Any questions? Cooks answers critics with 9 catches for 173 yards in blowout of Giants
When the Dallas Cowboys traded for Brandin Cooks the idea was for him to fill the void left when Dallas sent Amari Cooper to the Cleveland Browns.
After struggling with inconsistency in his first eight games with the Cowboys, he brought his “A game” on Sunday against the lifeless New York Giants. He ran solid routes, got open and caught everything thrown his way as Dallas won easily, 49-17.
His stat line: nine catches for 173 yards and one touchdown.
“I remember he [Brandin Cooks] spoke... earlier this week that he was gonna just continue to trust the process and be him and I feel like today he showed everybody who he is. It was something that we knew was coming,” teammate Tyler Smith said.
CeeDee Lamb talked about how he felt watching Cooks big performance and what it says about the Cowboys.
“That was long overdue for Brandin I couldn’t wait to celebrate with him. I just finally heard he had like [173],” Lamb said. “It shows the depth we have in this receiver room each and every one of us can go up and go get it.”
Cooks has excelled on every team he has played on throughout his 10-year career with 1,000-yard receiving seasons for each of his previous four teams.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said Cooks success shows what he brings to the team.
“You can see his acceleration, and when you see it with the ball in his hands in real life and in an NFL game, then that gets your attention. The more of that you do, the more it loosens up for more parts of our offense,” said Jones.
But until the game against the Giants, Cooks has struggled in his first season with the Cowboys. Coming into Sunday’s game against the Giants Cooks has 17 catches for 165 yards with two touchdowns and no games with more than 50 yards receiving.
It only took one half against the New York Giants for Cooks to have his best game as a member of the Cowboys. Cooks had 104 yards and a touchdown by halftime.
After the game, Dak Prescott said this wasn’t the last big game Cooks would have as a Cowboy.
“That guy deserves it more than anybody. amazing teammate, amazing friend, amazing guy does everything the right way,” said Prescott, “He’ll have more of ‘em I promise you, might not be an every week thing who knows, but he will have more of these games and that’s why he was brought here.”
Cooks’ 173 yards equaled the second-highest receiving yards total during his NFL career.
The Cowboys are undefeated at home this season and Cooks gave the fans credit for the energy they bring.
“Our fans are huge. They come out, you know, whether it’s a little game, 3:25 game, night game,” said Cooks. “The energy that they bring to get us going shout out to the fans for always showing up.”
This story was originally published November 12, 2023 at 8:26 PM.
