick was good, and having a four point lead was a small measure of relief until the Cowboys got down to the Giants 7-yard line.
A sack on Dalton followed up by an interception, quelled my fears, and I was excited as the Giants were about to win this game. Then as they were running the clock down, Wayne Gallman looked to have fumbled the ball away at the Giants 39-yard line, but the review showed that he had recovered it. A few plays later, and the Giants had won! It was quite some game to watch, and the Giants finished the season on a high note. They still even have a shot at getting to the playoffs. I can't wait to watch the game tonight between Washington and the Eagles. It's hard to root for either of those teams, but repeat after me - 'An Eagles win and the Giants are in!' - 'An Eagles win and the Giants are in!'

"I thought Daniel Jones was going to lean heavily on Evan Engram after his first pass in the game went to him for a 14 yard completion. It turned out that it was the only pass he threw to Engram in the first half. Maybe that was a good thing. Jones first pass in the second half went to Engram, bounced up off his hands, and was intercepted. Jones had thrown 177 passes without an interception before that.
It became a momentum changer for the Cowboys, who were down 20-9, and had just gone three-and-out on their opening drive in the third quarter. The Cowboys scored a touchdown, and on the Giants next drive, Engram dropped a pass that would have bailed them out on a 1st-and-25 play. Jones next pass to him went for just 3 yards, and Jones scrambled for 11 after that, but it wasn't enough. After the punt, the Cowboys scored a field goal, and the Giants lead had shrunk to 20-19 just as the fourth quarter was getting underway.
Graham Gano gave the Giants a much needed buffer with his 50 yard field goal. Now the Cowboys needed nothing less than a touchdown to take the lead before the game ended. They engineered a time consuming drive that forced the Giants to use all three timeouts. Leonard Williams came up with a sack on Andy Dalton for a 10 yard loss when he had a 1st-and-goal from the Giants 7-yard line. Then on third down, the Cowboys drive ended with an interception in the end zone by Xavier McKinney.
The rookie safety almost had one earlier on the Cowboys first drive of the game, but a holding penalty on Darnay Holmes gave the ball back to the Cowboys. McKinney's first career interception here, effectively ended the Cowboys chances. Wayne Gallman did almost give them one more chance on the Giants final possession, but Gallman recovered his fumble.
Now the Giants are in a position to win the division title and head into the playoffs if, - and it's a big 'if'- the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Washington Football Team later tonight. Philadelphia can't improve their last place position in the standings, and they have already stated that a lot of their playmakers would be sitting out this game."

Sterling Shepard had 8 receptions for 112 yards, and his first 100-yard game of the season.

Leonard Williams had a career high 3 sacks, bringing his season total to 11.5 sacks.

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