ARLINGTON, Texas — Even once they don’t play mushy, the Giants nonetheless discover it extremely arduous to win.
One week after two of the workforce’s finest gamers criticized the “soft” efficiency in a blowout loss at house, the teetering Giants averted embarrassment in entrance of a nationwide viewers Thursday, however weren’t fairly as much as matching the headed-nowhere Cowboys in a 27-20 loss on Thanksgiving.
The Giants (2-10) suffered their seventh straight loss general — tied for the seventh-longest shedding streak within the franchise’s 100-year historical past — and dropped their eighth straight within the rivalry.
The Cowboys (5-7) snapped their six-game house shedding streak in entrance of 92,196 at AT&T Stadium, the place the Giants haven’t received since 2016.
Making his first begin of the season and first of his Giants profession rather than the injured Tommy DeVito, quarterback Drew Lock engineered a 70-yard landing drive on his first contact. Tyrone Tracy punched in a 1-yard landing after earlier changing a fourth-and-1.
Signal of issues to come back? Not precisely.
With head coach and play-caller Brian Daboll’s job safety below scrutiny, the Giants netted 70 offensive yards over their subsequent seven possessions mixed. Of these 140 yards, 49 got here on two broken-play scrambles by Lock.
In some way, that was sufficient manufacturing to hold round in a 27-13 gap so {that a} 76-yard fourth-quarter landing drive — capped by yet one more Lock scramble from the 8-yard line — made it an in depth recreation.
When the Giants wanted one huge play from their protection — on a third-and-3 simply after the two-minute warning — to get the ball again with an opportunity for an unlikely comeback, Tyler Nubin and Adoree’ Jackson allowed a three-yard completion to Brandin Cooks.
Simply ok to lose.
It didn’t take longer than the second possession for Lock to make the sort of catastrophic mistake that the Giants have been hoping to be freed from once they benched Daniel Jones and bypassed Lock for third-stringer DeVito.
After Devin Singletary was knocked again off his chip block by DeMarvion Overshown, Lock nonetheless tried to pressure the display screen go to Singletary, however Overshown tipped the line-drive go within the air, caught it and returned a 23-yard interception for a landing and a 13-7 lead.
The protection had its personal points.
The Giants missed eight tackles on the Cowboys’ 16 performs within the first quarter alone, in accordance with Subsequent Gen Stats, and set a doubtful fashionable NFL file (since 1933) by going an eleventh straight recreation with out an interception.
The go rush — the supposed power of the rebuilt roster within the post-Saquon Barkley and Xavier McKinney period — went with no sack for the third time in 4 video games. In the meantime, the Cowboys harassed Lock into six sacks, with third- and fourth-string offensive tackles Evan Neal and Chris Hubbard providing little resistance.
The Giants caught a break not going through quarterback Dak Prescott, who has received every of the previous 13 video games he has performed within the rivalry however is out for the season as a consequence of a extreme hamstring harm.
Or so it appeared.
Cooper Rush, who spent a while as a third-stringer with the Giants in 2020 due to his relationship with then-offensive coordinator Jason Garrett, made his tenth profession and fourth straight begin.
A scrambling Rush almost fumbled away a golden alternative when Bobby Okereke knocked the ball out of his arms on the 2-yard line and Micah McFadden fell on it in the long run zone to satiate a protection starved for takeaways.
However replay evaluation overturned the fumble. One play later, Rush floated a landing go to Cooks for a 20-10 lead.
Rush jumped on prime of one other pink zone fumble later within the third quarter to protect possession for one more landing that turned the sport right into a blowout.
The Giants are left as the one workforce within the NFL with no win at house (0-6).
The Cowboys improved to 34-22-1 on Thanksgiving, together with different wins towards the Giants in 1992 and 2022.
