2024 NFL Season, Week 4: What We Learned from Cowboys’ win over Giants on Thursday night

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1. It wasn’t pretty, but the Cowboys earned a much-needed victory. After back-to-back home losses, the Cowboys’ frustration boiled over leading into Week 4. No one was happy. Mike McCarthy got short with a reporter. Players openly talked about accountability and taking care of details. Dallas needed a win. Things looked pretty good Thursday when the Cowboys took a 14-6 lead, as Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb were carving up the Giants’ secondary. But the penalties kept adding up, starting with Lamb’s celebration penalty after his TD. There were too many flags that turned second-and-shorts on offense into third-and-longs. On defense, it was silly stuff like jumping offsides and too many men on the field. There were even four special teams flags on an ugly laundry night all around. But Dallas’ battered defense kept the Giants out of the end zone, and the offense did just enough, although Brandon Aubrey ’s late field goal miss – his first of the season – kept the door uncomfortably open. It wasn’t pretty by any means, but the Cowboys got back to .500. 
2. Why didn’t Brian Daboll go for it on fourth down? The Giants trailed 14-9 at halftime and got the ball to open the third quarter. They started humming offensively, with Daniel Jones hitting on five plays of 8 or more yards on that drive alone, wearing down a tired and thin Cowboys defense. The Giants faced a fourth-and-goal at the Dallas 3-yard line, and with more than 23 minutes left Daboll took the easy field goal. But why cut a one-score lead to a one-score lead? Sure, the clock worked in his favor, but the Giants had been driving up and down the field all game … and settling for slightly longer field goals. This was the closest the Giants came to sniffing the end zone all game, and Malik Nabers and Wan’Dale Robinson were making up for the lack of a run game. The Giants went for it three times Monday night – once prior to this play and twice afterward. So Daboll showed some aggressiveness when it was called for. But when they were 9 feet from the goal line, he shriveled up. It was a strangely passive moment, and the Giants only crossed midfield once on their final four drives. That was a missed opportunity.
3. Cowboys defense responds with gutsy effort. The Cowboys heard all week about their 32nd-ranked run defense, and they went into this game shorthanded in the secondary, with starting cornerback Caelen Carson (who’s replacing the injured DaRon Bland) inactive with a shoulder injury. They started Andrew Booth in his place only to bench him at halftime after the Giants picked on him early. Amani Oruwariye took his spot and held up well, making the game-sealing interception in the waning seconds. It was a night where the reserves had to shine, as Demarcus Lawrence (foot) left the game and Trevon Diggs had to get an IV in the locker room. Micah Parsons also had to peel himself off the turf. This was a banged-up defense four days after a tough home loss. The pass rush struggled to get home Thursday, and Mike Zimmer’s defense labored through five grueling field goal drives, all eight plays or longer. But in the end, the Cowboys held the Giants to 5 for 16 on third downs, completely erased their run game early and limited New York to 4.7 yards per play. Zimmer has heard the criticism of his defense the past two games, but Thursday’s effort should keep the squawking down for the next week-plus.
4. Jones, Nabers have their moments, but Giants bog down. Jones has played at a much higher level since his poor Week 1 performance, stringing three straight respectable performances together. He connected on 29 of 40 passes for 281 yards, converted a key fourth-down conversion and even drew Dallas offsides with a nice hard count. Things looked good until the fourth quarter, when Jones was 7 of 15 for only 45 yards and the desperation pick late. He’d relied all night on Nabers and Robinson, who caught 23 of his 29 completions, but when Nabers left the game late with a concussion, the offense fell flat. Nabers had another terrific performance with 12 catches for 115 yards but couldn’t haul in a fourth-down pass with 3:30 remaining. Jones misfired on his final three passes, and the Giants fell to 1-3. The Giants have something special in Nabers, and Jones has responded well, but they’re not going to win too many games with just field goals. 
5. Dak’s efficient night helps Cowboys play from ahead. The Cowboys looked pretty locked in offensively on two early touchdown drives, keeping the Giants’ pass rush in check and attacking their shorthanded secondary to go up, 14-6. Things weren’t quite as smooth thereafter, as the Cowboys kept failing on third downs – they were 3 for 10 for the game. Penalties were a big problem, putting them in a lot of long-yardage situations. The Cowboys’ run game wasn’t great, but there were enough contributions from Rico Dowdle (41 yards rushing, TD catch) and Hunter Luepke (three third- and fourth-down conversions) to keep things moving a little. Ezekiel Elliott only played 10 snaps, but the Cowboys ran only 51 plays. In the end, there were just enough early fireworks from Prescott and Lamb – two well-paid stars who also heard the boo birds this week – to finish off the Giants and earn a division road win. They’ll need to be better and cleaner going forward, but the Cowboys had just enough juice. 

Next Gen Stats Insight from Cowboys-Giants (via NFL Pro): The Giants offense ran 23 designed rushing plays for a net 27 yards in Week 4 against the Cowboys, generating minus-49 rushing yards over expected, the lowest total RYOE on designed runs by the Giants in NGS era (since 2016). On designed runs, Giants ball carriers have averaged minus-0.1 yards before contact, while being contacted behind the line of scrimmage on 48% of those runs.

NFL Research: Malik Nabers has five or more receptions in each of his first four NFL games, which is tied for the fourth-longest streak to start a career since at least 1970. The record is six, held by the Cowboys’ CeeDee Lamb.