People can rightfully pick out various factors for the loss but for me it really centred around the last few minutes of the first half. It was such a pivotal moment in the game given the Giants were due to receive the ball at the start of the second half and the Cowboys had a great opportunity to take the lead before the break.
It all started with the timeout taken by the Cowboys just before the interception. Why take a timeout? This is what illustrates that Dak does not have total command of the offense like say Romo did especially towards the latter part of his career. I remember Romo scoring countless drives late on in halves, e.g., against the Giants funnily enough and he wouldn't take a timeout even if say there was only a minute left at the start of the drive. He wanted the defense to be gassed out on their knees and if he needed a timeout, he would spike the ball himself. The coaches would effectively leave it up to him how to engineer the drive in such circumstances. This isn't a Dak bashing post - I'm just surprised that he seemingly does not have 100% autonomy of the offense in such situations when in my view, given that he's an 11 year VET, All-Pro and Pro Bowler...he should!
Any way, this was followed by an inexplicable drop by Pickens. Dak threw a perfect ball and of all people, Pickens just completely missed the catch.
This was of course followed by Dak's ill advised interception when he was trying to throw the ball out of bounds.
This was then followed by the most embarrassing defensive drive from any team I have watched all weekend.
We can fast forward to Williams rightly being given an unsportsmanlike flag for goading the Giants when losing...
Add in other countless penalties throughout the game.
What does it all tell me? Best case scenario is that the Cowboys were simply not prepared or coached up to win this game. Worst case is it runs much deeper than that.
I guess we will find out over the coming weeks which it is.