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Sun Nov 24, 4:25 PM - Cowboys at Giants

Giants (4-6) vs Cowboys (5-5)
The Cowboys lost 49-17 to the Saints and then were on a bye watching as the Philadelphia Eagles took over their top spot in the NFC East with a 24-16 win over the Redskins. The Cowboys are hoping to even things up on Sunday while the 6-5 Eagles are on their bye week.
The Giants edged a bit closer with their 27-13 victory over Green Bay and stretched their win streak to four games. A win over the Cowboys would have them with the same record as the team that was leading this division just one week ago.

Dallas Cowboys.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones runs the show from top to bottom and the team has just one playoff win in the past 17 seasons. His last mistake, one Jones admitted, was firing defensive coordinator Rob Ryan at the end of last season. First there was regret and then the admission came after his team played against New Orleans, Ryan's new team, and the one-sided bloodbath of a game confirmed his statement. That was the Cowboys sendoff for a long bye week.
Since that loss Jones has stated his support for his current defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin and head coach Jason Garrett. Garret has taken the team to 8-8 in each of the past two years and has them at 5-5 now. Despite the difficulties the Cowboys have had, Jones also approves of the job he's doing as the general manager. "I'm getting to do some of the best work that I've done, relatively speaking in my career of these last several years," Jones said.

Cowboys offense.
Tony Romo has been playing at a high level this season. The Cowboys lost their last game before the bye against New Orleans and Romo did have one of his worst outings, but you have to think that playing against his former defensive coordinator, Rob Ryan, had quite a bit to do with that.
Romo has thrown 21 touchdowns with just six interceptions and certainly is not the weak link on this team. It goes without saying that tight end Jason Witten is a problem for any team to handle and he had a good game against the Giants last time. Dez Bryant has 8 touchdown catches for 749 yards on the year. Miles Austin, with 10 receptions against the Giants in the season opener, has been out since September with a hamstring injury, but will be back as an extra target for Romo.
Running back DeMarco Murray gained 89 yards and had one touchdown against the Saints and he does well against the Giants. Murray has a career average 5.4 yards per carry against them, but the Giants have been stopping big name running backs and are currently ranked 7th in the league in that area. With the weather conditions predicted to be poor on Sunday, winning this game could come down to having a good short passing game, Romo is good at that, and a strong running game.

Cowboys defense.
Now we're talking about the weak link of this team, breaking records for all the wrong reasons. In their last game against New Orleans, they gave up 49 points, 625 yards and a league record 40 first downs, They have allowed 4,398 total yards in ten games, on a pace to be at 7,037 for the season, just shy of another record, the 7,042 given up by the Saints in 2012. Not all of it can be put on the shoulders of their new defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin.
Like Rob Ryan before him, Kiffin's introduced a new defensive system and there have been many injuries to his unit. Coming off the bye week it looks like
Jason Hatcher, DeMarcus Ware and Morris Claiborne are set to return from injuries to play the Giants. What really hurts them for this game is losing middle linebacker Sean Lee to a hamstring injury and that linebacker Justin Durant will also be out. The Cowboys rank last in the NFL in defense and have allowed opponents to gain more than 620 yards in two of the last three games.

Giants offense.
How would you like to see Eli Manning throw for 392 yards and four touchdown passes against the Cowboys? That's what Drew Brees did in the last game the Cowboys played. Manning threw four touchdown passes and for more yards (450) and with a better average than Brees in the first game against the Cowboys, but he also sprinkled in three interceptions as the offense turned the ball over a total of six times. David Wilson fumbled twice and a punt bounced off Trumaine McBride blocking for the return. Even with that, the Giants lost by just five points 36-31.
The offensive line has improved dramatically since that time, moving up from very poor to at least average at this point, and the running back situation has changed. The Saints ran all over the Cowboys defense and the Giants will be throwing Andre Brown and Brandon Jacobs at them. Three receivers, Victor Cruz, Hakeem Nicks and Rueben Randle each had 100-yard plus games in the first matchup, with Cruz pulling in 3 touchdowns. Nicks has been limited in practice this week with an abdominal strain, and is listed as questionable, but he says he will play. Once again, the weather conditions may dictate the use of a strong running game.

Giants defense.
The Giants are on a four-game win streak that many say happened because they faced sub par quarterbacks in that stretch and yes, Tony Romo is a step up. The defense was put in a real bad spot in that first Cowboys game with two of the touchdowns being scored by defensive players off turnovers. Romo hit on two touchdown passes and they intercepted him once and sacked him twice. Tight end Jason Witten gave them the most trouble with his 8 catches for 70 yards and two touchdowns.
Since then Jason Pierre-Paul's game play has been more disruptive. Middle linebacker Jon Beason was added to the team, has solidified the group, and should be troublesome for Witten. Will Hill missed the first four games and you can see the difference with him on the field. All this week the defense has been studying how the Saints defense handled the Cowboys, who couldn't convert on any of their third-down opportunities and gained only 193 total yards.

Overall
The fans know that the Giants like to do things in a dramatic fashion. Starting the season at 0-6 and then winning four straight, that's dramatic, but if they want to stir the home crowd to standing ovation levels they need to win this Sunday against the Cowboys. Even with that, many repeat performances will be required for them to achieve the football equivalent of Oscar nominations, an NFL playoff spot. They put themselves in a pretty big hole, but have done their digging and slipping back here with a loss would put the Giants two games behind the Eagles with just five games left in the season. They'd also be two games behind the Cowboys, who won the season opener against them. The Giants have to win this game.

NFC East
The Giants play on Sunday at 4:25pm against the Cowboys. The Redskins (3-7) are at home and play in the Monday Night matchup with San Francisco (6-4) at 8:30pm. The Eagles (6-5) are on a bye week. The Giants are favored to win. The Redskins are not. Check out.
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Notes.

Giants Jason Pierre-Paul was the NFC defensive player of the week for his leaping, game-clinching interception return against the Packers.

Cowboys are 1-4 on the road and haven't swept a season with the Giants since winning twice in 2007.

Cowboys Jason Witten ranks second all-time in the NFL among tight ends with 853 receptions.

Cowboys are 11-0 when DeMarco Murray carries the ball 18 times or more.


Next Games
Dec 1 - Giants at Redskins.
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