Cowboys got the win they desperately needed, but same old problems remain

There were signs of relief in the visitors’ locker room at the Meadowlands on Thursday night that were surely felt all the way back in Texas. The Dallas Cowboys did what they so desperately needed to do. They won a game and stopped their season from turning into a disaster.

But as big as the win felt to the weary team, it wasn’t big enough to erase all of their obvious problems. The Cowboys squeaked by a bad New York Giants team 20-15 on a night where neither team generated much offense. The same familiar issues were still there, too, and some new ones were created.

The win was definitely “huge, especially when you compare it to the alternative,” as quarterback Dak Prescott said.

But …

“We feel great about what we accomplished,” Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy said. “But I think it’s the fourth week in a row we realize we have a lot of work to do.”

Yes they do, because the goal is not to narrowly avoid disaster against a Giants team that they’ve beaten eight straight times — and one they beat twice by a combined score of 89-17 last year. Their goals are far loftier than that. They fancy themselves a Super Bowl contender.

They just still don’t look like one at all.

“It’s a process,” Prescott insisted. “We’re not going to get complacent. We’re not going to get overexcited about what we’ve done tonight. It’s about building, and it’s about figuring out what we can do better in all phases.

“But it’s a lot easier to do that with a win.”

Fair point. It matters that the mood in the Cowboys’ locker room was light after two straight ugly losses at home. It matters that they don’t have to stew about a loss for the next 10 days until their next game in Pittsburgh, as Jerry Jones stands on the deck of a sinking ship shouting “All is well.” Had they lost, the “alternative” that Prescott spoke about was 10 days of outside panic, a million questions about what’s gone wrong in a season on the brink, and a full-blown fire lit under McCarthy’s already hot seat.

They avoided all that and at least temporarily changed the narrative of their season and the feeling inside a locker room that last week seemed on the verge of coming apart at the seams.

“It’s more joy in here,” said receiver CeeDee Lamb. “You lose two in a row, you start going through a phase where everybody is kind of uptight. You’re ready to play again and get it over with. It’s good for us to come out 1-0 this week. It’s the one we needed.”

They desperately needed a win — any win. But it only matters if they really can fix what ails them.

And that’s a lot.

For example:

• They still can’t run the ball. There were some signs of life with the running game in the second half with some big Rico Dowdle runs. But he still only rushed for 46 yards on 11 carries and the Cowboys still only had 80 rushing yards overall. And Ezekiel Elliott was barely there Thursday night, rushing five times for 19 yards.
• They are incredibly undisciplined. The Cowboys had 11 penalties for 89 yards — and that doesn’t include a 15-yard facemask penalty that was inexcusably called on Giants tight end Daniel Bellinger, the guy whose facemask was being pulled. They are averaging eight penalties per game, making them the fifth-most penalized team in the league.
• The passing game looks out of sync. Lamb finally had a bit of a breakout thanks to a 55-yard touchdown catch. His other six catches went for just 43 yards, though. And Prescott, who was an MVP candidate last year with a league-best 36 touchdown passes, is in game manager territory. He completed 22 of 27 passes for just 221 yards against a bad secondary that was missing two of its best cornerbacks. He’s on pace for just 24 touchdown passes this year.
• The run defense was better, but the pass defense was not. The good news is they held the Giants to just 26 rushing yards. The bad news is Daniel Jones picked them apart for 281 passing yards. Their pass rush, as it has been all season, was basically nonexistent. And the Giants held the ball for more than 35 minutes. Dallas couldn’t get them off the field.

Now the injuries are mounting too. Micah Parsons left the game in pain with what is believed to be a sprained ankle and was facing an MRI on Monday morning. DeMarcus Lawrence injured his foot, though he promised to be “back before long.” Even linebacker DeMarvion Overshown left the game briefly with an undisclosed injury. Those are three big blows to a defense already playing without cornerbacks DaRon Bland and Caelen Carson.

All of those things are concerning and all of them have to be addressed quickly, because the Giants (1-3) were pushovers compared to what’s coming next. In their next three games (over four weeks) the Cowboys (2-2) play the Steelers (3-0), Lions (2-1), and 49ers (1-2) — and only the game against the Lions is at home. And the Eagles (2-1) and Texans (2-1) are on tap before Thanksgiving, too.

The Giants may not have been able to take advantage of the Cowboys’ problems, but it’s a good bet those other teams will.

That’s a problem, even if to them, it felt like a problem for another day. On Thursday night, what mattered most was that for the first time in three weeks, they felt good about themselves again. And they had hope that’s enough to lead to better things.

“I played on a bunch of different teams, and some that when you got going, it just gets hot,” Prescott said. “That’s what we’re looking to do. That’s what it’s about in this league, is getting hot at the right time — building. It’s about the process — trusting the process no matter the results.”

The process yielded a win, but it was only a Band-Aid for their larger issues. The next step in the process has to be actually addressing their issues — not denying that they are still there. Otherwise, this will end up as just a momentary respite for the Cowboys, and they’ll soon start feeling miserable about themselves again.

Ralph Vacchiano is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports. He spent the previous six years covering the Giants and Jets for SNY TV in New York, and before that, 16 years covering the Giants and the NFL for the New York Daily News. Follow him Twitter at @RalphVacchiano.

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