Game Recaps

Dallas QB Quincy Carter had his best passing day ever with 321 yards and made Bill Parcells' preseason decision to start him look good. Carter has three very good wide receivers and hooked up most frequently with WR Terry Glenn tonight as Joey Galloway saw a lot of attention from the Giants defensive secondary.

RB Troy Hambrick is beginning to stand out in the Cowboys Running-Back-By-Committee ground game, however, he is often replaced inside the redzone with the quicker RB Aveion Cason. Dallas may feel Cason has better hands also as he was targeted 3 times on passing plays while Hambrick did not receive a single target.

Huge game for Cowboys kicker Billy Cundiff as he tied the NFL record for most field goals in a single game. Going 7 for 8, with a longest of 52 yards at the end of regulation, he was the top scorer in the game.

The Cowboys Rush Defense was effective and shut down Giants RB-Tiki Barber, holding him to only 41 yards on the ground.

New York Giants

New York RB Tiki Barber, coming off one of his best performances ever last week, was shut down by the Cowboys defense. When the Giants went to the air, Barber was only able to pull in two passes on 6 targets.

QB Kerry Collins was effective through the air in the second half and threw three touchdowns in leading the Giants back from a halftime deficit. However, Collins threw 3 passes incomplete for a three-and-out on the Giants only possession in the overtime period.

The Giants relied on their wide receivers to put yards and points up and WR-Amani Toomer had a great game with 126 yards and a touchdown on 7 catches. WR Ike Hilliard added 85 yards and a touchdown on 6 catches.

WHAT YOU OUGHT TO KNOW

Dallas Cowboys

QB: Quincy Carter (25-40-321, 0 TD, 1 INT) brought his "A" game to New York and leaves town with his best passing game ever. A performance good enough to take home a share of the Monday Night Football Horse Trailer honors. After a slow start in the first half, including an interception returned for a touchdown on the Cowboys second possession, Carter looked sharp with his passing and worked the ball around to 7 different receivers. Carter opened the Cowboys scoring with an 8 yard rushing touchdown in the first quarter. Besides the early interception, Carter also had 2 fumbles (1 lost) in the game. His longest strike was a nice 27 yard play action pass to WR Terry Glenn to set up a field goal attempt at the end of the first half.

RB: The Cowboys are still showing tendencies of a Running-Back-By-Committee approach with their ball carriers. RB-Troy Hambrick (23-60 rushing) is indeed the primary RB and had a few nice gains among several for 3 yards or less.

Unfortunately for Hambrick, he was often pulled inside the Giants 25 yard line in favor of the speedier and more elusive RB Aveion Cason (3-11 rushing, 2-4 receiving, 3 targets) Most don't feel that Hambrick will be challenged for the primary spot by Cason as Parcells said that Cason would be "in a coffin within a week" if he tried to carry the full load. But it appears he'll steal some touches from Hambrick.

FB-Richie Anderson (6-19 rushing, 4-15 receiving, 9 targets) gets plenty of touches at his position and was actually QB-Carter's second favorite receiving target. Anderson displayed some very nice tackle breaking moves for extra yardage.

WR: Joey Galloway (3-43, 7 targets) drew a lot of attention from the Giants secondary and was not the receiving force he was last week. The Cowboys passing game didn't really take off until the second half, and when it did, the other former Buckeye WR-Terry Glenn (8-113, 13 targets), and WR-Antonio Bryant (5-98, 7 targets), found plenty of open field to work with. With three able-bodied wide receivers on the field QB Carter had plenty of options.

TE: Bill Parcells made a decision last summer to carry four Tight Ends on his active roster this season because he likes the variety. Of the four that played tonight, TE Dan Campbell (1-23, 2 targets) had the biggest impact on the outcome with his only catch coming in the overtime period to set up the game winning field goal.

Rookie TE Jason Witten (2-25, 3 targets) was the other TE looked at by QB-Carter and was targeted once in the redzone, however, Carter held the ball too long and then floated it over Witten's head.

K: Tonight's top scorer, K Billy Cundiff, tied an NFL record by making 7 field goals during the game. The last kicker to do that was also a Dallas Cowboy playing on Monday Night - Chris Boniol, November 18, 1996. By far the most exciting of Cundiff's field goals was the 52 yard shot that appeared to just clear the goalpost to send the game into overtime. Cundiff also hit from 37, 49, 42, 21 and 36 in regulation, and the game winner in overtime was from 25 yards. Cundiff had one miss from 53 yards at the end of the first half and also added two PATs.

Pass Defense: Due to injuries, the New York Giants started three first year Offensive Linemen and the Cowboys were able to put persistent pressure on Giants QB Kerry Collins, sacking him twice before the break. Linebacker Alshermond Singleton was able to return a second quarter interception 41 yards for a touchdown that gave the Cowboys a 13 point lead at the half. After the break, the Cowboys Pass Defense let up and the Giants gained the bulk of their 309 passing yards.

Rush Defense: The Cowboys Rush Defense was a major factor tonight holding Giants RB Tiki Barber to a mere 41 yards rushing on 15 attempts. In fact, the Giants longest run from scrimmage was by a wide receiver.

New York Giants

QB: As the New York Giants could not establish the running game, QB Kerry Collins (21-51-265, 3 TD, 2 INT) finished with better than average passing stats. Most of his numbers came after the halftime break though as the Giants young offensive linemen had early trouble keeping the Cowboys out of their backfield and away from Collins. One of Collins' interceptions was returned for a Cowboys touchdown in the second quarter and Collins had one fumble that his own team recovered.

RB: Tiki Barber (15-41 rushing, 2-7 receiving, 6 targets), coming off an excellent game last week, was not able to give us a repeat performance. The Cowboys stuffed the Giants running attack early and forced them into a passing game. Barber lost one fumble in the first quarter that resulted in a field goal for the opposition and had one 5 yard reception called back on a holding penalty in the second. Barber got the call and scored a game tying two-point conversion in the fourth quarter after two defensive penalties on previous attempts spotted the ball a half yard out.

14 Year veteran RB/KR Brian Mitchell (1-11 receiving, 2 targets) typically receives only a few touches on offense per game but contributes considerably on special teams. Mitchell racked up 194 yards on 8 kick returns and 9 yards on one punt return tonight.

WR: Amani Toomer (7-126, 1 TD, 17 targets) was open frequently in the second half and had superb numbers on the night. Toomer was by far Collins' favorite target and early in the third quarter was interfered with in the endzone on a flea flicker play that may have added another 39 yards and a TD to his stats.

Three wide receivers caught passes from QB-Collins tonight and Ike Hilliard (6-85, 1 TD, 11 targets) had the most spectacular grab on a turn-around-at-the-last-second TD reception in the fourth quarter that would result in a tie game. Hilliard also had the Giants longest run from scrimmage on a 13 yard end around play.

Also contributing was third down player WR Tim Carter (3-28, 9 targets) who had a few near misses that could have padded his stats nicely. One catch in the second quarter was ruled incomplete and upheld on review as Carter bobbled the ball while he was falling out of bounds.

TE: Jeremy Shockey (2-8, 1 TD, 8 targets) needed to find a pair of hands that fit tonight before he contributed anything more than dropped passes. QB Collins first pass attempt to Shockey was approximately a 25 yard strike that hit him in the hands for an incompletion. And Giants fans weren't laughing with Shockey as he dropped another perfectly thrown pass in the endzone on the Giants first drive of the third quarter. Finally, in the fourth, Shockey was able to hold on to a 2 yard TD strike and another reception on the Giants last drive in regulation.

K: Matt Bryant had 1 field goal from 30 yards out which was the go ahead score in the fourth quarter. The ensuing squib kickoff bounced out-of-bounds at the 1 yard line for a penalty that spotted the ball on the 40 for the Cowboys. Bryant also added three PATs. Coach Fassel was quick to not lay the blame on his kicker. It's worth noting that the Giants go ahead FG came with 14 seconds left on the clock. Fassel's received a lot of criticism for not running the clock down further but it's easy to criticize in hindsight. If the snap had been bad (2002 49ers game anyone?) the extra time on the clock would have allowed them to try the FG again.

Pass Defense: The Giants were able to put some pressure on Quincy Carter by blitzing frequently, unfortunately, this left uncovered receivers down field and Carter was effective out of the pocket. The Giants did record 4 sacks and returned an early interception for a touchdown.

Rush Defense: The Giants Rush Defense was only mildly effective as they allowed 60 yards rushing in the first half and 47 yards in the second. The Cowboys one offensive touchdown came on a QB scramble from 8 yards out in the first quarter.