Grades for Cowboys and Giants after Dallas’ sloppy win on ‘TNF’, plus bold predictions for Week 4 in the NFL

Going into Thursday night, the Cowboys had won six straight over the Giants; they kept their streak alive by winning a nail-biter over New York, 20-15. The Cowboys’ win wasn’t sealed until Daniel Jones threw an interception with just five seconds left to play. 

Here are our grades from last night’s game: 

COWBOYS GRADE: B-

It took four weeks, but the Cowboys finally figured out how to stop the run. Sure, they were only playing the Giants, but the Cowboys still came through with an impressive performance, holding New York to just 26 yards on the ground. It was a huge step forward for a defense that had surrendered the most rushing yards in the NFL through the first three weeks. Offensively, the Cowboys weren’t flashy — they barely topped 100 yards in the second half — but Dak Prescott did come up with two big plays with a 15-yard TD to Rico Dawdle and a 55-yard TD to CeeDee Lamb, which both came in the first half. The Cowboys didn’t look overly very impressive, but they did win, and that’s all that matters. 

Cowboys notes

• Aubrey’s amazing streak ends. The Cowboys kicker extended his own NFL record by hitting one field goal from beyond 50 yards on Thursday night, giving him 16 straight kicks from beyond 50 to start his career. However, that streak finally came to an end when he missed a 51-yarder wide right in the fourth quarter (you can see the kick here). That being said, Aubrey did hit a 60-yarder in the game, making him just the second kicker in NFL history to attempt at least three field goals from 60 yards or longer in his career AND make them all. 
• Cowboys defense comes up big. The Cowboys defense wasn’t just good against the run, it was great. The Giants only totaled 26 yards on 24 carries, which means they averaged just 1.08 yards per rush. That’s the fewest yards per carry that the Cowboys have EVER given up in franchise history in a game where their opponent had at least 20 carries. 
• Cowboys will be holding their breath after Micah Parsons injury. The Cowboys star had to be carted to the locker room after injuring his leg late in the fourth quarter. It’s not clear how serious the injury is, but if Parsons has to miss any time, that would obviously be a devastating loss for the Cowboys defense. Right now, the Cowboys are fearing that Parsons has a high-ankle sprain. You can read the latest on Parsons here. 

GIANTS GRADE: C

If the Giants have had one bright spot through four weeks, it’s been Malik Nabers, who put on another show in this game. The Giants rookie caught 12 passes for 115 yards and was a big reason New York was able to go toe-to-toe with the Cowboys. With the Giants ground game being absolutely shut down (they were held to just 26 yards), Daniel Jones had to carry the offense, and although that worked at times — especially when Jones was throwing to Nabers — the Giants just couldn’t finish drives. They settled for five field goals from Greg Joseph on a night where they went 0-for-2 in the red zone. Jones wasn’t bad, but he struggled to throw deep, which is something he’s going to need to get figured out if this offense wants to get any better. For the second time this season, the Giants played well enough to win against an NFC East opponent. Instead, they picked up a moral victory, which counts for nothing in the NFL. 

Giants notes

• Malik Nabers leaves game with injury. The Giants rookie suffered a concussion in the fourth quarter that knocked him out of the game. Since the Giants will now have 10 days before their next game, there’s certainly a chance he could play in Week 5 against the Seahawks, but he’ll first have to make it through the NFL’s five-step protocol before he can return to the field. 
• Won’t you be my Naber. Before leaving, the Giants rookie had a huge game. He caught 12 passes, which tied the franchise record for a single game. Nabers now has 35 receptions on the season, which is the second-most in NFL history for a rookie through four games. With Wan’Dale Robinson also catching 11 passes, the two receivers became the first pair in franchise history to both rack up at least 11 receptions in a game.  
• Danny Dimes should be banned from prime time. Daniel Jones might go down as the worst prime-time quarterback in NFL history. Jones has NEVER won a Thursday game: He’s 0-6 in his career, which moves him past Geno Smith for the worst record ever (Smith is 0-5). Jones is also just 1-13 in all prime-time games, which is the lowest winning percentage (.077) ever for any QB with at least 10 prime-time starts. The second-lowest percentage belongs to Andy Dalton, who’s 6-21 (.222) in prime-time games in his career. 

You can check out our full takeaways from the game here. 

2. Justin Fields reveals three of the teams that tried to make a trade for him

When the Steelers made the trade for Justin Fields back in March, Pittsburgh only gave up a sixth-round pick to acquire the former Bears‘ QB, which made it seem like there wasn’t much of a market. However, it looks like there were at least three other teams interested in him, and Fields revealed those teams during a recent interview with Cameron Heyward on the “Not Just Football” podcast. 

• What Fields had to say. “I’m not sure of all the teams,” Fields said, per NBC Sports, “but there were a lot of teams that already had solidified quarterbacks, and I didn’t want to do that. Chargers were one, Ravens were another. Raiders, they talked a little bit. I don’t know too much. Who else was in there, I don’t know, but a lot of teams had solidified quarterbacks who just got new contracts, so I didn’t want to [go] there.”
• Why the Chargers and Ravens deals likely fell through. When the Bears decided they were going to trade Fields, general manager Ryan Poles said they were going to do him right, which essentially meant they were going to give him some say and weren’t going to send him to a team with an established QB. The Chargers have Justin Herbert and the Ravens have Lamar Jackson, and as Fields noted, he “didn’t want to do that.”
• Raiders would have been an interesting option. Fields might have had a shot to start for the Raiders, but going to Las Vegas would have meant reuniting with Luke Getsy. The Raiders offensive coordinator was Fields’ OC in Chicago for two seasons (2022-23), and they didn’t exactly have a ton of success together, so both sides might have felt that the pairing probably wasn’t going to work. 

In the end, Fields definitely ended up in the best spot. He’s now with the Steelers and he’s off to a 3-0 start for the first time in his career. You can read our full story here on the trade options for Fields. 

3. Atlanta expected to be tabbed to host Super Bowl LXII