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

Ralph Vacchiano

NFL Reporter

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…

Source link : https://www.foxsports.com/stories/nfl/cowboys-got-win-they-desperately-needed-same-old-problems-remain

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Publish date : 2024-09-27 16:20:11

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