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By Michael Stewart

The Giants put in a great effort for the first three quarters until the Cowboys scored 20 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to pull away to a 30-10 win to keep their playoff hopes alive. Quarterback Dak Prescott was held in check until the 4th quarter when he connected with two touchdown passes (3 totaled) to seal the victory for the Cowboys. The Giants are now 2-11 and have sole possession of the 2nd worst record in the NFL.  The Cowboys outgained the Giants in total yards (454 to 330) with the help of three big plays of 81, 54, & 50 yards; which resulted in two touchdown passes. This was an emotional game for the Giants with all that has happened during the week and they played hard from the start and gave everything they had until they ran out of gas to start the 4th quarter. Here are my top reasons why the Giants lost.

  1. Eli Manning outplayed by Dak Prescott: My preview matchup featured Manning-vs-Prescott and how Manning needed to keep it close with Prescott and not letting him take over the game. Unfortunately; Manning couldn’t match his production with Prescott and the Giants suffered yet another loss.
  2. Turnovers: The Giants needed to play a near perfect game in order to defeat the Cowboys if they had any chance of winning this game. Unfortunately; Manning’s two interceptions killed two drives and gave the ball back to Dak Prescott and Cowboys offense.
  3. Big plays: The Giants defense once again gave up big plays to the Cowboys that sealed their fate. The Giants secondary looked lost at times and were horrible in their coverage responsibilities.

Hero: Quarterback Dak Prescott with his 20/30 completions for 332 yards and 3 touchdown passes. The Giants couldn’t contain him and allowed to utilize his mobility on rollouts and keeping the play alive by his scrambling ability.

Goat: The Giants secondary played soft for most of the game and had trouble in man to man coverage. Even when they went into zone coverage’s, they had missed assignments; which lead to big plays for the Cowboys.

Final Thoughts: The Giants will host the Eagles next Sunday in battle between the division leading Eagles against the basement dwellers Giants. At this point, the Giants must give playing time to Davis Webb if they are considering drafting a quarterback in the draft. Whether they start Manning or not doesn’t matter at this point. What matters is that Webb gets to play and show the Giants if they do indeed need to draft another quarterback or not.