{"id":110836,"date":"2026-01-05T01:23:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T01:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/110836\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T01:23:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T01:23:10","slug":"giants-takeaways-report-card-from-nfl-week-18-win-over-cowboys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/110836\/","title":{"rendered":"Giants takeaways, report card from NFL Week 18 win over Cowboys"},"content":{"rendered":"

Takeaways from\u00a0the Giants\u2019 34-17 home victory over the Cowboys<\/a>:<\/p>\n

1. Seeing John Mara make his way down the elevator from the press box and walk into a cart to get through the lower levels of MetLife Stadium was a sobering reminder of the toll cancer treatments can take. Mara, 71, was joined by a large contingent of his family gathered in the locker room after the game. Interim head coach Mike Kafka gave Mara the game ball. Mara\u2019s father, Wellington, enjoyed beating the Cowboys most of all \u2014 remember his famous \u201cIt\u2019s nice to see arrogance humbled\u201d after a victory over the Cowboys in 1996, a shot directed at Dallas owner Jerry Jones? After his Giants beat the Cowboys, John Mara was thrilled. \u201cHe mentioned he\u2019s jogging to his treatments now because of this win,\u201d tight end Daniel Bellinger said. This was how the Giants needed to bid adieu to the 2025 season. \u201cHe\u2019s got to be the toughest guy in the locker room,\u201d Bellinger said. \u201cHe\u2019s resilient as a guy and we respect him as our leader, our owner and I was happy to see him get the game ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

2. There were unoccupied gray seats on all levels at MetLife Stadium and the usual strong contingent of Cowboys fans in the building. It was not the usual Dallas takeover, though, as the Cowboys a few weeks ago were eliminated from the playoffs. The stakes were not high but the emotions were. Beating the Cowboys always means something to the Giants and the fans not obsessed with 2026 draft picks. This series has been a one-sided mismatch, with the Cowboys winning nine straight and Dak Prescott winning 14 consecutive games against the Giants dating back to 2016. \u201cThat\u2019s crazy,\u201d Jaxson Dart said. \u201cThat\u2019s good to snap, that\u2019s for sure.\u201d That this loss meant the Cowboys (7-9-1) finished with a losing record was satisfying to more than a few people employed by the Giants.<\/p>\n

\"NewGiants place kicker Ben Sauls (30) kicks a field goal during the first quarter of the Giants and Dallas Cowboys game in East Rutherford, NJ. Bill Kostroun for the New York Post<\/p>\n

3. Out of all the ridiculousness of what went down this season at the position, have the Giants found a kicker? Rookie Ben Sauls arrived in early November and went 8-for-8 on field goals, becoming the first left-footer to appear in an NFL regular-season game since 2018 (Sebastian Janikowski). Sauls went 4-for-4 against the Cowboys. After Graham Gano, Jude McAtamney and Younghoe Koo all tried and failed in 2025, perhaps a 24-year old from the University of Pittsburgh and Tipp City, Ohio, is the answer. He should at the very least get a shot in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Takeaways from\u00a0the Giants\u2019 34-17 home victory over the Cowboys: 1. Seeing John Mara make his way down the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110837,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,113,104,103,48948,27379,16314,80,154,38352],"class_list":["post-110836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-cowboys","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-jaxson-dart","tag-mike-kafka","tag-new-york-giants","tag-nfl","tag-sports","tag-sports-plus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}