Giants-Cowboys: 5 plays that led to the Thanksgiving loss

This was another one-score game that could have turned out differently

The New York Giants lost their seventh game in a row on Thursday. The Dallas Cowboys defeated the Giants 27-20 in front of the nation, while most people were attempting to enjoy their Thanksgiving dinner. Although the Giants showed effort and fight this week — which should be a prerequisite; and made the score respectable – they still lost to Cooper Rush and a struggling Dallas Cowboys team.

The Giants couldn’t avoid mistakes, lacked explosive plays, and struggled defensively, as both teams were sloppy with putting the football on the deck; but it was the Giants who actually turned the football over twice, with one resulting in a defensive touchdown for Demarvion Overshown and the Cowboys.

Seemingly every comeback until the final attempt by the Giants was thwarted by their own mistakes. The Giants finished the game with 13 penalties for 98 yards. Even when the Giants made the game interesting in the final three minutes after Drew Lock’s rushing touchdown, Elijah Chatman jumped offside to give Dallas a first-and-5 with 2:13 left in the game, with two timeouts.

After the offside, the Giants put 12 guys on the field to give the Cowboys the opportunity for a free first down; they declined it in an attempt to run the clock instead. Just sloppy undisciplined football by the Giants. Still, the Giants put themselves in a position to tie with a defensive stop, but Brandin Cooks and Cooper Rush converted on third-and-2:

Here are the five plays, or five sequence of plays that led to the Giants’ loss.

Play 1: Pick Six

The New York Giants took their first lead since Week 5 — their victory against Seattle. Drew Lock scampered for 29 yards on third-and-six to set up a Tyrone Tracy Jr. touchdown rush; here is the Lock run:

Tracy’s touchdown concluded a 13-play drive, and it was followed by a 13-play Dallas Cowboys drive that ended in their second field goal: Giants, 7-6. On the first play of the ensuing drive, Lock attempted to find Devin Singletary in the flat after a quick blitz pick-up from the back:

Overshown tipped the pass to himself and Dallas reclaimed the Giants’ short-lived lead.

Play(s) 2: Putting the game away

Lock’s fumble out of halftime allowed Dallas to score their second touchdown of the game. New York’s offense went three-and-out and Dallas proceeded on a nine-play, 70-yard drive that ended in a 3-yard Rico Dowdle touchdown rush:

Perhaps New York’s final chance to stop the bleeding happened just prior to Dowdle’s touchdown rush. Two plays before the touchdown, Adoree’ Jackson was flagged on a third-and-eleven defensive pass interference against Jonathan Mingo; Jackson did get to the catch-point early, and Dallas got the football at the eight yard line.

However, prior to Jackson’s penalty, Dallas had a third-and-5 from mid-field, up 10 (20-10). Cooper Rush connected with Jalen Tolbert for 36 yards against Cor’Dale Flott:

Tolbert ran a good route and adjusted well to the football. Perhaps this was the final blow that capitulated the Giants’ chances to win this game, as Dallas took a 27-10 lead after the Dowdle touchdown.

Play(s) 3: Almost exchange fumbles

After a relatively ho-hum first half, the two struggling teams almost exchanged fumbles in the first five minutes of the third quarter:

Dallas played the field side concept phenomenally, and Lock attempted to use his legs to pick up the first down. Unfortunately for the Giants, Lock fumbled the football and Dallas recovered; another elite play by Demarvion Overshown. Cooper Rush went 32 yards before he ALMOST coughed the football up after Bobby Okereke punched the football out of his grasp. However, upon further review, Rush’s knee hit the deck and the Cowboys scored on the very next play:

In Brandin Cooks’ healthy return, he beat Adoree’ Jackson in man coverage on the crosser to give the Cowboys a 20-10 lead. The Giants received the football out of halftime and yet another catastrophic mistake helped to lead to their demise.

Play(s) 4: Can’t stop the run

The New York Giants continued to be one of the worst run defenses in the NFL. They surrendered 140 rushing yards per game, which ranked 30th in the NFL at the start of Week 13. They allowed Rico Dowdle to rush for over 100 yards for the first time in his career. Dowdle finished with 112 yards on 22 carries (5.1 yards per carry) with a touchdown.

The Giants inability to stop the run has plagued them all season. On ‘Hard Knocks’, we saw Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll were drawn to Shane Bowen’s strong run defense when he was the defensive coordinator in Tennessee. We have not seen that this season.

Play(s) 5: Spoiled field position

The Giants defense gave their offense a golden opportunity late in the second quarter. One of CeeDee Lamb’s three drops occurred on a third-and-1, and Mike McCarthy decided to go for it on fourth-down from the Cowboys’ 44 yard line, where the defense stuffed Hunter Luepke at the line of scrimmage to give the Giants’ offenses positive field position.

The Giants picked up two yards on the drive and Jamie Gillan punted it through the end zone, but Micah Parsons ran into the punter, giving the Giants an opportunity for another punt that the Giants downed at the 1-yard line.

The Giants defense allowed just a yard and forced a Bryan Anger punt that Ihmir Smith-Marsette returned 22 yards:

Lock and the offense started the drive at the Dallas 29-yard line. A false start and ineffective offense resulted in just one yard on the drive, which led to a 46-yard field goal from Graham Gano.

New York’s offense received two opportunities in Dallas territory in the second quarter, and came away with just three points. Teams usually don’t win football games when they fail to seize the day — especially bad teams.