ARLINGTON, Texas — The Dallas Cowboys remembered what it felt like to win at AT&T Stadium again with their 27-20 Thanksgiving Day victory against the New York Giants.
You can forgive some of them if they had forgotten, since 334 days had passed since their most recent home win, against the Detroit Lions on Dec. 30, 2023.
“It was definitely overdue,” coach Mike McCarthy said. “It was important to get the win on a lot of fronts, but it was really important to get a home win.”
Before January’s loss to the Green Bay Packers in the wild-card round, the Cowboys had won 16 straight home games, the second-longest streak in franchise history. Before Thursday, the Cowboys had lost six straight games at AT&T Stadium and set an NFL record by trailing by at least 20 points in all six.
With Thursday’s win, the Cowboys avoided the third 0-6 home start to the season, happily skipping away from the 1960 team that went 0-11-1 in the first year of the franchise and the 1989 Cowboys that went 1-15 in Jerry Jones’ first year as owner and general manager.
“I hate it so much for our fans to have this run of losses when we’ve been so proud of our home winning streak,” Jones said. “So it’s good to get this win here at home.”
In a span of five days, the Cowboys have won two NFC East games, having beaten the Washington Commanders 34-26 at Northwest Stadium on Sunday. It’s the Cowboys’ second two-game winning streak of the season. They beat the Giants and Pittsburgh Steelers in Weeks 4 and 5 to improve to 3-2 before losing their next five games.
At 5-7, the Cowboys are outside the playoff chase at the moment, but their next two games come against the 4-7 Cincinnati Bengals on ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” on Dec. 9 and the 3-8 Carolina Panthers on Dec. 15.
“We feel a lot differently today than we did Saturday night going into Washington. That’s fair and accurate. It’s a good feeling,” McCarthy said. “This is where we deserve to be. We’ve had to fight to get here. We’re still in the valley of adversity. We’ve taken two steps forward, but we’ve still got a long ways to go. We recognize that.”
To beat the Giants for the eighth straight time, the Cowboys ran the ball. Rico Dowdle became the first 100-yard rusher for the Cowboys since Tony Pollard last season in Week 3 against the Arizona Cardinals. The 26-game drought without a 100-yard rusher was the longest stretch in team history.
Defensively, the Cowboys shut down a limited New York offense that was starting its third quarterback of the season, Drew Lock. The Cowboys tied a season high with six sacks, and linebacker DeMarvion Overshown changed the complexion of the game with an acrobatic pick-six of a Lock pass in the second quarter that gave the Cowboys a lead they would not relinquish.
“I knew a play was coming and I’ve been told all week that play is coming,” Overshown said. “I didn’t know when it was coming, but it was coming. I was just playing football. [Saw] the ball, tipped it, and I was just praying the whole time that it stayed up. I was like, ‘Man, please let my speed, for once, be fast enough to get to this ball.'”
The defense has slowly improved this season. Micah Parsons had 1.5 sacks Thursday and has 6.5 on the season despite missing four games with a high ankle sprain. With Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins next week, he knows the Bengals will be a different challenge.
“Now my focus is heading to the Bengals, understanding how they’re going to attack us, who they got. They got some dudes,” Parsons said. “Hopefully we get D-Law [DeMarcus Lawrence] and maybe Trevon [Diggs] hopefully so we’re fully loaded and I know they’ll be fully loaded. I’m looking forward to that.”
Lawrence has not played since Sept. 26 because of a mid-foot sprain. Diggs has missed the past two games with groin and knee issues. On Thursday, the Cowboys lost safety Juanyeh Thomas and cornerback Josh Butler to knee injuries.
Wide receiver CeeDee Lamb did not return after aggravating a right shoulder injury in the third quarter. He dropped three passes in the game after dropping just four in the first 11 games of the season.
Lamb suffered a sprained AC joint in the Nov. 3 loss to the Atlanta Falcons but has not missed a game despite saying Tuesday this is the most beaten up physically he has been in his career.
With 11 days until the Cincinnati game, the Cowboys’ hope is Lamb will be OK.
“The rest might be the most important part of the schedule,” McCarthy said. “If you just look at what we’ve been dealing with, rest and recovery will really help us. The schedule is set up for our players to be on a bye week. They have some responsibility on Monday. We’ll do a later start on Wednesday. I do want them to get away, get their batteries charged and be ready to go.
“We are going to have to play our best football, clearly, in front of us.”
