EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Labeling a Week 4 game against a sub-.500 team as a “must-win” might sound dramatic.
But when the Dallas Cowboys took a moment to think about the misery that a flight home at 1-3 would be, the moniker didn’t feel so off-base.
This wasn’t just about the expectation that they beat the New York Giants because, well, Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott has done nothing but that for eight seasons and 13 straight games now.
This was about the noise that was getting louder and louder after the New Orleans Saints and Baltimore Ravens thoroughly outplayed the Cowboys in their own building.
This was about the reality that in a social media era, a young locker room does hear the outside noise even as team leadership would be happy if they didn’t.
So after head coach Mike McCarthy and Dak Prescott discussed in a recent conversation how naive it would be to hope they could ask players to shut out the noise, they realized they are instead better off imploring their high-profile locker room not to ride the emotional wave of outside narratives even when they are exposed to them.
They need to show more to fully earn the league’s confidence. But their best chance at heading down that road was to enter this 10-day stretch between games with a win.
So allow Prescott his admission after the Cowboys beat the Giants, 20-15.
“1,000% this was a must-win,” Prescott said on his way to the team bus. “Before a long weekend, puts a better taste in our mouth. But at the end of the day … it’s a process. We’re not going to get complacent. We’re not going to get overexcited about what we’ve done tonight. It’s about building and it’s about figuring out what we can do better in all phases.
“But it’s a lot easier to do that with a win.”
Prescott to Lamb connection makes the difference
Prescott was among the first to point out a moment when he could have been better.
The Cowboys opened the Thursday night contest with a three-and-out, paving the way for the Giants to get on the board first with a field goal.
Prescott reviewed the first drive’s film on the sideline between series and realized: Wide receiver CeeDee Lamb was a more viable option on the second play of the game than he’d realized. Second-year cornerback Deonte Banks was in coverage, but the double coverage the $34 million-a-year receiver has encountered so often this season wasn’t as conspicuous on that look.
“After that, I said, ‘I’m going to just play fast, trust my feet, trust my eyes,’” Prescott said.
On the second drive, the Cowboys did.
Prescott didn’t just give Lamb an opportunity the next drive — he gave Lamb five, including on a run play. The star receiver caught all four passes from Prescott for 30 yards, Lamb also taking a jet sweep another 10. Now the receiver who wished he controlled his emotions better in last week’s loss to the Ravens was engaged, and the whole team could feel it as Lamb’s attention opened up running back Rico Dowdle to score the first touchdown.
“I understand how vital he is to just getting the offense going and doing what he does for his confidence,” Prescott told Yahoo Sports. “When he’s in a great mood, everybody else is just because of how energetic he is.”
The Cowboys’ defense held the Giants to a field goal again on their second drive, foreshadowing what would be an end zone-less evening for New York.
Prescott was glad he held the narrow lead but still wanted to involve Lamb even more — especially if the receiver could finagle a single coverage.
So when the Giants sent a blitz on first-and-10 with 9:25 to play in the first quarter, Prescott misdirected the safety with his eyes as Lamb beat Banks off the line. He took care not to send the ball too far in light of the safety, instead trusting Lamb to create in space.
“Able to get him the ball, he went and broke the tackle,” Prescott said. “It felt good to get him off to a fast start.”
The Cowboys wouldn’t pull far from the Giants as Dallas drew penalty after penalty, wrecking its rhythm and creating unfavorable third-and-long situations en route to 3-of-10 on third down conversions. Dallas accepted 89 penalty yards on 11 flags during a night in which several more flags were declined or offset.
The offense moved the ball well enough to score in spite of it and the defense stopped the run well enough to limit the Giants to five field goals. But Prescott knew that as he completed 22-of-27 passes for 221 yards, two touchdowns and a 125.5 passer rating, his team didn’t capitalize on all the potential as they scored just 20 points.
“Take away some penalties and stuff like that, it’s a whole different score,” Prescott said. “We’re a whole different world.”
At 2-2, what will it take for Cowboys to capitalize?
The Cowboys’ postgame locker room permeated a sense of calm that didn’t quite reach celebration levels.
Lamb said there was “more joy” after “a phase where everybody is kind of uptight” from a two-game losing streak.
But relief was more palpable than exuberance.
“Winning is important … but it wasn’t perfect,” edge rusher Micah Parsons said. “I don’t want to scrape by no more. I want legit wins. I want to win consistently. And we got a tough matchup next week.”
The Cowboys’ defense took solace in at least one week of drastically improved run defense, allowing just 26 total yards and 1.1 yards per carry after consecutive weeks yielding 190 and 274 rushing yards, respectively.
The Giants’ rushing attack may not intimidate the league the way prior opponents Alvin Kamara and Derrick Henry do, but New York had still rushed for 129 and then 112 yards in their last two games.
Slicing that by a multiple of nearly five times was meaningful as the Giants were limited to 26 yards on the ground. Players hoped this performance reflected an increasing comfort in their first season under Mike Zimmer’s system as the coordinator preaches gap discipline and stopping the run to earn the right to rush the passer.
“We knew as soon as training camp came in why they brought in Coach Zimmer,” cornerback Jourdan Lewis told Yahoo Sports. “We need to be more gap-sound and stop the run.”
Next up: The Cowboys’ offense hopes to solidify protection sans penalties and inch along the run game in order to set up play-action and bootlegs in the passing game. The Cowboys’ defense wants to affect the passer more intensely than the group did on a night when Daniel Jones completed 29-of-40 pass attempts for 281 yards, including 12-of-15 for 115 yards to star rookie Malik Nabers.
Dallas’ defense did hold off with an interception to seal the game.
The team seemed to avoid major injury scares with negative X-rays to edge rusher DeMarcus Lawrence’s foot and Micah Parsons’ ankle. Parsons said he would get an MRI on Friday after he was carted off. Neither rusher returned to play after their late injury, but each was optimistic they could play in the next game.
That contest will reintroduce the bright spotlight, Dallas traveling to the currently 3-0 Pittsburgh Steelers for a Sunday Night Football game that is sure to amplify the Cowboys’ narrative in one direction or the other.
Prescott will implore his teammates to stay level among the buzz. He’ll know also how difficult an ask that is.
“If guys want to read about themselves in this team, it’s all positive hopefully,” Prescott said. “Keep their confidence right and just allow [them] to build momentum. [I’ve] played on a bunch of different teams, and some that when you got going, it just gets hot. That’s what we’re looking to do.
“Getting hot at the right time, building.”
He hopes that a Thursday night visit to New York will be start of that, even if he knows not everyone will agree about the win’s importance. Prescott remembers when the Giants beat him in his first pro game, and again later that 2016 season as he beat every other team he faced that season. He hasn’t lost to the a Giants since — but should that negate the power of the win?
“F***, give credit,” Prescott said. “Not everyone always beats the Giants.”