The Dallas Cowboys won on Thanksgiving Day and it was so much fun
Thanksgiving traditions can come from anywhere. They can start at any time and feel as important the very first time as they do years later. For the Dallas Cowboys on Thanksgiving, they sparked their second winning streak of the 2024 season by beating the New York Giants 27-20. In the spirit of the holiday season, the headline here doesn’t need to be that the Cowboys won both games against the Giants this year, now the clear worst team in the NFC East, by a combined 12 points. They are playing mostly watchable football for the first time in a long time, having some fun while doing so, and getting players back healthy to make a difference.
They finally have a home win to improve their AT&T Stadium record to 1-5 this season, with home games remaining against the Bengals, Buccaneers, and Commanders. It wouldn’t be a 2024 Cowboys home game without trailing early at some point, but unlike in so many other games this season the Cowboys were able to respond, get back to playing complementary football, and win the turnover battle and the game.
The Cowboys have now won two straight to snap a previous five-game losing streak and improved their record to 5-7. It is amazing how simply winning games in this league can turn narratives on their head, even when the wins and losses are determined by mere inches. Dallas has gone from a team destined to have one of the most pitiful lost seasons of all time to one tied in the win column with Indianapolis, San Francisco, Tampa Bay, and the L.A. Rams. The outlooks for all of these teams are much better than where the Cowboys appeared to be heading before finding their footing and winning two games in four days. This is a team that hasn’t showed signs of quitting despite staring many reasons for doing so in the face.
While these wins have dropped their draft position outside of the top ten, the Giants seventh straight loss keeps them in position for the number one overall pick. Certainly this adds the context to not get carried away with too much talk of the Cowboys making a miraculous run to the playoffs, but winning in the Thanksgiving throwback uniforms is always a welcome sight. This was the fourth time the Cowboys and Giants have met on Turkey Day, with the Cowboys now 4-0 and securing a sweep of their rivals from New Jersey for the fourth straight season and seventh in the last eight.
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With a longer break now before the Cowboys look to add to their two-game win streak and start a home one against the Bengals, here is how the team served up dessert to go with every fan’s Thanksgiving feast on Thursday afternoon.
- It was once again a makeshift offensive line for the Cowboys as Zack Martin missed his second straight game. In what should have been a good evaluation game for Tyler Guyton, it was mostly Chuma Edoga at left tackle after Guyton got hurt, alongside Tyler Smith who did return after missing the Commanders game.
The Cowboys were able to mitigate this again by getting the ball out of Cooper Rush’s hands, as well as relying on Rico Dowdle to serve as his own blocker when needed and run through defenders for positive yards. Of Rush’s 21 completions, only two were completed longer than ten yards. The Cowboys were just 3-12 on third downs, with two of these conversions coming on the game’s opening drive. Jumping out to a touchdown lead against a Giants team starting journeyman Drew Lock at QB would have been ideal, but another red zone third-down attempt didn’t give the Cowboys much of a chance at finding paydirt.
With Brandin Cooks playing in his first game since the week four win at the Giants, also played on a Thursday night, the Cowboys looked to get him involved early out wide. This allowed CeeDee Lamb to get more opportunities out of the slot which is where Mike McCarthy can scheme the run-after-the-catch plays needed for this Cowboys offense to find any explosiveness. With Cooks on the outside and Lamb inside on a third and five, Cooks could not win at the catch point on a drive route and brought up a fourth down that led to Brandon Aubrey’s first of two field goals.
Cooks and Lamb playing on the same side of the formation was a heavy focus for the Cowboys in this game, looking to find any way to get their receivers more free releases and create easy throws underneath for Rush. This entire concept is still a work in progress for this offense though. The second-down play before the incompletion in the red zone was a slot fade to Kavontae Turpin. We mentioned last week how Turpin should have a real chance to get more involved with the offense for the rest of this season, but a low percentage throw like this one is not a good way to do so.
In his first game back from injury, Cooks continued to have some of the same struggles from earlier in the year when it came to keeping defenders away from the catch point and separating vertically on routes. Returning for just his third home game of the season after only playing in early season runaway games against the Saints and Ravens, it was a great sight for tired turkey-feasting eyes to see Cooks score on a crossing route in the third quarter to extend the Dallas lead to ten. This pushed the lead to double-digits which went a long way with Lock and the Giants offense struggling to sustain drives and handle a Cowboys pass rush that again had their way whenever given the chance to play from ahead.
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- If the playoffs are still going to be a distant objective for this Cowboys team, and evaluating the existing talent on the roster is still the primary objective over these next five weeks, it is important not to lose sight of players with high draft pedigree or “blue chip” prospects in this evaluation. In this case, it was again defensive tackle Mazi Smith having a strong game on the defensive interior.
Mike Zimmer’s defense has looked like the most consistently prepared unit on this entire football team for weeks now. Led by a pass rush that’s been lifted by Micah Parsons, and expects DeMarcus Lawrence back as early as next Monday night versus the Bengals, the Cowboys never let Lock get comfortable in the pocket in this game. He had some scramble plays that extended drives, but Lock was mostly contained where the Cowboys got to him for six sacks. Lock’s 28 yard rush in the first quarter was the Giants’ longest offensive play of the game.
The Giants’ first possession going for a touchdown was their only TD drive until late in the fourth quarter, and they got there by converting both a fourth-and-short and third-and-short. The Cowboys did a great job making later third-down attempts for the Giants more obvious passing situations where they could bring pressure and force the ball short of the sticks, while committing coverage to star rookie receiver Malik Nabers and force other targets to beat them. Jourdan Lewis and others did a good job disrupting Nabers and not allowing him to run free downfield. Lewis’ consistently strong play this season, particularly in recent weeks, has helped safety Donovan Wilson look better in coverage by having more time to get to his spots in coverage and not have to carry receivers at their stem in man.
Both starting cornerbacks Bland and Butler were up to the challenge, while DeMarvion Overshown also got in on the action in coverage with one of the defensive plays of the season for Dallas. Overshown has been a blur all season making plays all over the field, especially in his first Thanksgiving action against the Giants. He is one of the team’s best young rising players to build around at linebacker, and plays like his tipped screen pass for a pick six to give the Cowboys their first lead show why.
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When Overshown crossed the goal line to put the Cowboys ahead 13-7, the narrow six-point lead was actually the team’s largest of the season at home. Even playing with a marginal lead is all the Cowboys needed to settle into this game and play to their strengths. The Cowboys offense left a lot to be desired in their efforts to separate on the scoreboard and make it a true Thanksgiving feast, having a CeeDee Lamb third-down drop that led to Hunter Luepke being stopped short on fourth down in the second quarter. The defense more than picked up the slack, forcing back-to-back punts after Overshown’s pick-six with a Donovan Wilson third-down sack and three-and-out around their own turnover on downs.
On the Wilson sack, Parsons also had pressure twisting from the defensive end spot to rush against the Giants interior offensive line. Increasing these chances for Parsons to rush against guards is something Zimmer should be able to do more of when Lawrence returns to play at left defensive end if the play of the defensive tackle group remains strong led by Smith, Linval Joseph, and Osa Odighizuwa, who added a sack as well.
The Giants’ first drive lasting 13 plays for a touchdown was longer than their next four drives combined, ending in an interception, two punts, and a field goal. This is simply not a Zimmer and Al Harris led defense that is going to let opposing offenses get comfortable and control the game while putting up points that increase the pressure on Rush to get in shootouts. The Cowboys were able to get Rico Dowdle over 20 touches for the second week in a row, and the results showed up in the most important place – the win column.
Just how far the Cowboys can take this style of play the rest of the season remains to be seen, but being good enough over their last two games to reach 3-1 in division play is something every Dallas fan can smile about.
