My Quick Thoughts on Cowboys at Giants 2013

(Paul J. Bereswill/New York Post)

• The New York Giants spent the entire week leading up to yesterday’s game with Dallas flapping their gums about how they were going to “put it on ’em,” with Jason Pierre-Paul even going so far as to say “blood will be spilled.”  But it was actually the Cowboys who drank the Giants’ milkshake, effectively snuffing whatever tiny flicker of postseason hope New York had left, by dropping them to 4-7 with a 24-21 victory on a last-second game-winning field goal from Dan “Money” Bailey.
• The Cowboys made plenty of mistakes on the afternoon, including some of the most ineffective run defense we’ve seen in years, but nothing was worse than two Dallas defenders – Jeff Heath and Bruce Carter – literally falling asleep on a play and allowing Giant wideout Brandon Myers to get up off the ground untouched and scamper into the end zone for a touchdown that kept New York in the game when they had been on the verge of being blown out.  At least Heath scored a touchdown of his own earlier on a fumble return, but Carter has inexplicably been horrible all year long after looking like an emerging All-Pro last season.  Whatever’s going on in Carter’s head needs to get fixed ASAP!
• The Dallas offense looked better than in recent weeks, except on third downs, where they were abysmal…that is, until it mattered most.  After starting the game 1-for-8 on third down, the Cowboys converted three huge third downs on their final game-winning drive, led by a clutch performance from Tony Romo.  For the second time in the last three games, Romo worked his patented fourth quarter magic and saved the day for the Cowboys.  His seemingly endless army of detractors can (and undoubtedly will) continue to willfully ignore the fact that he has the highest 4th quarter QB rating in NFL history, meanwhile, the rest of us will be thankful he’s on this team and turning losses into wins time and time again.
• It was really stupid of Jason Hatcher to say he didn’t want to risk putting “bad tape” out there by playing at less than 100% last week against the New Orleans Saints, but there was certainly nothing bad about the tape he put out there yesterday, as he posted two monster sacks of Eli Manning.
• Speaking of Eli, has there ever been a QB in the history of the NFL with a greater disparity between his regular season and playoff performances.  He is routinely one of the most inept-looking quarterbacks in this league on a week-in week-out basis, yet he’s somehow managed to put together two amazing postseason runs in which he played flawlessly on the biggest stage possible.  I guess you’d rather have a guy who plays terrible in the regular season and brilliantly in the postseason, than vice-versa, but it’s just completely bizarre.
• The most important number to come out of yesterday’s game?  The Cowboys are now a perfect 4-0 this season against their NFC Least opponents, which gives them a huge advantage in the event of a tiebreaker.  They also sport a very stout 6-2 conference record.  Only their 0-3 record against the AFC West is tarnishing what would be an otherwise solid season.  Hopefully, they’ll forget that their Thanksgiving opponents, the Oakland Raiders, hail from that same division.  Because a win on Thursday would put the Cowboys at 7-5 and in the NFC Least driver’s seat headed down the stretch.