ARLINGTON, Texas – Somewhere up there, John Madden is smiling. There were almost not enough of his infamous turkey legs at the Thanksgiving game to keep up with the winning stars here at AT&T Stadium early Thursday night.

Here, Micah, you get one. You had 1½ sacks, 4 QB hits, and seemingly tons of QB pressures, which not only earned you a leg up, but also the Thanksgiving MVP trophy from John Madden.

Here, DeMarvion, you’ll definitely get one. Not only did they finish the game with nine tackles and a fumble recovery, but they also hit a pass attempt high in the air on that blitz, then caught the ball on the run for an interception and ran 23 yards for the touchdown, which changed the entire complexion of this one Play around.

Get one, Osa. Four tackles, one sack and two quarterback hits.

Hey, Captain Kendricks, the heart and soul of this defense all season, definitely a turkey layer for your sixth double-digit tackle game of the season (10), but he also registered a sack and forced the fumble. Overshown has recovered.

Chauncey, you get one too. You were everywhere, not to mention pass defense and QB hitting.

Mazi, come here, big guy. Take a big bite. Three tackles, a half-sack and a QB hit, a big part of the Cowboys’ defense, held the Giants’ running backs, which included the NFL’s leading rookie rusher Tyrone Tracy, to just 55 yards.

Hey Carl, grab one. You looked like the Lawson we saw in the NFL a few years ago, with a sack, a tackle for loss and five QB hits.

What an on-field postgame celebration Fox put on in memory of the late Madden. These holiday games are named after the former coach and television analyst who helped make Turduckens a staple across the country on this holiday.

And if the Fox team hadn’t run out of turkey legs, they should have turned to Rico Dowdle, who had a season-high 112 yards rushing and should have had 117 but for two runs totaling minus-5 yards The Cowboys were just trying to run out the clock.

Cowboys 27, Giants not as close as it seems 20 after Dallas built a commanding 27-10 lead late in the third quarter here at AT&T Stadium in front of 92,196 fans this Thanksgiving Day. When the Cowboys defeated the former Giants 2-9 for the eighth time in a row and the 15th time^Th in the last 16 meetings with their NFC East brethren.

Equally important, this second win in five days increased the Cowboys’ record to 5-7 and marked their first AT&T win of the season after an 0-5 start at home. They also improved their NFC East record to 3-1, good news with two games left to play if a tiebreaker is ever needed with five games remaining.

The very people who gave up on the Cowboys asked head coach Mike McCarthy afterward: “Five days ago, your team was 3-7 and some people kind of declared it dead. Does the team feel different afterward?” “Have you performed against two division teams in the future?”

McCarthy, being the sincere man that he is, should have said, “They mean you guys.” By that he meant members of the media who are so quick to jump to conclusions with so many games left to play. But no, Gentleman Mike has once again taken the right path.

“We feel a lot different today than we did Saturday night in front of Washington,” McCarthy said, pointing to the 3-7 record before Sunday’s win over the Commanders. “That is fair and correct. It’s a good feeling. We deserve it here. We had to fight to get here.”

“We are still in the valley of adversity, we have taken two steps forward, but we still have a long way to go. We are aware of that. That’s the beauty of it.”

I’ll have to keep toiling, but I can bounce back with a job well done on Thursday while also watching the rest of the games to be played that evening, Friday afternoon, then Sunday and Monday, as the Cowboys already take care of their business for the week 13 took care of. Yes, I’ll have a better idea of ​​where they stand when the smoke clears before we prepare for the next two games, here a week from Monday against Cincinnati, currently 4-7 heading into Sunday’s game against Pittsburgh, and then a road game at Carolina, 3-8 before Sunday’s game against Tampa Bay.

And look, none of you “some people” dare downplay this win just because the Giants lost their seventh game in a row and have to play with their backup quarterback – since they have and have released starter Daniel Jones of their own accord the third man, Tommy DeVito, exhausted – he was beaten sore in the last game even though he had no interest in winning again this year. Come on, do you realize that the Cowboys went into this game with their own backup quarterback and were still without Pro Bowlers Jake Ferguson, Trevon Diggs and Zack Martin since Sunday, and after finally trading rookie Marshawn Kneeland for 19 on Sunday Snaps back, he was also out again with sore knees. Then they had to place backup left tackle Asim Richards and backup cornerback Caelen Carson on injured reserve before that game.

Additionally, in that game, the Cowboys lost starting left tackle Tyler Guyton and then starting cornerback Josh Butler due to what COO Stephen Jones said was a torn ACL. Additionally, Juanyeh Thomas, the guy who returned the onside kick against the Commanders for a touchdown, suffered a torn meniscus in his knee. And if all that wasn’t enough, poor CeeDee Lamb, who was bravely dealing with a shoulder injury and was probably the reason he suffered an uncharacteristic three absences in the game, suffered another shoulder injury – but enough to keep him out of the game Return game He should be ready to return to the Bengals game.

And did you happen to notice that without Diggs and then Butler, at the end of the second quarter and having already placed backup starter Amani Oruwariye on IR, the Cowboys were there with slot corner Jourdan Lewis playing the outside right cornerback spot and backup Israel Mukuamu plays in the slot to end the game

That’s a lot to overcome, regardless of whether you’re playing Little Sisters of the Poor.

But you can see the worm turning when some of the Cowboys’ injured players come back. Don’t you think this defensive resurgence in recent weeks has something to do with Parsons returning after missing those four games with a high ankle sprain? He has recorded 5½ sacks in the four games since his return. And just through his presence on the field, Overshown’s production has increased, totaling 29 tackles, three sacks and 12 pressures in the last four games, as well as the pass defense that led to his interception return for a touchdown and a fumble recovery.

If you double and triple team Micah, you won’t have enough guys when D-Mo comes from either the other side or the back. As further evidence of the defensive revival, the Cowboys have 16 sacks in the last four games, and look, two of those were against Philadelphia and Houston – six of them on Thanksgiving against the Giants – while they only had 12 sacks in the previous game seven games so far.

And I bet you noticed that Brandin Cooks was back on the field too. He had missed the last seven games due to a knee infection. The veteran wideout intercepted that 2-yard touchdown pass on third-and-goal to give the Cowboys some breathing room and take a 20-10 lead by running a great cross route that we’ve seen before had seen with him. Additionally, on third-and-2 with two minutes to play, Cooks made the diving catch for the first down, allowing the Cowboys to then hold off until the final minute to prevent any further attempts at last-minute heroics by their opponent.

It makes a big difference when his people are on the field.

Not just the third down play, but also KaVontae Turpin’s 99-yard kickoff return for a touchdown against the Commanders on Sunday, coming up big on a third-and-10 from the New York 38 after Kendricks’ touchdown. forced fumble overshown recovered at the same 38-yard mark. Turpin took a 30-yard smoke pass from Cooper Rush, accelerated again and scored a first-and-goal at the 8 that set up the Cooks’ TD reception.

There was another big third-down play, third-and-5 from the 49, with the Cowboys leading 20-10 midway through the third quarter. Rush hit Jalen Tolbert on a 36-yard go route, setting up a first-and-10 at the 15, which eventually led to Dowdle’s 4-yard touchdown run, his first rushing touchdown of the season and only that fourth for the team in 12 games.

Well done. Now we have to hope and pray that they can bring back some of those Pro Bowl players, like Diggs, Lamb, Martin and Lawrence, who Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said Friday he hopes to see return against the Bengals. It would be nice to see Guyton return as Chuma Edoga played his first snaps of the season and had some issues.

“Hopefully we’ll be at full capacity,” Parsons said, looking forward to the Dec. 9 game here on a Monday night against Cincinnati. “But I have to be grateful, man, super blessed, super appreciative. We came here and put on a show today.”

And was well fed afterwards.