FRISCO, Texas – Brian Schottenheimer picked up his first win as an NFL head coach on Sunday afternoon in thrilling fashion, beating the New York Giants 40-37 to move to 1-1 on the season.
In a second half that was a back-and-forth scoring bonanza, it was ultimately late-game heroics from Dak Prescott and Brandon Aubrey, amongst others, that helped Dallas prevail.
The win marks nine straight victories for Dallas against the Giants, which is good for the longest active winning streak by an NFL team over a single opponent.
Let's take a look at some of the other difference making numbers from Week 2:
7
Russell Wilson completed seven passes of 20 or more yards against Dallas' defense on 11 throws that traveled that far. They were good for 264 yards, all three of his touchdown passes and his lone interception to Donovan Wilson in overtime.
9
Both CeeDee Lamb and Jake Ferguson finished the win on Sunday with nine receptions. That was a career high for Ferguson, who had 78 yards, and his ninth catch was an 18-yarder up the seam that helped set up Brandon Aubrey's 64-yard game-tying field goal.
14
With the 40-37 win over the Giants, Dak Prescott has now won 14 straight games against the New York Giants when he's the starting quarterback. The last time Prescott lost to New York was in his rookie season back in 2016. Prescott now has the most consecutive wins by a starting QB over a single opponent since 1980, passing Tom Brady and Steve Young, who both had 13 straight against the Bills and Rams respectively.
17
The Cowboys defense forced 17 total quarterback pressures on Russell Wilson Sunday afternoon. Sam Williams led the way with four, and Kenny Clark was right behind him with three. Seven of those pressures were labeled as quick pressures, which means they came in less than 2.5 seconds.
30
Javonte Williams broke a few tackles at the line of scrimmage before scampering for a 30-yard touchdown in the third quarter. It was the longest touchdown run of his career and the longest since Tony Pollard's 57-yard touchdown run in 2022.
35
The officials threw flags for 35 different infractions in the game Sunday for both the Cowboys and Giants. New York had 21 flags, with 14 enforced and the Cowboys were called for 14 penalties, but only 12 accepted. So while the stat sheet says a combined 26 penalties, let's not forget that 35 penalties were actually called, and 11 of them were declined or offset.
41
The Cowboys and Giants had only scored a total of 33 points heading into the fourth quarter. But that's when the game went upside down and both teams rallied for 41 total points to force overtime. The Giants scored three touchdowns in the fourth and the Cowboys were able to get a pair of touchdowns and two field goals, none bigger than the game-tying kick by Aubrey.
42.9%
In a game that was so close on the scoreboard all day long, it shouldn't be a surprise the Cowboys and Giants were identical on third-down conversations. Not only did they both have exactly a 42.9 percent third-down rate, but both teams were 6-of-14 on third downs.
60
Dak Prescott moved into second place in Cowboys history in completions, passing Tony Romo (2,829). Dak now has 2,839 and needs 60 to pass Troy Aikman (2,898) for first in team history.
95.8%
Of the 48 drop backs that the Cowboys secondary faced on Sunday, they played zone coverage on 46 of them, good for a 95.8% rate of zone coverage. In Week 1, Dallas played zone on every single drop back into coverage, bringing their season average to 97.4% through two games. In the last six years that Eberflus has been a defensive play caller, he's used zone coverage at at least a 10% higher rate than the league average of 67.9% in four of those seasons.
100%
Brandon Aubrey was four-for-four on his field goal attempts on Sunday afternoon, tallying makes from 44, 46, 51 and 64 yards for a perfect 100%. In 40 attempts between 43 to 60 yard field goal attempts throughout his NFL career, Aubrey has made 39 of his tries for an astonishing 97.5% make rate.
