There were signs of relief in the visitors’ locker room at the Meadowlands on Thursday night that were surely felt all the way back in Texas. The\u00a0Dallas Cowboys\u00a0did what they so desperately needed to do. They won a game and stopped their season from turning into a disaster.<\/p>\n
But as big as the win felt to the weary team, it wasn’t big enough to erase all of their obvious problems. The Cowboys squeaked by a bad\u00a0New York Giants\u00a0team\u00a020-15\u00a0on a night where neither team generated much offense. The same familiar issues were still there, too, and some new ones were created.<\/p>\n
The win was definitely “huge, especially when you compare it to the alternative,” as quarterback\u00a0Dak Prescott\u00a0said.<\/p>\n
But \u2026<\/p>\n
“We feel great about what we accomplished,” Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy said. “But I think it’s the fourth week in a row we realize we have a lot of work to do.”<\/p>\n
Yes they do, because the goal is not to narrowly avoid disaster against a Giants team that they’ve beaten eight straight times \u2014 and one they beat twice by a combined score of 89-17 last year. Their goals are far loftier than that. They fancy themselves a Super Bowl contender.<\/p>\n
They just still don’t look like one at all.<\/p>\n
“It’s a process,” Prescott insisted. “We’re not going to get complacent. We’re not going to get overexcited about what we’ve done tonight. It’s about building, and it’s about figuring out what we can do better in all phases.<\/p>\n
“But it’s a lot easier to do that with a win.”<\/p>\n