Dak Prescott, Dallas Cowboys defense answer challenge by blitzing NY Giants 20-13

The goal Sunday night was to win and avoid the dreaded 0-2 hole to start the season. In the previous 10 seasons, only 10 teams have made the playoffs after starting 0-2.

But the Dallas Cowboys potentially got so much more in the 20-13 victory against the New York Giants before hordes of relieved fans at AT&T Stadium in a game that playoff pressure, per owner Jerry Jones.

They got hope for the future, renewed confidence in quarterback Dak Prescott and signs on defense that it could potentially become Doomsday-esque if not the renamed version called the Blitz Boys.

Prescott opened the game with a 64-yard touchdown pass to receiver Tavon Austin. He rushed for a career-high 45 yards and running back Ezekiel Elliott had the game-clinching score from 6-yards out.

In between, the blitzing Cowboys defense recorded six sacks and a forced fumble, including four in a first-half shutout of high-powered Giants offense.

“This was a big game for us,” Jones said. “Not any more so for him, but this game was on the line. This was an important win for us....It was a resemblance of a playoff game.“

It wasn’t lost on Jones that the Cowboys (1-1) have gone from desperate to atop the NFC East with a 1-0 mark in the division. The Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Redskins are also 1-1 but have yet to play a division game. The Giants are at the bottom at 0-2.

Here are five thoughts from the game:

1. The game was decided on a 14-play 86-yard drive early in the midway through the fourth quarter. It came after quarterback Dak Prescott missed wide open Rico Gathers in the end zone in the third quarter with a chance to make the score 17-3. Prescott and Elliott put the game away with a drive that lasted 8 minutes, 23 seconds. Prescott opened the drive with a third-down pass to Cole Beasley for 10 yards in traffic. He converted a fourth and 1 with a sneak. Ezekiel Elliott had a 19-yard run and Prescott had runs of nine and eight yards from the zone read to set up a 6-yard gain decided touchdown by Elliott. The Giants got the ball back down 20-3 with 5:45 left. The Giants got a late touchdown on an 18-yard pass from Eli Manning to Evan Engram and a field goal after recovering an onside kick. It wasn’t enough.

“It was big and I thought it was a good mix of run and pass,” coach Jason Garrett said of the final scoring drive. ”We ran it different ways and we threw it different ways and made some big conversions. The play Dak made to keep drives alive and keep them off balance was big in this game. And then to cash in at the end, to be able to score a touchdown in that situation was big for us on top of taking all that time off the clock.”

2. Quarterback Dak Prescott heard all week that the key to beating the Cowboys was stopping the run and forcing him to throw. He said challenge accepted by opening the game burning the Giants with this arm and feet. Two of the first three plays of the game were passes, including a 64-yard touchdown pass to Tavon Austin. He also had two runs of 28 yards to help spark the Cowboys to a 10-0 lead in the first quarter. Prescott was not perfect. He missed a wide open Rico Gathers in the end zone in the third quarter that would have made score 17-0. But he had no bad miscues or turnovers while completing 16 of 25 passes for 160 yards. And when it counted late Prescott was clutch with his arm and his legs. Prescott had a career-high 45 yards rushing on seven designed carries, including three big runs on the final scoring drive. His 64-yard touchdown pass to Austin was the fourth-longest of his career. He still ended up with under 200 passing for the eighth time in the past 10 games. It seemed less of an issue because he made winning plays.

“It felt good,” Prescott said of his running. “Running is something that kind of comes naturally. Coming into this week, the quarterback run was something that we kind of wanted to attack. We knew this defense was going to give us that. I am the bigger guy. I was going to challenge some of those defensive backs to make tackles.”

3. The Cowboys receivers opened the game under scrutiny, as well. It became even more intense when sources reported the team planning on re-signing Brice Butler on Monday to help bolster the passing game. Tavon Austin quieted a lot of doubters with a 64-yard touchdown reception on the third play of the game. He also had a 15-yard run on a reverse. But apart from the Austin big play, there was a little explosion. Michael Gallup and tight end Rico Gathers failed to come up with catches for big plays in the first half. But the receivers came up big when it counted the fourth quarter. Gallup, Austin and Beasley all had big catches on the final drive. Deonte Thompson led all Cowboys receivers with four catches for 33. Now the question is who gets cut so the Cowboys can add Butler.

Dak Prescott said the go-route to Austin was called early in the week and predicted it would go for a touchdown. He bet it would be on the second play of the game but offensive coordinator didn’t call it until the third play.

“It was just a regular go route, just beat your man,” Austin said. “Dak gave me a chance. I made a good move at the line of scrimmage. I made a good catch and ran.”

“I’m just glad we won the game. Everyone wants to touch the ball. We have six great receivers. We are going to have a good rotation.”

4. Running back Ezekiel Elliott didn’t have a spectacular game for the second straight week. But it was respectable. He rushed for 78 yards on 17 carries and that included two runs of 19 yards. It was a lot of dirty physical runs. But the Cowboys defense was focused on stopping him and that opened things up for quarterback Dak Prescott as a runner and passer. Elliott ran hard and physical all game and it should be noted that he got the game-clinching score on a tackle-breaking run at the goal line. Elliott still has not made a huge impact in the passing game. He had five catches for nine yards.

“It really brought me back to my rookie year,” Elliott said of the final touchdown drive. “We had five of those in a season. That’s just the identity of this team. We are going to be physical from play one to play 80. I think it showed in that drive how physical. I think the Giants defense is very good. I think we were them down and it showed in that drive.”

5. The Cowboy defense became the Blitz Boys early and often against Giants quarterback Eli Manning. They recorded four sacks in the first half and six sacks for the game. The Cowboys sent linebackers, cornerbacks and safeties. Linebacker Damien Wilson had a sack and forced a fumble and safety Kavon Frazier had a sack. Six different players had sacks. The others were defensive ends DeMarcus Lawrence and Taco Charlton and defensive tackles Tyrone Crawford and Antwaun Woods. Five of the six sacks came on blitzes. It was an indication of the influence that new secondary coach Kris Richard has on the defense. Defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli rarely blitzed the past. Still, the defense also did a good job statistically on running back Saquon Barkley but they had too many missed tackles. It took until 4:31 in the third quarter for Giants to score on the Dallas defense and that was a field goal. Manning tossed a fourth-quarter touchdown pass and also led them to a late field goal. But it was too little too late. Barkley had 14 carries for 79 yards on the ground and 14 catches for just 80 yards via the air. Most importantly, they limited the big play, especially to game-breaking receiver Odell Beckham, who had just four catches for 51 yards and no scores.

“Yeah, I thought the D-Line played incredible” linebacker Sean Lee said. “Got a lot of pressure. Stopped a really good young running back. That whole offense has a lot of talent and it was a big challenge for us. I thought we stepped up. And then in the secondary, not giving up a lot of big play and making plays on the football, it was incredible.”

This story was originally published September 16, 2018 at 10:44 PM.