Blogging The Boys
The season is done, and it didn’t end in a way most Dallas Cowboys fans wanted. They lost their final game of the season to the New York Giants and it wasn’t pretty. But how did the Cowboys rookie class perform in their final game of their inaugural season? Let’s jump in and find out.
(Game stats- Snaps: 55, Pass Blocks: 27, Pressures: 2, Sacks: 0, Penalties: 0)
Booker went the distance at right guard against the Giants, logging all 55 offensive snaps in the 34–17 loss at MetLife Stadium, and this was one of the few weeks where the rookie’s pass protection visibly wobbled. Head coach Brian Schottenheimer referenced in the breakdown after the game that Cooper Beebe allowed four pressures and Booker two, which he called one of the highest totals Booker has had all year, a clear sign this wasn’t his cleanest outing in protection.
Even so, the damage was limited on the stat sheet. The Giants finished with zero sacks and just one quarterback hit on Dak Prescott and Joe Milton combined, so those three pressures were mostly hurries rather than free shots on the passer. Coming into Week 18, Booker had 23 pressures, six QB hits, three sacks and seven penalties on 604 pass-blocking snaps, so adding three more pressures nudges that total up but doesn’t fundamentally change the profile of a rookie who’s been one of the league’s steadier young guards over the season.
In the run game, the interior with Booker part of the core helped Dallas to 30 rushes for 143 yards, with both Jaydon Blue and Phil Mafah scoring on inside runs, which fits the Cowboys’ offensive line ability to create running lanes between the tackles. Overall, this was a slight step down from Bookers usual standard who’s built his rookie résumé on keeping the pocket clean. But with no sacks surrendered, no glaring one-on-one losses that turned into strip-sacks or drive-killing negatives, and solid work in the running game, it reads fine rather than an off-night from a very good rookie that yet again had a day with no red flags.
(Game stats- Snaps: 23, Total Tackles: 1, Pressures: 1, Sacks: Should be 1, TFL: 0)
Ezeiruaku’s day against the Giants was a snapshot of how quickly a rookie edge rusher’s afternoon can swing from promising to disastrous. On the stat sheet he finished with just one tackle, no sacks, no tackles for loss and no recorded QB hits, a tiny line in a game where the Cowboys still produced four sacks and six quarterback hits on Jaxson Dart but gave up 380 total yards and 34 points.
The cruel part is that his best moment never counted. Late in the second quarter he beat the edge clean and buried Dart for what should have been his third sack of the season, only for a 15-yard tripping flag on Marcus Mbow to wipe the play out. On the field, Jadeveon Clowney was...
