Field Gulls
While the Seattle Seahawks were taking care of business against the Pittsburgh Steelers, an unbelievable chapter of the New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys rivalry was written in Arlington.
After a Week 1 performance from Russell Wilson that was bad enough for Giants head coach Brian Daboll not to immediately commit to starting him in Week 2, Russ turned back the clock and unleashed all of the Moonballs on Brian Schottenheimer’s team.
Wilson was 30/41 for 450 yards, 3 touchdowns, and one other play we’ll get to later. He initially broke his career high for passing yards in overtime before losing yards on his penultimate throw, so he’ll have to settle for the second-best total. His final throw on an otherwise brilliant day ended in disaster. One Moonball too many and definitely not one to throw in overtime when you could at least preserve a tie. Russell Wilson was picked off by Donovan Wilson, and that was a dagger.
You can’t totally fault Wilson for heat check after heat check when he was flambeing the Cowboys secondary.
Of course, Wilson’s go-ahead touchdown to Malik Nabers at the end of the fourth quarter should’ve been enough to secure another classic Russ game-winning drive and pull off a huge road win over the Cowboys. The Giants defense didn’t hold up its end of the bargain and the end result was a 40-37 overtime loss that will hold up at the end of the season as one of the best back-and-forth shootouts we’ve seen in recent NFL history. Cowboys kicker Brandon Aubrey hit the tying field goal from 64 in regulation and a much shorter walk-off to end OT after the Wilson pick.
The Giants are 0-2 and still have a preposterously hard schedule to come, but if there was ever a performance to calm down any talk of starting rookie Jaxson Dart, it’s this one. For at least one more week, Russ produced the goods that made him the best (and only Super Bowl-winning) QB in Seahawks history.
