Dallas Cowboys VS New York Giants Live Gameday Blog
Following their impressive wire to wire win over the Philadelphia Eagles, and a full week of rest thanks to the bye week, the Dallas Cowboys will take the field for yet another prime time tilt on Monday Night Football when they take on their NFC East Rival, the New York Giants.
Now sitting at 4-3 and in first place in the NFC East, the Cowboys are looking to extend that lead and put a stranglehold on the division with a fourth consecutive win over a divisional opponent this season.
The Giants enter the game on the opposite end of the spectrum with a 2-6 record, and in the middle of a massive rebuild. They have made progress, inserting Daniel Jones and Darius Slayton to an already talented group of playmakers on offense, but there is still a long way to go.
Unfortunately for Dallas, they will be without one of their biggest contributors on defense in Leighton Vander Esch, who will sit out the game with a neck injury that he suffered against the Eagles. That said, Michael Bennet will make his Cowboys debut, adding yet another weapon to a resurgent pass rush.
On the other side, the Giants will be without wideout Sterling Shepard, but will still have some solid weapons in which to try and exploit the Cowboy defense, including Evan Engram, Saquon Barkley, Golden Tate, and the Aforementioned Darius Slayton.
Join in on the discussion below with your fellow Cowboy fans and Cowboy Maven's staff as we bring you live updates throughout the game.
You can also follow our twitter account @CowboyMaven, and our staff publisher Mike Fisher's twitter @Fishsports and our columnist and senior editor Matt Galatzan's account @MattGalatzan for updates as well.
1st Quarter
The Cowboys received the ball to open the game, but thanks to an odd kick from the Giants, return man Tony Pollard caught the ball with one foot out of bounds at the 11-yard line, starting the Cowboys in a tough position.
On their first offensive play of the game, Dak Prescott threw an interception across the middle to Antoine Bethea, giving the Giants the ball deep in the Dallas red zone. The Cowboys defense was able to make a stand, however, holding the Giants to just a field goal.
On their next offensive possession, the Cowboys came out firing, with Dak Prescott completing three consecutive passes to open things up. Dallas then went heavy with Ezekiel Elliott running the ball on four consecutive plays and a pair of first downs. After offsetting penalties wiped a touchdown off the board, the Cowboys drive stalled, and they were forced to settle for a field goal, tying the game at 3-3.
The Cowboys would force a three-and-out on the next Giants possession, with DeMarcus Lawrence netting his fourth and a half-sack of the season on the first play of the drive.
Starting with the ball in solid field position, the Cowboys went run-heavy on their next drive, before the Giants pass rush forced them to stall at the 37 yard-line. Brett Maher, who ranked 30th in the NFL in field-goal accuracy coming into the game, would miss the 64-yard attempt, leaving the score tied at 3-3.
2nd Quarter
Using the field position and momentum of the missed field goal, the Giants drove the ball 56-yards in 10 plays for a touchdown. The Giants missed the extra point, however, leaving the score at 9-3 with just over 11 minutes to go in the half.
The Cowboys started the next drive off well with a long pass to Amari Cooper, but just a couple of plays later, Randall Cobb fumbled the ball on 3rd and five, giving the Giants the ball right back in the Dallas red zone.
On the ensuing possession, the Giants moved the ball down the field. Despite the distraction of a black cat running around on the field, however, the Cowboys finished the drive strong and held New York to a field goal, making the score 12-3 with 2:50 to go in the half.
With just under two and a half minutes to go in the half and the offense in the two-minute drill, Dak Prescott used his ability to improvise to find tight end Blake Jarwin on a broken play for a 42-yard touchdown pass.
With just 52 seconds to go in the half, the Giants tried to make a play down the field on third down but was picked off by Xavier Woods, which Woods took all the way back to the Cowboys 39-yard line.
After they were unable to move the ball, Brett Maher was able to Salvage the Cowboy drive by hitting a 51-yard field goal attempt, giving Dallas a 13-12 lead heading into the locker room.
3rd Quarter
On the opening drive of the second half, the Giants were unable to mount any sort of consistency, and after a sack from Cowboys linebacker Jaylon Smith, they were forced to punt the ball back to Dallas.
With their next drive disrupted due to a Tyron Smith holding penalty, the Cowboys would quickly punt the ball back to the Giants, with Golden Tate taking the punt return to the 35-yard line for New York.
Just a couple of plays later, Daniel Jones showed his rookie colors once again, fumbled the football while trying to reach for a first down. Xavier Jones forced the fumble for Dallas, giving his team the ball back near midfield.
Using that momentum, the Cowboys drove the ball into field goal position, led by some effective runs from Ezekiel Elliott. From there, the drive stalled yet again, however, with Brett Maher knocking in the 28-yard attempt, and making the score 16-12 Dallas with 4:43 to go in the quarter.
Thanks to a second-consecutive long kick return for the Giants, Daniel Jones was able to put together a scoring drive using primarily his legs and get the Giants into field goal position. Dalton Rosas would nail the attempt, cutting the Dallas lead to 16-15 with 27 seconds to go in the third quarter.
4th Quarter
On the next drive, Dak Prescott took things into his own hands, guiding the Cowboys down the field with a methodical passing game, and a timely quarterback keeper to get his team in scoring position. This time, however, the Cowboys would capitalize, with Prescott hitting Michael Gallup for a 15-yard touchdown pass to extend the Dallas lead to 23-15.
Sparked by the longest reception of Saquon Barkley's young career, the Giants quickly found themselves in the Cowboys red zone. However, the Cowboys defense was able to stand tall once again, holding the Giants to a field goal, and making the score 23-18 Cowboys with 11:50 to go in the contest.
The Cowboys took a stranglehold of the game on the next drive, carving up the Giants both through the air and on the ground, culminating in a 45-yard touchdown pass from Prescott to Amari Cooper, and putting the Cowboys up 30-18 with 7:56 to go in the game.
The Cowboys were then able to hold the Giants to a three-and-out on the following drive, allowing the offense to drain the clock down to 4:18 mark in the fourth quarter before they punted the ball back to New York.
From there, the Cowboys defense would hold the Giants offense in check, before putting an exclamation point on things with a Jourdan Lewis fumble return for a touchdown, giving the Cowboys a 37-18 lead, and moving them to 5-3 on the year.
