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Giants (2-9) Cowboys (4-7)
The Cowboys were able to pull off a win on
Sunday against Washington. The Commanders scored a touchdown in the last seconds,
but missed on an extra point that would have tied things up. The Cowboys ended
up with a 34-26 win as the game closed out.
The
Giants couldn't hold their own against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They got off
to a poor start, and it stayed that way throughout the game. The final score was
30-7 in favor of Tampa Bay. Dallas
Cowboys
The Cowboys finished in first place
in the NFC East last year, and went on to lose in their Wild Card playoff game
with the Green Bay Packers. Ownership must have felt that the team was pretty
set as they didn't do very much in the free agent market during the off season.
Any thoughts of winning the division title have taken a back seat now to just
finishing up with a winning season. Dallas
Cowboys Offense
The
Cowboys offense did very well last year. They ranked 5th in the NFL in total offense,
2nd in third down percentage, and most important first in points scored. Dak Prescott
had 410 completions for 4516 yards with 36 touchdowns, the most in the NFL. Cooper
Rush has been the starting quarterback for the last three games as Prescott is
on injured reserve. Rush played his best game last time out, completing 75 percent
of his passes, and threw 2 touchdowns.
CeeDee Lamb is the top receiver on
the team, and the most heavily targeted. Lamb finished last season with 12 touchdowns,
and is tied for the lead with 4, along with Jalen Tolbert, who has less than half
the receptions Lamb has had. Tolbert caught two of his four with Rush throwing,
and Lamb has none since Rush took over the quarterback spot. Tight end Jake Ferguson
is the third leading receiver, but will be missing his second game in a row.
Running
back Rico Dowdle has 3 receiving touchdowns, and has moved up from the second
spot last year to be the lead rusher now, as Tony Pollard is no longer on the
team. In the last two games the Cowboys have won, Dowdle has seen his most carries.
He took advantage of those opportunities, rushing for over 85 yards in both. Ezekiel
Elliott doesn't get fed the ball as much as he used to, but he has two of the
teams three rushing touchdowns. Prescott has the other. Dallas
Cowboys Defense
The
Cowboys currently rank 31st in points allowed,
and that's a big turnaround from last year where they were 5th, giving up just
18.5 points a game. Now it's 29, and there's also been a big downturn in their
rushing defense which was about average, also to next to last, giving up 151 yards
a game. They'd like to see their rushing defense play as well as it did in their
first game with the Giants. They held the Giants to just 26 rushing yards on 24
carries. They must have been ecstatic as they went into that game giving up 186
yards a game. Tyrone Tracy had only four carries in that game, as the Giants didn't
know what they had in him or how to use him then.
The Cowboys passing defense
has also dipped from 5th place to 21st. They've come up with 28 sacks on the season,
and linebackers Micah Parsons and DeMarvion Overshown, are the heavy hitters with
5 apiece. Parsons had missed four games after suffering an ankle injury against
the Giants. The defense is on an upswing since his return and Parsons had two
of his sacks in his first game back, and two on Sunday. In that game, the defense
came up with 4 total sacks, a fumble recovery and two interceptions, by defensive
end Chauncey Golston and safety Israel Mukuamu. Giants
Offense
In that first game against the Cowboys,
the running game wasn't working at all to say the least. They were up against
the worst rushing defense in the league. Daniel Jones kept at it, and completed
29 of 40 passes for 281 yards. He hit Malik Nabers 12 times for 115 yards, and
Wan'Dale Robinson 11 times for 71 yards. In the end, the Giants lost 20-15. In
the Giants first game without Daniel Jones on the team, things did not go well.
The offense managed to come up with just 7 points The Giants currently have the
fewest points in the league, a grand total of 163.
They needed to get off
to a fast start against Tampa Bay, and the outcome was that they have now played
seven games without scoring a first half touchdown. They didn't include Nabers
during that half, and he was vocal about it after the game, and likely rightfully
so. When they did start throwing to Nabers, he had a team high 6 receptions for
64 yards. The offensive line had to make a switch in the game, as Jermaine Eluemunor,
filling in for Andrew Thomas, was quickly out, and Chris Hubbard was in at left
tackle.
Offensive line shuffling is nothing new for the Giants, and their new
starter in the quarterback role was Tommy DeVito. He did his best, throwing 31
passes, completing 21 for 189 yards, while taking four sacks. Things could shift
on offense once again for this game as DeVito's has a sore throwing arm, and Drew
Lock could be the starter. We haven't seen much of Lock, but his preseason game
playing wasn't inspiring. He completed just four of his 10 passes for 17 yards
and had an interception. Giants
Defense
The Cowboys can't run the ball,
and Dexter Lawrence is out there to make it stay that way. The bigger issue is
containing CeeDee Lamb. He was Dak Prescott's favorite target last year, with
135 completions, the most in the NFL. Lamb is currently the top receiver in the
league with 77 catches. Cooper Rush looked his best last week so they'll have
to bring the pressure.
They led the league in sacks by a good measure, but
have come up with just one sack in the past three games. They
also have not intercepted a pass in 10 consecutive games. That ties an NFL record
set in 2017. Missed tackles that lead to big plays has been their biggest problem.
There's been some talk after last weeks loss, and the defense has to show that
they are really all in for the rest of the games they play.
Overall
Things
have changed since these teams met up in Week 4 with 1-2 records. The Cowboys
got the win, but since have added only two more. The Giants have done worse, adding
just one to their record. Dak Prescott and Daniel Jones were the starting quarterbacks,
and now Prescott is on injured reserve, and Jones is off the team. The Cowboys
broke their five game losing streak, winning their in last game against the Commanders.
Neither team has won a game at home this season. If that holds true, the Giants
will break their six game losing streak. NFC
East Games
Thursday at 4:30pm Giants (2-9)
at Cowboys (4-7)
Sunday at 1:00pm Titans (3-8) at Commanders (7-5)
Sunday
at 4:25pm Eagles (9-2) at Ravens (8-4)
The Commanders and Cowboys are the
NFC East teams favored to win in these games.
Check out.
Giants
On The Air. Listen to the Radio Broadcasts.
TeamGiants on Twitter.
Next Games
Dec
8 Saints at Giants
Dec 15 Ravens at Giants
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