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Undermanned? Definitely.
Undeterred? Definitely.
Ultimately successful? Definitely not.
The depleted Giants gave it a shot Thursday night but there would be no Thanksgiving festivities for them. They battled as hard as they could and took a 13-7 lead into halftime but did not have enough on either side of the ball to hold off the mistake-prone Cowboys. The second half could be entitled Domination Dallas as the Giants wilted and left AT&T Stadium on the wrong end of a 28-20 score.
The Giants scored their only points of the second half with eight seconds left on Daniel Jones’ 1-yard touchdown pass to Richie James, making the final score look closer than the game actually was.
It all came crashing down on the Giants and yet the Cowboys were so sloppy that it took them far too long to turn this into a comfortable margin.
The Cowboys (8-3) got the ball and held it for more than half of the third quarter on a 14-play drive. Still, the Giants were in good shape to limit the damage to a field goal but on third-and-goal from the 15-yard line, tight end Dalton Schultz beat fill-in cornerback Nick McCloud for a touchdown. Just like that, the Giants were down 14-13.
Next, coach Brian Daboll gambled on fourth-and-1 from the Giants 45-yard line, turning down a punt to try to pick up the first down with his offense. Jones’ hurried pass to the right side was low and behind Saquon Barkley, but the ball hit Barkley in the hands as he was falling backwards and he failed to catch it.
The Cowboys took over in Giants’ territory and embarked on a touchdown drive, with Dak Prescott hitting Schultz again to make it 21-13. The Giants’ offense fizzled again and Prescott found tight end Jake Ferguson for 24 yards — Ferguson leaped over safety Jason Pinnock — and found CeeDee Lamb for 23 yards before rookie tight end Peyton Hendershot scored from 2 yards out to seal the deal.
