In Week 5, the Dallas Cowboys would host the New York Giants, with the following day being the one-year anniversary of the Dak Prescott ankle injury, which just so happened against the Giants in Week 5 at home as well. Now a year removed from injury, the Cowboys are riding high and continued their winning ways with a 44-20 victory over their division rival. Let us dive into the key moments of this game, including the unfortunate injury bug for New York.

Game Details

On their way to their fourth straight victory, the Cowboys played an efficient game offensively. QB Dak Prescott threw for 302 yards on 22 completions, including three touchdowns and one interception. The three touchdowns went to WR CeeDee Lamb, WR Amari Cooper, and HB Ezekiel Elliott. Speaking of Elliott, he continued his early-season success, rushing for 110 yards on 21 carries with a touchdown to go along with his receiving touchdown. HB Tony Pollard rushed the ball 14 times for 75 yards as well, proving his worth as a change of pace back for Dallas. Defensively, LB Micah Parsons led the way with eight tackles. CB’s Trevon Diggs and Anthony Brown had interceptions in the victory as well.

In an injury-riddled, game, the Giants struggled on the offensive end, but rookie WR Kadarius Toney was a bright spot for New York. Toney had 10 catches for 189 yards, breaking Odell Beckham Jr’s rookie record for most yards in a game by a rookie. Besides him, not much went right for the Giants. QB Daniel Jones went 5/13 with 98 yards before getting injured. In his place, QB Mike Glennon went 16/25 with 196 yards and a touchdown, and two interceptions. HB Devontae Booker scored in the loss as well. On the losing end, LB Tae Crowder forced a fumble and LB Lorenzo Carter intercepted Dak Prescott after swatting the ball up to himself on a fourth-down conversion attempt.

Complete Game Offensively

After a pass-heavy Week 1, the Dallas Cowboys committed themselves to the run over their next four games, but in this game specifically, it was a complete, balanced attack that got the job done for Dallas. Dallas attempted 32 passes and ran the ball 39 times. When you are in a blowout, you are likely going to run the ball more if you are leading, but this has been a recipe for success for the Cowboys. QB Dak Prescott is 4-0 this season and undefeated for his career when the Cowboys attempt more rushes than passes. With that, they are still 10th in passing yards (278.0), 2nd in rushing yards (172.80 and 2nd in scoring (34.0). Dallas is dangerous on the offensive end and will continue to be if they play efficient football.

Diggs Shines Again

No, this is not a copy and paste from last week. CB Trevon Diggs recorded yet another interception in 2021. He has six on the season and has at least one in every game this season. He is emerging as an early DPOY favorite, and it is not particularly close at the moment. The closest is DE Myles Garrett of the Cleveland Browns, who has 7.0 sacks in five games this year. It has been a truly special start for Diggs, and he will look to keep it up next week as he leads the Dallas defense.

Giant Injury Issue

While a loss is always going to make headlines, the bigger news for the Giants this week is the number of injuries they suffered in this game. HB Saquon Barkley tripped over a defender on an incomplete pass and has a low ankle sprain. QB Daniel Jones left the game after suffering a concussion. He and Barkley were both carted to the locker room. In the process of all that, prized free agent WR Kenny Golladay hyperextended his knee. Fortunately, it looks like Barkley and Golladay avoided major injury, while Jones will go into concussion protocol. Expect WR Kadarius Toney, HB Devontae Booker, and QB Mike Glennon to be incorporated into the starting offense with the injuries that were suffered.

Looking Ahead

Looking ahead to Week 6, the Giants will look to get on track at home against the Los Angeles Rams (4-1), who are coming off a TNF victory over the Seahawks. The Cowboys, on the other hand, will look to keep things rolling and get a win in Gillette Stadium where they will face the New England Patriots (2-3), who are coming off a victory as well.

Stats from profootballreference.com

Schedule from nfl.com

Writer

-By: Richie Dordas

The New York Giants led by quarterback Daniel Jones and running back Saquon Barkley erased a double-digit fourth-quarter deficit that gave them their first win of the season on Sunday. With about 6 minutes to play in regulation, it looked as if New York was going to drop to 0-4, but the Giants showed a fiery urgency in this fourth quarter that will now be known as one of Daniel Jones’ signature games.

The Saints were sparked by quarterback Taysom Hill in the second half where he accounted for two rushing touchdowns that gave them a 21-10 lead to start the fourth quarter, this was then followed by a Giants punt. Jameis Winston fired a deep potential game-winning pass to Kenny Stills that would have put Joe Judges team down 18 only for it to be called back by a holding penalty on Adam Trautman.

Jones then drove the Giants 59 yards down the field before settling for a Graham Gano 48 yard field goal that would send this game to overtime. Giants Safety Jabrill Peppers won an emotional coin toss and got his team the ball to start the extra period. Jones crafted a 9 play 75-yard drive with help from John Ross, Kadarius Toney, and Kenny Golladay that got them to a first and goal from the six-yard line-. Barkley then scored on a 6-yard run that quieted Mercedes Benz Stadium for the last time on Sunday and ruined the home opener for New Orleans.

As for the Saints, allowing 17 unanswered fourth-quarter points against one of the worst offenses in the league was not a good look. Their identity on offense still seems to be missing. The Giants may have allowed 120 yards on the ground to Alvin Kamara but him not catching a pass was a huge win for this New York defense, who was also missing their best linebacker, Blake Martinez. Without Michael Thomas this is a young inexperienced receiving group that was exposed yesterday, the Saints relied on Hill too much and it cost them when he threw a questionable interception to James Bradberry right after the Stills touchdown was called back.

Sean Payton gave the keys to this offense to Jameis Winston. The offense that they ran yesterday is only going to uncover weaknesses Winston has been dealing with for years. If Sean Payton wants to run a slower run-based offense he needs to give Hill the job, the Giants had trouble all day on defense until it was Winston’s turn to close the game out. New Orleans needs to find other ways to get Juwan Johnson and Marquez Calloway the ball until Thomas makes his return. The Saints will make a trip to Washington next week.

For New York, this was a monumental win and one that many coaches and players needed. Daniel Jones threw for a career-high 402 yards and proved that he and newly acquired Giant Kenny Golladay can work together nicely. Barkley showed that he is getting more comfortable off his injury and still has the speed and explosiveness to be the player that the Giants drafted him to be. Jason Garrett was finally able to call a game that played towards the Giants strengths on offense. The former Cowboy head coach needed that explosive performance out of his offense on Sunday that potentially saved his play-calling duties if not his job.

The defense wasn’t great on Sunday but came up with timely stops that continued to give their offense chances. Leonard Williams and Dexter Lawrence played with an energy that fired up the defense all day long. After not being able to stop the Falcons game-winning drive last week Patrick Graham’s defense got a huge stop inside the last 5 minutes that set up the game-tying drive. In no way does this mean the Giants are back and are going to compete with the Dallas Cowboys for a division title but, if Jones looks like he did yesterday for the rest of the season, the chances of the Giants being in the quarterback market next offseason are slim to none.

Writer

-By: Sam Kirk

Reports from East Rutherford have been hinting at a return for running back Saquon Barkley this Sunday against the Denver Broncos. The Giants last season took months to develop any type of rhythm on offense. There was a valid excuse then because they lost their best player and team captain in just week 2. Now the Giants head into their opener with Barkley back and one year of experience in the Joe Judge era. Here I will try to explain the workload that we should expect from the Giants centerpiece on offense. Even though Jason Garrett somehow was able to get a job interview last offseason, in no way did he do enough for last year’s Giants offense. This offense was ranked 31st in the league in both points scored and yards gained, this was never a problem even with an old Eli Manning in the Pat Shurmur and Ben McAdoo years. The bottom line is the pressure is mounting fast on Jason Garrett to keep his job. He is going to need Saquon Barkley back at full workload in order to drastically improve this offense.

There are still a lot of moving pieces on this Giants offense being that all new additions have yet to actually take a snap together during a game. In one way this could benefit a Giants offense who has high expectations coming into the year and have yet to be seen by any team or coach in the league. But, at the end of the day, the Giants do not have a Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, or even Baker Mayfield for that matter. They have a young inexperienced quarterback who tends to turn the ball over and has trouble seeing what is coming at him. Daniel Jones has yet to beat one team with a winning record in his time with the Giants. If that doesn’t change he will be in trade talks by Thanksgiving, and Giants scouts will be flying to North Carolina and Oklahoma checking out Sam Howell and Spencer Rattler in order to save their franchise. 

When looking at this Giants schedule it is hard to imagine that Barkley gets more than 15 touches against defenses as physical as Denver and Washington, especially with a five-day turnaround into the Thursday night trip to FedEx Field. Andrew Thomas and the rest of the offensive line continued to be bashed by the media this preseason. If the trio of tackles in Thomas, Matt Peart, and Nate Solder can’t find some type of chemistry, the staff may be even timider to rely heavily on Barkley in the first half of this season. After the Giants first two games they get a 3 game slate versus manageable defenses that may give them the opportunity to fully unleash Saquon. They will host Atlanta at home then make a short road trip to New Orleans then Dallas. These three games will be the Giants' chance to take that next step and start the comeback story of one of the greatest college running backs of all time.

If you are a Barkley fantasy owner thinking about benching him until he gets his full workload it’s a bad idea, no matter who the Giants are playing. All summer the Giants and Barkley himself have been very hush-hush when it came to talking about this injury and when he would be one hundred percent. The fact that he will be most likely suiting up for this game is an overall good sign. Considering just weeks ago it was looking like a stretch that he would be able to play in the opener. Another note is that first-round pick Kadarius Toney and new big-time free-agent signee Kenny Golladay have both been hurt all of camp. These two players need to become contributors on offense to help Daniel Jones and more importantly take eyes and stacked boxes off Saquon. If Barkley feels good after taking some hits from the likes of Von Miller, Bradley Chubb, Chase Young, and Montez Sweat in the first two weeks Expect the Giants to ramp it up by week 3 especially if they were to start 0-2. This is the biggest year of Barkley’s career so far, and if he returns to full strength and leads this team to a playoff berth for the first time in 5 years, he will save a lot of jobs for both his teammates and coaches.

Writer

-By: Sam Kirk