Morning After Wk 4: Boys Stop The Freefall
In a night without many style points or much dominance, Dallas finds the win column.
I want to open this football story with something I hear quite a bit when I play golf:
"They don’t put pictures on the scorecard."
This, of course, is a clever way of saying that if you are able to grind, scrape, and claw your way to a good score on a hole or a round, it doesn’t fully matter how pretty it was or how aesthetically pleasing your shots actually were. Whether it is a perfect 9-iron that disappears in the clouds before landing softly next to the pin or if you hit an accidental line drive that somehow bounces off a tree trunk and onto the green, a birdie is a birdie.
Accordingly, a win is a win and a road win is a road win. And in this case, winning a divisional road game on a very short work week when you are coming off two of the worst games of the season and have guys dropping like flies, well, let’s just say that the Dallas Cowboys badly needed the result they got last night – even if there are, to quote the head coach, “plenty of things we need to clean up.”
The Cowboys beat the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium, 20-15, on a rare Thursday night game that Dallas seemed to absolutely "need to have." They were out-gained and nothing seemed as easy as they would want it to be, but Dallas now gets an extra-long weekend to prepare for a three-game gauntlet in October that will tell us what sort of team we are dealing with here in 2024. I know many of us already have a sinking feeling that this team appears to be stepping backwards and not forwards, but last night does demonstrate some very good signs on a lot of fronts – even though that will surely be lost in the sea of negativity that encompasses this franchise at the moment. They have earned the general cynicism, by the way, but in this space, we always attempt to give equal time to the excellent developments before wallowing only in the things that are not very close to right at the present.
So, in an effort to give you a thorough rundown on both sides of the ledger, let’s take a look at what we learned in this very important victory (that will not be apologized for).
First and foremost, I thought Dak Prescott was excellent. He put together a performance that was very patient, intelligent, and calming. He walked into a stadium that was ready to pounce on an offense lacking confidence, and he offered one of his most steady games where he put the ball on-time and on-target over and over again and in doing so was able to protect his young offensive line. It was the kind of effort they need and should expect from him in his 9th year, because if your QB isn't your best player most weeks – especially on the road – then you're in big trouble. Tom Brady’s career was built on taking what is available and doing it with decisiveness and precision and not always filled with highlights. He would make it look frustratingly simple, but we know it is not. For this offense to find its footing, Prescott has to make 100+ passer rating nights routine, but it was his first of 2024. Perhaps that rally against Baltimore helped him get into a groove, because they will need more of that in October. Much more of that.
Additionally, the game plan was clearly built on feeding the ball to CeeDee Lamb as often as possible. It is not ideal that he is one of the only threats with home-run threats right now. He is clearly the best WR on their roster, and he is also one of the very best wide receivers in the sport. He was targeted eight times and handed the ball three more. Eleven touches is probably the minimum you want for him as everything else looks so ordinary from the offense. Lamb continues to prove that he has game-breaking plays available if you can find him in space, as for the 2nd time this season, he scores from his own side of the field on a single moment of explosion that most of the Cowboys offense lacks.