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'We Control Everything!' Cowboys' Dak Prescott, Mike McCarthy Focus on 'Self-Inflicted Wounds'

The Dallas Cowboys secured a 28-20 win over the New York Giants on Thanksgiving, but again, costly penalties threatened to derail the team's momentum.

The Dallas Cowboys improved to 8-3 thanks to a 28-20 win over the New York Giants at AT&T Stadium. But the Cowboys acknowledge that too often they got in their own way far too often.

"I know what this team is capable of,'' Dak Prescot said after the win. "We control everything we have right in front of us.''

But ...

"We’ve got to be more disciplined,'' the QB added. "We have to stop hurting ourselves on drives and self-inflicting wounds. Whether it be me turning the ball over, being to aggressive or not being on the same page as receivers or false starts. ... We need to clean all that stuff up.''

Indeed, one blight on coach Mike McCarthy's Cowboys through 11 games has been penalties. Against the Giants, Dallas had a total of 13 penalties for 86 yards. ... The most by the team this season.

It was enough of an issue that it threatened to tip the scales in New York's favor as the visitors led 13-7 at the break. Luckily, after halftime, things settled down.

But McCarthy gets it.

"To win a game when you have two-to-one penalties to your opponent, that's obviously not where you want to be," McCarthy said.

McCarthy credited the half-time adjustments for the team's turnaround that saw the Cowboys rattle off 21 unanswered points until a meaningless late fourth-quarter Giants touchdown.

"I liked the way we came out of half-time," McCarthy said before echoing Dak's phrase. "It's the self-inflicted wounds that we need to minimize. The self-inflicted wounds we've got to learn from today and improve and learn from the mistakes."


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