What we learned in the Dallas Cowboys’ 49-17 rout of the hapless New York Giants

Apparently, the phrase “On Any Given Sunday” doesn’t apply when the Dallas Cowboys play the New York Giants — or anyone else at AT&T Stadium right now.

The Cowboys, who play their best football at home, simply own the Giants. On this day, the final score was 49-17, but it wasn’t that close./

It was no contest from the outset Sunday with the Giants (2-8) starting a rookie quarterback facing a motivated Cowboys team coming off last week’s bitter loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.

“This is our league. You get in situations you know, whether it’s health and you know, whatever else is going on,” Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy said. “When you don’t have all your players, nobody cares. So, you know, I’ve been on both sides. So I think it just you gotta keep your eye on the target. And that’s where I think our guys did a good job this week because it was important for us to go out there play better than we did last week. Our guys totally took control the game early and commanded it for four quarters.”

Dak Prescott passed for 404 yards and four touchdowns — and added another rushing — in the trouncing of the Giants.

The 641 yards amassed by Cowboys’ offense is the most since 1966, whey they had 652 yards against the Eagles, a game in which Don Meredith threw for 394 yards and five touchdowns.

Per @NFLResearch, the Cowboys outgained the Giants by 468 yards, the largest total yardage difference in a game in 44 years.

Prescott has won his 12 straight start against the Giants while becoming the first quarterback in Cowboys history to pass for over 400 yards with three times in a season for the third time in his career.

The Cowboys (6-3) are now 11-1 following a loss since 2021.

They have won 13 of the last 14 meetings against the Giants, including six straight with a 40-0 blowout earlier this season in New York to along with Sunday’s domination.

The differential of 72 points is the largest two-game margin of victory by the Cowboys against any NFC team in history.

“I saw that,” owner Jerry Jones said. “And that’s unfathomable. That should be noted. That’s not just a notation. That’s this team. A lot of work went into that. That’s hard to do, to have those kinds of games. I think I’m pushing close to 700 games in the NFL, so this hard to accomplish, because everybody’s got top players. So, I’m really proud of them. I’m proud the way the journey’s been and this will be good for us to basically have a win like this.”

Dallas has won now 12 consecutive games at AT&T Stadium. It’s the longest home streak since they won 18 straight from 1979-81.

It’s the fourth blowout win at home for the Cowboys, who previously beat the New York Jets 30-10, the New England Patriots 38-3 and the Los Angeles Rams 43-20.

The Cowboys are the only team in the NFL the last 15 years to beat their first four home opponents by 20 or more points.

The Cowboys play at the Carolina Panthers (1-8) next Sunday.

What we learned in the Dallas Cowboys 49-17 blowout against the hapless New York Giants:

Dak Prescott stays hot against the Giants

There is no truth to the rumor that Prescott has been installed as the new owner of the Giants.

But there is no question that he rarely loses when he plays them. After dropping his first two games against the Giants as a rookie, Prescott has now won 12 straight starts.

His 27 touchdown passes after four on Sunday are his most against any team in his career.

But Sunday was not just about the Giants, it was about Prescott and the offense staying on an impressive hot streak.

Prescott completed 26 of 35 passes and had quarterback rating of 138.3.

It was his third straight game with over 300 yards passing, tying a franchise record he already shares with Tony Romo.

And he continued to be a factor with his legs, rushing two times for 17 yards, including a 10-yard touchdown run.

Prescott sat out the fourth quarter with Cowboys up 42-7.

“He’s playing as good as I’ve ever seen him play,” Jones said. “I can say as good as I’ve ever seen him play. He’s playing with knowledge, confidence, but knowledge of the offense. He’s playing in sync with his coaching. As good as I’ve seen him play.”

Cowboys running game shows up with Dowdle and Pollard

The biggest disappointment on offense for the Cowboys all season has been the failure of the running game.

The Cowboys entered the Giants game ranked 15th on the ground, rushing for just 111.6 yards per game.

It is certainly not what was expected when coach Mike McCarthy declared he wanted to run the ball to protect his defense after taking over play-calling duties from the fired Kellen Moore.

Prescott’s passing opened up things on the ground Sunday with the emergence of backup Rico Dowdle being the biggest difference.

Dowdle rushed for 79 yards on 12 carries and a touchdown.

“I love Rico’s run style. he runs so dang angry and it’s beautiful,” McCarthy said. “You’re just seeing the young man just finally get some opportunities.”

Tony Pollard, the starter who had 474 yards on 120 carries through the first eight games, rushed 15 times for 55 yards before sitting out the fourth quarter.

Cowboys get Cooks going, Lamb stays hot

The worst kept secret at AT&T Stadium Sunday was that the Cowboys were going to feed the ball to receiver Brandin Cooks, who had just two targets and one catch last week and had just 17 catches on the season 165 yards.

The first pass of the game went Cooks, who was acquired in an offseason trade with the Houston Texans to give the Cowboys a legitimate No. 2 option to No. 1 receiver CeeDee Lamb.

Cooks had seven catches on seven targets for 104 yards and a touchdown in the first half enroute to a season-high nine catches for 173 yards.

Lamb, who had more than 150 yards receiving in the past two games, stayed hot. He had 11 catches for 151 yards and a touchdown. He also scored a 14-yard touchdown run on a reverse in the first quarter.

Lamb set an NFL record in the Super Bowl era with his third consecutive game of 10 catches and 150 yards.

McCarthy left Lamb on the field in the fourth quarter to accomplish the record after Prescott left the game.

“How many times are you in a position like that? You feel worse as a coach if I walk in there and you ask me why the hell didn’t you leave him out there for nine yards,” McCarthy said. “I’ve had it happen before. I think this league is so competitive, when you are in that position. I think it’s the respect that you should show your player to accomplish that record.”

Lamb is the first player in Cowboys history with more than 150 yards receiving in three straight games. He is the sixth player in NFL history to do, the last being Josh Gordon in 2013.

“I’m the top receiver in this game, and it’s no question about it,” Lamb said. “If there is, I’ll see you all again next week.”

Defense stops run, smothers Giants rookie QB

The Giants came into Sunday’s game with one arm tied behind their backs.

Their offense ranked 31st in passing, 30th in yards and 31st in scoring and were starting the undrafted Tommy DeVito at quarterback in place of the injured Daniel Jones and Tyrod Taylor against the Cowboys third-ranked defense.

The Cowboys are still the only defense in the league to not allow a 100-yard rusher or 100-yard receiver in any game this season.

Running back Saquon Barkley was the Giants only hope to take some pressure off DeVito and slow down the Cowboys defense.

But he had 1 yard on his first seven carries. Barkley finished with 66 yards on 13 carries.

And when the score ballooned to 28-0 at halftime, the Cowboys pinned their ears back and smothered DeVito.

He was sacked five times and threw an interception to cornerback DeRon Bland, his fifth of the season.

Devito ended the game completing 14 of 27 passes for 87 yards, two touchdown and one interception. He gained 41 yards on seven scrambles.

“It’s tough to prepare for a quarterback you don’t have a whole lot on,” McCarthy said. “You don’t know how they’re going to use them. For the most part, especially the first three quarters, we kept him in the pocket because he is a runner. He’s he’s obviously loose with his feet. But I thought our guys did a good job.”