Cowboys historical notes from Thanksgiving Day win over Giants

The Dallas Cowboys took care of business before last weekend formally began, although obviously a lot of people got the party started with the Thanksgiving Day holiday. Hopefully you enjoyed all of your food, the leftovers and the incredible weekend of football with no worry from America’s Team hanging over your head. That truly is the best part about a Cowboys Thanksgiving Day win.

Before we fully put the game in the freezer so to speak, hopefully you aren’t actually doing that with any food, we wanted to take one last look at it relative to team and NFL history as we do every week. The amazing tools at Stathead and Pro Football Reference help make combing through so much history possible, so let us begin.

Rico Dowdle had one of the best games any running back has had this season

You may have known that Rico Dowdle had 22 carries on Thanksgiving and you may have even known that he averaged over five yards per carry on them. That is pretty absurd.

It was so absurd that it was not too common as of the morning of Black Friday. Prior to all of Week 13 taking off there were only 14 games this season where a running back had a performance of that variety. Consider that of the 14 games that there were only eight total players involved in them. I’m not going to remind you that Derrick Henry and Saquon Barkley were free agents last offseason, don’t worry.

The point here is not to say that Rico Dowdle is on par with those players, but that giving him more opportunities should be considered.

You are about to be reminded that it should have been considered long ago.

Dowdle has had quite the two-game stretch, actually

Last week was a quick one for the Cowboys with the game being on Thanksgiving. In their wins at Washington and against the Giants combined, Dowdle had 198 total rushing yards off of 41 attempts.

This was the most yardage that any running back has had in a two-game stretch for the Cowboys since Tony Pollard prior to Thanksgiving last year. Again, the point here is not to exaggerate and say anything silly or declare any false truths, but rather to note that feeding Dowdle more often should have been a commitment made long ago and well before late November.

DeMarvion Overshown’s big day was one we had not seen in a while

One of the best moments from the win was when DeMarvion Overshown tipped a pass to himself, caught it and ran it back for a touchdown. It was likely the highlight of the day for many people watching.

While it was not as epic in nature, Overshown also recovered a fumble later on in the game. This made him the first player in almost two full years to intercept a pass and recover a fumble in the same game for the Dallas Cowboys. I’m trying to buy you time to remember who the last one was if you skipped past the graphic – it was Jayron Kearse on Christmas Eve in 2022.

For what it’s worth, Overshown was the last linebacker (unless you want to classify Kearse that way… talking to you, Dan Quinn) to do this since Sean Lee over 13 years ago. Amazingly, Lee did it twice within three games early on in the 2011 season. He was truly one of one.

The Giants are really bad at passing at AT&T Stadium

The Cowboys surrendered only 131 passing yards to the Giants which is a pretty low number for today’s NFL.

Obviously Dallas has had an impressive defensive for the last few years so this isn’t super shocking, but given the current state of the group (although they have impressed here lately) it was eye-opening even if the competition was poor.

Amazingly, the last two instances that this has happened at home for the Cowboys were in their last two games against the Giants at AT&T Stadium.

Little brothers stay little brothers.

KaVontae Turpin is the first pass catcher to hit 50+ in consecutive home games

If I had asked you when the season started to tell me the first pass-catcher on the Cowboys who would post back-to-back games at home with 50 or more yards receiving, you would have bet everything on it being CeeDee Lamb. Right? Right.

Maybe if you were feeling cute you would have gone Brandin Cooks. Perhaps you would have felt frisky and gone Jake Ferguson. While Ferguson did it if you include last season’s playoff loss and the first home game this year, the first player to do it in consecutive home games this season is KaVontae Turpin.

You will recall that Turpin had the massive touchdown against the Houston Texans and obviously know that he piled up the yardage against New York. No big deal, but in between those things he had one of the most electrifying kickoffs returned for a touchdown that we have seen in recent memory.