Five takeaways from Cowboys-Giants: It wasn’t pretty, but Dallas rallies in home opener

ARLINGTON — In a game that took almost four hours to complete, the Cowboys needed every second to knock off their NFC East rival New York Giants on Sunday.

The 1,000th regular season game in Cowboys’ history was also their home opener at AT&T Stadium, and it had a little bit of everything.

Fans were chanting the name of kicker Brandon Aubrey, there were 26 total penalties, 93 pass attempts, 984 total offensive yards and 44 points scored in the final 25 minutes.

The game ended, in overtime, when Aubrey made a 46-yard field goal to give the Cowboys a 40-37 victory. Fans chanted Aubrey’s name before he came out, something quarterback Dak Prescott said was “sick.”

Aubrey sent the game to overtime with a 64-yard field goal as time expired.

The three-hour, 42-minute contest pushed the Cowboys to 1-1 on the season, but they were this close to an 0-2 start.

When asked the difference between 0-2 and 1-1, Prescott said, “I don’t want to know.”

Here are five thoughts on Cowboys-Giants:

Like father, like son

Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer didn’t win his first game as head coach in the season opener, but he got the milestone victory in Week 2.

It matches what his father did in his first head coaching gig in 1985 for the Cleveland Browns. Schottenheimer’s first game resulted in an overtime loss, 27-24, to the St. Louis Cardinals. But in Week 2, on Monday Night Football, the Browns defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers, 17-7. Like father, like son.

“Seen a lot of victories in his lifetime, his father’s lifetime,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said. “That was his first one out there. What a way to get it.”

The win streak continues

When the Cowboys play the Giants, well, they take care of business. Dallas’ victory extended its win streak to nine games over the Giants. It’s the longest active win streak by an NFL team against a divisional opponent. Prescott has won 14 consecutive games against his NFC East rivals. It’s the longest win streak against an opponent since Tom Brady won 13 games against the Bills (2002-2010). The NFL record for a quarterback win streak against an opponent is 17, set by Bob Griese when the Dolphins beat up on the Bills (1968-1979).

Javonte Williams’ good day

Javonte Williams earned his second consecutive start and now has three rushing touchdowns for the season. He picked up a big one in the third quarter when he ran through the Giants defense to start the play, then with two defenders missing he sailed into the end zone and held the ball out for the last six yards. The 30-yard touchdown run gave the Cowboys a 17-13 lead. The touchdown run was the longest of Williams’ career. In overtime, Williams added a 19-yard run. He finished with 97 yards on 18 carries. Williams also jumped over a defender on a long run in the second half.

At halftime, Schottenheimer said he challenged the running game to improve and he said right guard Tyler Booker took it personally.

“I just took the challenge head-on,” Booker said. “I just smiled at [Schottenheimer], OK, this is what you want to see. I just went back to us playing our brand of football and we didn’t play our brand of football in the first half.”

Williams was a key to that. After rushing for just 16 yards in the first half, he produced in the last three quarters and overtime with 81 yards.

Coverage busts

The Cowboys’ secondary gave up too many big plays in the passing game with starting cornerback DaRon Bland out with a sprained foot.

Receiver Malik Nabers, who finished with nine catches for 167 yards and two touchdowns, got behind cornerback Trevon Diggs for two long plays, including a 29-yard touchdown. The Giants other receiver, Wan’Dale Robinson, picked up 142 yards on eight catches, with several being for first-down plays when he went in motion. In the fourth quarter, the Giants took a 30-27 lead on another coverage mistake when Robinson ran uncovered between two defenders for a 32-yard touchdown. It looked as if Diggs thought he had deep help with safety Donovan Wilson. Then, Nabers got behind Kaiir Elam for a 48-yard TD reception that gave the Giants a 37-34 lead with 25 seconds remaining in regulation. Giants QB Russell Wilson finished with a career-high 450 passing yards. Schottenheimer said there were communication issues in the secondary that will get sorted after a game review on Monday.

“We got a lot to clean up on defense, especially with our zone coverages and being tighter in coverages and the communicating piece,” Diggs said. “I feel like we had a lot of blown coverages today, and we got to clean that up. A veteran like Russell Wilson, he’s going to see all the holes and see everything. I feel like he took advantage of opportunities.”

Penalties, penalties, penalties

For the game, the Cowboys and Giants combined for 26 penalties for 266 yards. But the first half was a doozy. Giants starting left tackle James Hudson III was penalized four times on the first possession of the game. Hudson was a replacement for Andrew Thomas, who was out with an injury. Hudson was benched for rookie Marcus Mbow and had the nerve to get upset about it, having to be restrained by teammates on the sidelines. But that’s not all. Late in the first half, there were four penalties called on one play — three on New York and one on Dallas. The penalty on Dallas offset everything. It was a silly penalty and one that you could say the officials should have let go, but receiver CeeDee Lamb was penalized for taunting in the end zone when a pass sailed incomplete and the defender, cornerback Deonte Banks, was called for pass interference. With Lamb sitting on the ground, he pointed his fingers at Banks, prompting the referees to flag him for taunting.

Click here to read article