Giants fail to finish drives, suffer tight loss to Cowboys

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Dak Prescott threw one of his two touchdown passes to CeeDee Lamb and the Dallas Cowboys taunted the Giants yet again, winning 20-15 on Thursday night for their seventh straight victory over New York and 14th in 15 games.
Prescott, who has won his last 13 starts against the Giants, hit running back Rico Dowdle on a 15-yard screen pass for a touchdown to put Dallas ahead in the first quarter. He then found Lamb for a 55-yard catch-and-run TD on a play that ended with the receiver being called for taunting.
Lamb slipped past two defenders and trotted into the end zone. He then fired the ball in their direction and flexed his muscles, drawing an unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty.
Prescott finished 22 of 27 for 221 yards, while Lamb had seven catches for 98 yards.
Brandon Aubrey kicked field goals of 60 and 40 yards for Dallas (2-2), which came into the game with major concerns after being thoroughly beaten at home by New Orleans and Baltimore. A new issue for the Cowboys is an apparent leg injury to star pass rusher Micah Parsons, who was carted off the field in the fourth quarter.
Greg Joseph kicked field goals of 52, 41, 38, 22 and 42 for the Giants (1-3), who controlled the ball for 35:37 but failed to score a touchdown at home for the second straight game. They had two field goals in a 28-6 loss to Minnesota in their opener.
What hurt New York was its inability to run against the league’s worst rush defense. Dallas been giving up an average of 185.7 yards, but it held the Giants to 26 yards on 24 carries, a 1.1-yard average.
Daniel Jones’ arm kept this one close. He completed 29 of 40 passes for 281 yards, finding sensational rookie Malik Nabers 12 times for 115 yards and Wan’Dale Robinson 11 times for 71 yards. But the one thing he could not find was the end zone.
Nabers left late in the game with a concussion. Jones threw an interception on the Giants’ final series after Aubrey missed a 51-yard field goal try – his first career miss from over 50 yards – to give New York one slim last shot.
If there was a bright spot for the Giants, they were at least competitive against a bitter rival. They lost last year’s two games by an 89-17 margin.
Cowboys: DE DeMarcus Lawrence, who had a sack in the first half to run his career total to 61 1/2, left in the second half with a foot injury. … Rookie starting CB Caelen Carson and backup S Markquese Bell (ankle) were inactive after being listed as doubtful. Andrew Booth started for Carson and was relieved by Amani Oruwariye at the start of the second half.
Giants: Nabers, the No. 6 overall draft pick and a breakout star, suffered the concussion on New York’s next-to-last series.
Cowboys: At Pittsburgh for a Sunday night game on Oct. 6, the second of their five scheduled prime-time appearances.
Giants: At Seattle on Oct. 6.