Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott has won 13 straight starts dating back to his second year in the league against the New York Giants. As a team, the Cowboys have won 20 of the last 24 matchups in this series. Their current eight-game winning streak against the Giants dating back to week five of the 2021 season is their second longest in the rivalry’s history, only behind a streak of twelve straight wins from week seven of 1974 all the way to week five of 1980. For comparison, the Giants’ longest winning stretch all-time against the Cowboys is half of this at six games.
Around The Star this week, the talk from a Cowboys team that’s already suffered one close NFC East loss in the season opener is not about these streaks or the expectation to win being manifested solely on paper, though. It is about how again this week new HC Brian Schottenheimer can have his team look prepared, focused, and ready to play fast as they did in that loss to the Eagles, enough to leave AT&T Stadium on Sunday as the division team that avoids an 0-2 start. To show that all losses aren’t created equally, the home fans in this week’s game don’t have to look any further at all than the visitors. Like the Cowboys, the Giants lost their opener away to a division rival, 21-6 at the Washington Commanders. An already hot seat under head coach Brian Daboll has remarkably gotten hotter after just one game, most notably also with rookie first-round quarterback Jaxson Dart waiting in the wings to make a start.
All of these factors have the Cowboys as favorites to even their record at 1-1 and remain squarely in the fight for a division known for flip-flopping winners for two decades. With the amount of praise their effort against the Eagles in primetime earned though, how exactly they earn a win against the Giants may carry extra importance. Already with some good faith in hand, Schottenheimer’s offense returns home after one game where they looked noticeably different schematically than they ever did under Mike McCarthy. Even during the time Schottenheimer was OC and McCarthy was HC, Dallas had multiple seasons they were known for lighting up scoreboards on home turf, but even that wasn’t in the style of attack they used against Vic Fangio’s defense and Philadelphia.
The Cowboys established a ground game with two rushing touchdowns on their first two drives, used heavy motion and play-action in the passing game, and put their top dog at WR CeeDee Lamb in positions to make big plays all night – the execution of which down the stretch let them down.
The Cowboys getting back to having a dominant offense at home, one that allows Matt Eberflus’ defense to continue bringing pressure and hunt for takeaways, would be one of the best possible signs this team can jumpstart putting the lost 2024 campaign behind them and compete this year. It feels mundane to constantly bring up Prescott’s dominance of the Giants as a reason to believe in this, but this season and more specifically this upcoming game, may truly be the perfect storm for the Cowboys to have a big-time bounce back. Prescott only played in the road game against the Giants a year ago, one of three wins he led the team to before his season-ending injury. Like the 2024 season as a whole, even this win left a bad taste in the mouth of Cowboys fans, as they just squeaked by the Giants on a Thursday night in New Jersey 20-15. The Cowboys found a way to get to 2-2 and buy time on figuring out how to play better, and even got over .500 the following week with another late-night win at the Steelers, but then lost their next five games (only two of which were started by Prescott pre-injury).
This means the last time Prescott got to play at home against the Giants was week 10 of 2023. The Cowboys did manage to get one of just two wins at home a season ago against the Giants 27-20 with Cooper Rush at QB going against Drew Lock for the Giants. That 2023 game for Prescott paints a different picture though. The Cowboys came in with a 3-0 home record, and average margin of victory of 26 points. En route to an undefeated regular season at home and already with a 40-0 shutout win at the Giants under their belt from week one, the Cowboys won 49-17 in a game they led 28-0 at halftime.
Prescott’s 11.5 yards per attempt were the second highest of his career, behind only a previous win against the Giants. Coincidentally, the Cowboys were also off of a five-point road loss to the Eagles coming into this 32-point win. Lamb along with former receivers Brandin Cooks and Michael Gallup all had catches over 20 yards and one touchdown a piece against the Giants. Prescott threw for 404 yards and another touchdown to Jake Ferguson. The Cowboys defense forced the Giants to punt on five of their first six possessions, the other being a turnover on downs. DaRon Bland had an interception that led to Lamb’s touchdown which made the score 42-7 in the third quarter. The Cowboys also ran for three touchdowns with Rico Dowdle, Prescott, and Lamb, and saw Tony Pollard add 55 yards on the ground.
One of the most encouraging things for the Cowboys going into their latest rivalry game against the Giants is not just some of these lopsided victories Prescott has led them to, but relative to areas of improvement needed after the Eagles game, the way they’ve gotten contributions from everywhere in the offensive fireworks. Even with both wins being by one score in 2024, the Cowboys spread their targets out nicely in the passing game and averaged over 3.5 yards per carry in both. In the home win with Rush, Cooks led the team in targets with seven and a TD, but Lamb and Luke Schoonmaker were right behind with six. KaVontae Turpin had five and Jalen Tolbert had four. The previous Thursday night win saw Lamb and Ferguson stand out with eight for the WR and seven for the TE, but only one of these combined 15 targets was incomplete.
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Dallas did leave a bit to be desired when it came to establishing more of their skill players beyond Lamb against the Eagles. While keeping Lamb involved early and often against New York expects to be a focus after his drops in Philly, this game presents a great opportunity to see more from George Pickens in his home debut, or even Tolbert and Turpin.
The Giants had a very hard time taking away Deebo Samuel against the Commanders, with Washington’s newest offseason acquisition to help Jayden Daniels making an immediate impact with seven catches on ten targets for a game-high 77 yards. Tight end Zach Ertz was second in targets with five. The Commanders also ran the ball for 200 yards at 6.9 yards a clip and two rushing scores. The Cowboys offense will have multiple paths they can take through this game, depending partially on how the Giants offense changes things up following a six-point performance in week one. A healthy dose of Lamb, Ferguson, and Javonte Williams out of the backfield, similarly to the Eagles game, is just one way the Cowboys can come out on top.
Already, Giants fans are calling for less of veteran Russell Wilson and to see the rookie Dart. The Giants surprisingly spread things out quite a bit for Wilson in his first game, believing in his ability to make the right reads and throw it around. This did not happen, but for a team that’s had such below average QB play for far too long, it’s easier to understand why this was their approach out of the gate. With Brian Daboll already having to verify that Wilson will be his week two starter and not Dart, things are off to as poor of a start on all fronts as possible for New York. They will need a different approach against the Cowboys, one Matt Eberflus’ defense must be ready for from kickoff, and not much later in the game like when they adjusted and settled in against the Eagles.
For Wilson, this will be his first regular season game against the Cowboys since week three of 2020, and first in Arlington since week 16 of 2017. He has won four straight such meetings against Dallas, but sandwiched in there was Dak Prescott’s first ever playoff win in the 2018 Wild Card round. Prescott and Wilson finished with the exact same completion percentage and only seven yards apart in this game, both being sacked once and throwing one touchdown. It was Prescott that led two fourth-quarter scoring drives to turn a four-point deficit into a ten-point lead though, and even after a late touchdown and two-point conversion from Wilson the Cowboys held on 24-22.
With a similar win against the still Wilson-led Giants, the Cowboys may not be thinking about playoffs just yet, but as Prescott continues on the long road back from last season’s injury to prove what he is capable of at QB once again, another home win against Wilson with a big performance on offense would sure feel nice for those in Dallas. It would solidify that Dallas has the right new play-caller in Schottenheimer, while putting the first-time head coach in the win column for the first time as well.
Wilson’s days as a starter may be numbered if the losses continue to pile up, starting with another divisional game on Sunday. Even with the amount of time Prescott has missed, the commitment the Cowboys have made to him extends well into their future, one that can start to look a little brighter as soon as Sunday afternoon with another win against New York.
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