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The Dallas Cowboys were able to move to 5-3 and stay in the driver's seat of the NFC East after defeating the New York Giants (2-7) Monday at MetLife Stadium, 37-18.
While Dallas was able to walk away with the victory, they didn't exactly put their best foot forward to start. On the very first play Dak Prescott thew an interception and put the Giants inside the Cowboys' 10 yard line. The offense also stalled out in the red zone early, settled for field goals and Randall Cobb handed New York the football again with a fumble in the second quarter.
All those miscues allowed the Giants to go up by as much as 12-3, but, luckily for Dallas, New York didn't take full advantage of their opportunities either. When they were handed the ball at the Dallas eight to start the game, they couldn't go the rest of the way for a touchdown and settled for three, a common theme throughout the night.
After Dallas eventually clawed back and took a 23-15 lead in the second half, the Giants finally were able to unleash Saquon Barkley for a 65-yard gain to bring them to the Cowboys 11 yard line. But the trend of not being able to score touchdowns reared its ugly head again and they came away with just three points.
From there, Dallas went on an eight-play, 89-yard drive that culminated in a 45-yard touchdown catch and run by Amari Cooper. At that point, the game was completely out of reach.
Daniel Jones completed 26 of his 41 passes for 210 yards, a touchdown and a pick on the night. Meanwhile, Prescott turned in a 257 yard passing performance with three touchdowns and a pick . As for the star running backs, Ezekiel Elliot, 139 yards rushing, was a far more consistent weapon than Saquon Barkley, who finished with 95 yards from scrimmage, as the Giants struggled to get him in space.
From here, the Cowboys will head home to face the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday Night Football. The Giants will regroup and stay in town as they'll play their MetLife Stadium roommate in the New York Jets.
Oh yeah, there was a black cat on the field tonight and it was glorious.
Stay tuned as this piece will turn into a takeaways from the game.
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And that'll do it. Dallas defeats the Giants 37-118 on Monday Night Football. Thanks for following along with us tonight! Seahawks and undefeated 49ers are set for next Monday. Should be a really good one!
Daniel Jones has now lost five fumbles over the last three games.
Boy, what a gut wrenching way for that game to end for the Giants. In a game where it looked like they could pull off the upset, they were punched in the mouth by Dallas once they got their feet under them.
The Giants offensive line is a massive problem in my mind. It's even more apparent when they face teams like the Cowboys, that have a tremendous o-line for Dak and Zeke.
Interesting how Robert Quinn was seeking out Hernandez after the play. https://twitter.com/JordanDaja...
I think I would have ran the ball on that third down -- to see if the Giants would use that third and final timeout or just let me run the clock down even more.
Giants will be forced to punt here and now I expect to see a lot of Zeke and Tony Pollard to kill as much clock as they can. New York only has two timeouts remaining.
Sean Lee was not going to let Barkley run free off a screen again. Completely sniffed it out, jumped the play and brought him down for a loss.
That's two Cowboys touchdowns now that have gone for 40-plus yards.
Bethea wasn't a play-maker on that one. The safety was brought to a standstill while trying to adjust his feet and catch Cooper in the open field.
Just absolutely wide-open holes in that secondary. A 45-yarder from Prescott to No. 19 for what should be the game-sealing score.
How do you leave Cooper that wide open?
You're right, Tyler. There's 8 minutes left but it sure feels like it's over.
Amari Cooper with an absolute DAGGER. Goodnight everybody.
Dallas in Giants territory now, and Prescott finds Witten on the roll-out. The veteran TE gets 21 yards after breaking a tackle, but the refs bring it all back because of an illegal blindside block by Randall Cobb.
The flags (almost) keep flying. Alec Ogletree avoids a late-hit call after knocking Jason Witten out of bounds, then Antoine Bethea nearly gets dinged for a facemask on Ezekiel Elliott.
Especially after the officials refused to reverse the obvious PI on Evan Engram during the Giants' last drive.
Not really sure that's PI. A lot of hand checking, but nothing too crazy. Bad call.
No reason for Justin March to do that. Bad penalty. Why are you trying to hurt your team in a close game?
If, of course, they can stay disciplined and cut off the personal fouls. This game is getting chippy.
Cowboys will get a chance to really eat up some clock after the Giants' latest field goal.
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