ARLINGTON, Texas — Russell Wilson threw one Moon Ball too many.
Wilson engineered one of the Giants’ best big-game offensive performances in a decade but his final pass was an overtime interception into double coverage that preceded a Dak Prescott drive for a walk-off field goal Sunday to seal a Cowboys’ thrilling 40-37 victory in the early NFL Game of the Year at AT&T Stadium.
Brandon Aubrey — the undisputed best kicker in the NFL — drilled a game-tying 64-yard field goal as time expired in regulation and doubled down with a 46-yarder in overtime. Aubrey’s first kick was two yards shy of the NFL regular-season record.
The teams traded scores on the final nine second-half possessions — five for the Cowboys and four for the Giants — and when all was said and done the Giants’ 13-10 lead had become a 37-37 tie.
All the twists and turns of a fourth quarter that featured 41 combined points — 17 in the last 52 seconds alone — gave way to the NFL’s first game under new overtime rules, in which both teams possess the ball no matter as long as the 10-minute clock permits.
Of course, after all those offensive fireworks, neither team scored on its first two touches of overtime.
The Giants’ vaunted defense — built on the back of big investments in a four-man pass rush and a rebuilt secondary — couldn’t protect a pair of three-point leads late in the fourth quarter and the defense allowed scores on the Cowboys’ final five regulation possessions as well as the final four-play, 42-yard march.
The Giants have lost nine straight and 16 of the last 17 against the Cowboys, nine straight in Dallas, 14 straight against Prescott and eight straight in the NFC East. They fell to 0-2 for the 10th time in the last 13 seasons — none of which have resulted in a playoff berth.
The Giants could not overcome embarrassing 14 accepted penalties resulting in a franchise-record 160 yards — a slew of personal fouls, pass interferences and multiple-foul plays added up — and find a way to overcome giving up leads with 52 seconds remaining and as the fourth-quarter clock expired.
Wilson threw for 450 yards and tossed a pair of improbable Hail Mary go-ahead touchdown passes in the fourth quarter alone — one a 32-yarder on fourth-and-four to Wan’Dale Robinson and the other a 48-yarder as Malik Nabers split two defenders with straight-line speed in a no-big-plays defense.
None of it mattered in the end.
Leading 13-10, the Giants opened the second half by forcing their first takeaway of the season.
Dru Phillips, who was called for a drive-changing unnecessary roughness penalty on CeeDee Lamb in the first half, undercut a route by Lamb and made a diving interception.
But the Giants failed to capitalize on good starting field position as their red-zone offense picked up where it left off in a putrid first game with a no-gain run on third down and an incompletion on fourth down.
And that’s where the defensive stops in regulation ended — with 10:20 remaining in the third quarter.
Left for dead after a touchdown-less Week 1, the Giants offense was better than the biggest optimists could’ve expected in a 506-yard outburst that included 167 yards for Nabers and 142 for Robinson.
Trailing 20-16 and with their red-zone offense floundering into a field-goal party, the Giants debuted rookie backup quarterback Jaxson Dart for the first of his three offense snaps.
The threat of Dart’s legs seemed to distract the Cowboys, who went the wrong way on a RPO as rookie Cam Skattebo rumbled 24 yards down to the 1-yard line and then finished off the drive with his first career touchdown to reclaim a 23-20 lead.
But Prescott was just getting started on his own 361-yard passing day.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
