Inside The Star
The 2025 Dallas Cowboys season is officially in the books, as a 34-17 loss against the New York Giants capped off a 7-8-1 record for the team. This one featured both familiar issues for Dallas and brought some hope for 2026.
We saw fresh faces get chances they normally wouldn’t, while also seeing some players who absolutely should not be brought back next season.
Dallas had been eliminated from playoff contention far before this game kicked off, but the record concluding under .500 is awfully fitting. It’s the first time in Dak Prescott’s career that he played the entire season and finished with a losing record.
Additionally, this very likely marked the end of a very poor one-year tenure for Defensive Coordinator Matt Eberflus with the Cowboys. All reports indicate he is likely to be fired, which will spark the search for yet another defensive leader on the sidelines.
Here, I’ll cover both halves of football from today’s season finale to recap what went down in Dallas’s final showing.
To start this game, Dallas was the favorite to win, though that changed fairly quickly.
The Cowboys’ defense started the game off with a stop on defense, though that was 50% of their stops for the entirety of the game; put more simply, the Giants scored on all but one drive after that. Woof.
Prescott and the offense took over, and fumbled the drive away, literally, on a snap.
https://twitter.com/SNYGiants/status/2007878652957216984
New York’s next few drives went as follows: field goal, field goal, field goal, touchdown. Bend but don’t break, sure, but the chunk plays defensively were brutal.
The offense did score 10 in the first quarter, but they were shut out in the second, which was the beginning of the end in this one. Really, the story here was Big Blue running all over the field, and Jaydon Blue doing the same.
Dallas’s rookie running back, getting his first start, had a huge day that mainly popped off in the first half. His 14-yard touchdown was the Cowboys’ sole 7-point score until the 4th quarter.
Moving to the second half, we saw the defense really unravel. They allowed 18 points in the third and fourth quarters to Jaxson Dart’s unit; he had a lights-out performance, all things considered.
Tyrone Tracy also had a big day, rushing for 103 yards and reeling in eight catches for 56 yards and a touchdown.
New York dominated time of possession in the second half, with Dallas only possessing the ball twice; those two drives ended in a punt and a missed field goal from Brandon Aubrey. The All-Pro kicker has proven human in recent weeks, though the miss was from 57 yards out.
They did begin the fourth with a touchdown, however, as Phil Mafah ran one in to begin the quarter.
Phil Mafah has his 1st career touchdown! ...
