By Jon Machota, Saad Yousuf, Charlotte Carroll and Cale Clinton
The Dallas Cowboys rode a standout defensive performance and Rico Dowdle’s first career 100-yard rushing game to a 27-20 win over the New York Giants on Thanksgiving. The Cowboys (5-7) broke their six-game home losing streak while the Giants (2-10) failed to find any offensive momentum after yet another quarterback change.
The Giants offense continued to struggle under their third quarterback in three weeks. After a 13-play, 70-yard opening drive touchdown led to the Giants’ first first-quarter touchdown since Week 3, just two of New York’s next 11 drives were longer than 20 yards.
After last week’s starting quarterback Tommy DeVito was ruled out of Thursday’s contest with a sore throwing forearm, Drew Lock was tabbed as the next man up. The result was much of the same for New York. Lock finished his first career start with the Giants 21-for-32 for 178 yards, an interception and six sacks, adding an additional 57 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown. The Giants posted their fourth straight game with under 200 passing yards, the longest active streak in the league. New York orchestrated only two plays longer than 20 yards all afternoon — both came on scrambles by Lock.
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Giants’ Drew Lock to start at QB vs. Cowboys
The star of the game was Cowboys linebacker DeMarvion Overshown. Overshown was responsible for securing both of Dallas’ turnovers — recovering a fumble forced by Eric Kendricks on a Tyrone Tracy carry, and catching his own batted pass to secure the Cowboys’ first defensive touchdown of the season.
Dallas is feasting with a pick-six 🍗
🎥 @NFL pic.twitter.com/VNBbp2U8tr
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) November 28, 2024
The Cowboys reignited their ground game, securing their fourth 100-yard rushing game of the season. Dowdle led the way with a career-high 112 yards on 22 carries, his first 100-yard game as a professional and first by a Cowboys player since Tony Pollard in Week 3 of 2023. Dowdle was also responsible for the Cowboys’ first rushing attempt of at least 20 yards this year. Dallas entered Week 13 with just 18 explosive rushing plays, the fewest in the NFL. The Cowboys fifth-year running back was responsible for four such runs today.
Amid the Cowboys win, Dallas lost several players over the course of the game. Starting rookie left tackle Tyler Guyton exited with a knee injury after just 13 snaps. He was listed as questionable to return but never came back. Safety Juanyeh Thomas was carted off the field with a knee injury, while cornerback Josh Butler was helped off the field after a non-contact knee injury. For the Giants’ star defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence exited the game with an elbow injury.
Cooper Rush looking like his old self
In a battle of backup quarterbacks, Cooper Rush outlasted Lock on Thanksgiving. Rush didn’t have a spectacular game, finishing 21-for-36 for 195 yards and a touchdown to Brandin Cooks. He was aided heavily by a strong running game but after a tough start filling in for Dak Prescott, Rush has started to look more comfortable the past couple of weeks, on the road against the Washington Commanders and Thursday at home against the Giants.
This version of Rush looks a lot more like the guy who helped the Cowboys to a 4-1 record in five games without Prescott in 2022. Rush doesn’t make many spectacular plays but he’s fairly efficient, doesn’t throw many dangerous passes and usually avoids the big mistake. His play was especially magnified on a day that Lock had a decent game but made a killer error by throwing a pick six on a screen play in the first half.
Those are the types of plays Rush has done a good job of avoiding, at least in the passing game. On Thursday, he was also able to overcome some bad drops from his top target CeeDee Lamb and found Cooks in some big, clutch moments. — Saad Yousuf, Dallas Cowboys beat writer
Dallas turns a page, ends losing streak in Jerry World
The home losing streak has finally come to an end. With some help from arguably the NFL’s worst team, Dallas now has won two in a row. Playoff talk is still not worth discussing, but it’s clear that the Cowboys are still fighting. The biggest positives: Overshown looks like a star, KaVontae Turpin got more offensive touches and Dowdle continues to play like he deserves to be part of the future.
Collectively, the team did a nice job taking the ball away on defense and taking care of it on offense. There’s still a lot of ugly, but it buys them another week where the window has not completely closed on the season. — Jon Machota, Dallas Cowboys beat writer
Giants’ revolving door at QB continues
With three different starting quarterbacks in three straight games, the Giants offense could not find enough sustained success under Lock. The Giants backup started after DeVito was injured in Sunday’s loss to the Buccaneers. It looked like Lock might provide a little bit of a spark after a 28-yard rush just short of the end zone and a touchdown shortly after but the Giants’ offense sputtered. Penalties proved crushing too, with the Giants tallying 12 as a team.
After 70 total offensive yards on that possession, the Giants finished with 247 offensive yards thanks to a late drive in the final minutes. Lock faced a ton of pressure, throwing one interception and then fumbling and turning over the ball on another possession. He was sacked six times. — Charlotte Carroll, New York Giants beat writer
Giants lose star DT Dexter Lawrence
The bigger news out of the game, though, will be the status of Lawrence, who exited with an elbow injury. Rakeem Nunez-Roches later exited with a stinger, too, and the defensive line depth was already thin when D.J. Davidson suffered a shoulder injury. It left Elijah Chatman and Jordon Riley as the only healthy defensive linemen. Lawrence is one of the Giants five captains and has stepped into a leadership role this season. — Carroll
Required reading
(Photo: Sam Hodde / Getty Images)
