Mazi Smith appeared to arrive on Thursday night.
It is possible, perhaps even likely, that you had the Dallas Cowboys at 2-2 through the first four games of the season. That would hardly shock anyone.
While that may or may not have been the case, the manner in which Dallas has arrived here was predictable in a sense, but that hasn’t made the much any less annoying to crawl through. Whatever the case, here the Cowboys are indeed a .500 operation through four games and have earned a moment to sit back, breathe and reset.
Most fan fears about this team were not quelled on Thursday night, but finding a way to win ugly is a skill whether or not that makes anyone happy. The Cowboys won ugly but it will count the same as the next “pretty” one that they are able to get, assuming they do.
That is actually probably not true if we are being honest. While this was “only the Giants” it is worth mentioning that the Giants are an NFL team and that beating one is never an easy thing. Beyond that, the win in question was a road one for the Cowboys and a road one in the division at that. It does not get more valuable and they pocketed the dub.
These are the kinds of things that are easier to say as the “muck” from the contest gets further in the rearview mirror. It is for this exact reason that we offer three “day after thoughts” on a weekly basis around here so that we can properly contextualize what we witnessed in the game that just happened.
Here we go.
Mazi Smith’s arrival is the best thing that happened
This is an assumption, but a safe one: Dallas Cowboys fans everywhere had written off the idea of Mazi Smith being a serviceable player for the team at any point ever in time.
Smith was not just serviceable on Thursday, he was phenomenal. Consider that the New York Giants had 26 yards rushing on 24 attempts. That was in large part due to the role that Smith played.
We have seen enough ‘not great’ games from Smith to ward off any sort of establishment of times being completely and totally different; however, it is certainly exciting to have seen him take such an important step.
Jalen Tolbert and Hunter Luepke are becoming important pieces
This was noted in the day after thoughts last week, and was second then as well (even though last week was just a few days ago) – Jalen Tolbert and Hunter Luepke are really starting to come into their own.
A big reason for this is the lack of other legitimate options, but Tolbert and Luepke have both been reliable weapons in the passing game for consecutive weeks now. That is serious growth.
What’s more is that Luepke is becoming an explosive ball-carrier who can emerge out of the backfield. Consider that the Cowboys had three total carries on rush attempts on Thursday night where the runner reached 15+ MPH. Two of those were authored by CeeDee Lamb and the third belonged to Luepke. Tolbert and Luepke are earning more opportunities.
It should not have been that hard to win, but we will be grateful
Some of what little good vibes that emerged from Thursday night dissipated in the wake of the news concerning Micah Parsons and his high-ankle sprain. Oh and then there was DeMarcus Lawrence’s foot injury.
Even before those things happened though, it was difficult to stand particularly tall after this win. Dallas got a remarkably efficient day from their quarterback, two of the players they can’t depend on a ton (Mazi Smith and Terence Steele) seriously stepped up, and the team did not allow a single touchdown to be scored. In spite of all of these things they barley won by five. They did not even cover the 5.5-point spread (an admittedly large figure).
It is a ton of fun that Dallas continues to beat up on a division rival and we will always make the proper jokes as a result of it, but this felt like a much more difficult round to go with them. This is not the case because New York is suddenly stout and difficult, it is because the Cowboys are that ill-equipped.
Thursday night’s performance may have only been good enough to beat one team. Thankfully for the Cowboys that one team happened to be the one they were playing.
