If every game in the Brian Schottenheimer era is going to be like this, Dallas Cowboys fans will need to start cutting out caffeine on Sundays.
After last week’s league kickoff game went right down to the wire and featured an opening drive with a bizarre penalty, the Cowboys’ home opener went pretty much the same way. Bizarre penalties on the opening drive were just the start of a nail-biter against the New York Giants that was settled in overtime, with Dallas winning 40-37.
The Giants started with the ball, and a flag was thrown on the very first play, as New York was called for holding on the kickoff return. But it was left tackle James Hudson, getting the start in place of the injured Andrew Thomas, who quickly became the center of attention.
As the Giants moved down the field, a 10-yard run from rookie Cam Skattebo was wiped out due to an unnecessary roughness penalty on Hudson, who had previously been flagged for holding. The penalty itself was truly absurd.
It didn’t stop there, though. Three plays later, Hudson drew another unnecessary roughness penalty after a 50-yard pass from Russell Wilson, which backed the Giants up from the Dallas 2-yard line to the 17. Two plays after that, Hudson drew a false start, making him the first player this century to be penalized four times in one drive.
The rash of penalties caught up to the Giants, and they had to settle for a field goal on the opening drive. Hudson was ultimately benched, which led to a shouting match between him and head coach Brian Daboll on the sideline, officially one-upping the Jalen Carter spit take from last week’s game in terms of being truly bizarre.
As disastrous as that opening drive was for the Giants, it didn’t stop them from taking the Cowboys to the cleaners the rest of the first half. The offense went three-and-out on their first two drives while the defense gave up chunk plays on every drive to Russell Wilson, who put up a career-best performance before the day was over.
A touchdown pass to KaVontae Turpin on a free play made things close, cutting the deficit to 13-10, but Dallas horribly botched their chance for another score right before halftime too. Overall, it was a very poorly executed first half of football on both sides, but the Cowboys looked worse.
For the most part, that continued to be the case in the second half. Dak Prescott threw an interception off his back foot on the second play of the third quarter, which turned into a touchdown for the Giants. Then things clicked for the offense, as they would score on each of their next five drives.
It started with yet another Javonte Williams touchdown, though two big penalties from the Giants helped the Cowboys get in range. After a Brandon Aubrey field goal, Miles Sanders got in for his first touchdown as a Cowboy, with more Giants penalties helping them move the chains.
The problem is that the Cowboys’ offensive explosion happened in tandem with the Giants’ own offensive explosion. A 24-yard run from Skattebo set up his own short touchdown and put them on top right at the start of the fourth quarter, and Wilson took the lead back again when he found a wide open Wan’Dale Robinson for a 32-yard touchdown after that.
That set up a heroic comeback drive from Prescott, who had looked off for the majority of the game. He locked in down the stretch, though, with big completions to Jalen Tolbert, George Pickens, and CeeDee Lamb to move the chains in high leverage situations. Then, Schottenheimer started to run the ball near the goal line, hoping to milk the clock and burn the Giants’ timeouts.
It worked, and Prescott found Pickens in the corner of the endzone for the go-ahead touchdown, his first as a Cowboy. Dallas went up 34-30 with 52 seconds left and only timeout for New York.
Of course, that was all the Giants needed. Wilson launched a moon ball to Malik Nabers, who came down with a 48-yard touchdown despite having a hand in his face blocking him from even seeing the ball. Just like that, the Giants were up 37-34 with 25 seconds, but the Cowboys had all three timeouts left.
That proved to be just enough time for Prescott, too. He hit Jake Ferguson down the seam for an 18-yard pickup, and a quick run from Williams set up a 64-yard field goal try for Aubrey as time expired, which he smashed through with ease, of course.
That set up our very first overtime game with the new rules, which guarantees both teams a chance to possess the ball. The Cowboys got the ball first, but were forced to punt. Then, the Giants were forced to punt, each team doing so for the first time since the second quarter.
Just for good measure, the Cowboys punted once more, and Wilson tried to hit on one more moon ball before being picked off by Donovan Wilson. A 27-yard shot to George Pickens put the ball right on the edge of Aubrey’s field goal range, and a clutch scramble from Prescott set up the equivalent of a chip shot for the flawless kicker.
The walk-off win from Aubrey marked the first ever win for Schottenheimer, though it was hardly the type of performance anyone wanted or expected. Of course, there’s no such thing as a bad win, and the ugly ones count just as much as the pretty ones. Still, this game let some air out of the feeling of hope the fanbase seemed to have after Week 1.
If there’s any solace to be had from that, it’s that the team feels the same way. The players celebrated the victory, and Schottenheimer himself was emotional over his first win, but he was also his usual blunt self when acknowledging the game wasn’t perfect.
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