New York Giants Week 13: Revisiting the Dallas Cowboys Offense

The New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys face off in a Thanksgiving game between backup quarterbacks. Let's see how the Cowboys offense is different from last time.

Nov 24, 2024; Landover, Maryland, USA; Dallas Cowboys wide receiver CeeDee Lamb (88) runs the ball after a catch against Washington Commanders cornerback Benjamin St-Juste (25) during the second quarter at Northwest Stadium. / Peter Casey-Imagn Images

While many New York Giants fans are focused on having Tommy DeVito as their starting quarterback, the Dallas Cowboys are also on their backup in Cooper Rush.

Rush started each of the last three games after Dak Prescott got injured and has since accumulated 646 passing yards on 110 pass attempts, with 347 of those yards coming after the catch.

That’s not to say that he’s lighting it up right now, but he’s had his moments where he can be serviceable, get the ball to playmakers, and let them run.

Rush benefits from having an elite wide receiver in CeeDee Lamb, reliable tight ends throughout, and a TNT-caliber explosive receiver in KaVontae Turpin.

Turpin hasn’t been consistently involved in the offense but is a threat to take it to the house every time he touches the ball.

With Rush at the helm, the offense doesn’t need to become more vanilla based on what he can do mentally but based on what he can do physically.

Rush simply lacks Prescott's arm talent or scrambling ability, which slows down the offense.

The Giants defense will be aggressive in their pursuit of the quarterback, as always, and that shouldn’t change this week.

Last week, the Giants were less aggressive in blitzing than usual, but that was more so because they needed to defend the Buccaneers' offense, not because of some philosophical change.

There should still be plenty of blitzes but I think disguising coverages more when not blitzing could throw this Cowboys offense for a loop.

It’s worth the conversation to have Lamb be consistently double-covered as well but not with a safety overtop, with a defender over the middle of the field.

Lamb does the overwhelming majority of his damage between the numbers. Taking away that option and forcing Rush to push the ball to the sidelines and downfield gives your defense the best chance to make a play on the ball.

The Giants have struggled greatly to stop the run this season, but their best game was week four against the Cowboys.

Both of those teams have changed significantly. The Cowboys now start the more explosive Rico Dowdle full-time over Ezekiel Elliott, but they still struggle consistently.

This Cowboys offensive line is a shell of what they used to be, and it shows, especially in the run game.

The expectation needs to be that the Giants will win at the point of attack and force the Cowboys into unmanageable situations.

Turning this game into a rock fight is the Giants' only chance of winning this week or any week for the remainder of the season.

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