Hogs Haven
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Giants struggle, then fumble away opportunity. New York’s offense mustered a combined 10 points in its last two games, and through three quarters, the Giants had scored nine points via three field goals. They’d gained 222 yards entering the fourth, but were just 3 for 8 on third down and hadn’t threatened to reach the end zone since their second drive of the night.
Urgency proved to be the best motivator, as a two-touchdown deficit seemed to wake up this Giants offense, which enjoyed some surprise success on the ground in the fourth. But in the end, the Giants wasted their best chances. New York regained possession after forcing a Wilson fumble, then fumbled it away by leaving right tackle Jermaine Eluemunor on an island against all-world edge rusher T.J. Watt, which unsurprisingly resulted in a strip-sack on a crucial third down.
That was only the latest example of the Giants failing to provide their tackles with some pass protection assistance, and ended up being the most costly (and frustrating, considering it potentially could have been avoided with a chip from a running back). That is the story of the Giants for most of this season: They commit plenty of errors from a strategic and execution standpoint (see: their comical failed two-point conversion) and when they earn chances to fight their way back, they sink themselves. Jones’ game-sealing interception could be seen coming from miles away. These are your 2024 Giants.
Nobody, including the 49ers, saw that fourth-quarter comeback coming. And that’s really why it happened; San Francisco was already in prevent mode and clearly stopped taking the Cowboys seriously. The proven All-Pro connection between QB Dak Prescott and WR CeeDee Lamb took advantage of the complacency, and suddenly the 49ers looked like Apollo Creed in the first round of his first fight with Rocky.
But don’t be fooled by what Dallas nearly accomplished, because most opponents aren’t going to make that same mistake. Beating up the Cowboys is old hat for the 49ers and they have every reason to not respect us. It only took them one quarter of competent football to turn the game into another laugher. When they got up 27-10, they just got sleepy and bored.
The issues that have plagued the Cowboys all season were still there on the final drive. Mike McCarthy’s unimaginative offensive scheme left bad options for Prescott, who threw four straight incompletions to kill the comeback. While he did throw a dime to KaVontae Turpin on one attempt, putting the game on Turpin’s suspect hands was hardly the optimal design.
This game was much more about the hole that Dallas found themselves in than nearly climbing...
