Cowboys Top 10 Takes at Giants: Back-Against-Wall Prediction

Our Dallas Cowboys Top 10 Takes as "America's Team'' travels to the New York Giants for "Thursday Night Football''? Let's call these Fish Report "Back-Against-Wall Projections and Predictions'' from a short week inside The Star ...

1. "Brothers'' and Beefs. Are Trevon Diggs and Malik Nabers done trying to bring out the "belt'' against one another on social media to instead turn their attention to playing against one another? The sensational rookie Nabers has 37 yards in his first three NFL weeks; he's central to New York's chance of an upset here.

Meanwhile, Cowboys Nation hopes the other Cowboys "beef'' - the one that required CeeDee Lamb to apologize publicly for his "bad'' behavior and announce that he and Dak Prescott are "brothers'' - is a fire put out before it ever really starts.

2. The 1-2 Giants have a pass rush. They make QBs work for it. Look at their final scores so far: 28-6, 21-18, and finally a win, 21-15 at Cleveland. They make the other team kick a lot of field goals.

So a monster Dak Prescott day awaits? He often gets his success vs. New York in monster totals of wins (he's 12-2 vs. the Giants and Dallas has won 13 of the last 14), not stats. But ...

3. The Giants have major injury problems at cornerback. So a big day for Lamb to prove his over his pouting? Or ...

4. If Dallas is ever gonna run the ball ... OK, Dallas can't run the ball. They are starting to lean toward Rico Dowdle, who has totaled 95 offensive snaps vs. Ezekiel Elliott’s 75, and 31 touches vs. Zeke’s 24. ... for what little that's worth.

But if ever? New York has been shoved around by the run, so far yielding 321 rushing yards in three games. That's 5.4 yards per carry ... making the Giants defense almost as weak as Dallas' in this area.

5. Who will Dak target? In the first three weeks, CeeDee Lamb has 24 targets (too few) and Jake Ferguson has 16 - and he missed a game. The tight end is this team's second-best offensive weapon.

6. Daniel Jones is in the middle of back-to-back quality starts. No, that is not a joke. But why should the Giants throw? Devin Singletary gets 80 percent of the Giants’ running back touches. If the Giants win, it'll be because of him.

7. Who's to blame for Dallas' inability to stop the run? The players? Maybe they're not good enough. The front office? Sure. New coordinator Mike Zimmer. Yup.

A lot of promises were made. But the Cowboys are surrendering 5.4 yards per carry - just like the crummy Giants. Just like it's too often been.

8. Dallas has secondary injuries. No Caelen Carson (doubtful) tonight? Malik Nabers has those 37 targets in three games. Is Andrew Booth going to get a turn on Thursday night?

9. Dallas is 5-point favorite and again, has won 13 of the last 14 over this team. Indeed, in the two meetings last year, the Cowboys outscored New York ...

So sure, you'd like to hang half-a-hundred on em. But more important would be getting a decent defensive effort - and scheme. ... with Micah Parsons a featured talker ... we mean, stalker ... of Giants ball-handlers. And finally ...

10. Must-win for 1-2 Dallas? Not mathematically. But back-against-the-wall urgency for Dallas? Mentally, absolutely. Lose here and that Mike McCarthy "team theme'' of "ROOTED'' tree is going to be exposed as diseased and rotting. So ... Score Prediction: Cowboys 24, Giants 20.