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The Cowboys' 2016 season began with a loss to the Giants. Twelve weeks later, Dallas, on an 11-game winning streak, headed into MetLife Stadium as the NFL's best team to wrap up their regular-season series with the Giants.

The last four months -- not to mention New York's no-show performance last week -- suggested the Cowboys would cruise to win No. 12. Except that the Giants' defense dominated for most of the evening, and Rookie of the Year favorite Dak Prescott looked more like just a rookie trying to find his way through his first season of professional football. He struggled from start to finish, and while his counterpart, Eli Manning, wasn't any better, Manning was the beneficiary of that aforementioned defense.

When it was over, the Giants had won, 10-7.

The good news for the Cowboys: They're now 11-2, still the No. 1 seed in the NFC, and remain the favorites to win the division. The bigger news is that the left-for-dead Giants are now 9-4 and are the No. 5 seed in the NFC.

Here are six takeaways from the Giants' win.

1. Things getting dicey in Dallas

So here's the deal: With three weeks left in the regular season, what seemed set in stone is instead a note written in pencil with a huge eraser at the ready.

Behold: The Cowboys host the red-hot Buccaneers and Lions and travel to Philly, while the Giants have the Lions, before ending the season in Philly and Washington. Should Dallas drop two of three and New York win out ... then the Giants win the NFC East.

For Dallas, that means no first-round bye, no home-field advantage, and more important, the Cowboys will have to win three road games to get to the Super Bowl. That's a huge difference from getting Wild Card Weekend off before playing host to a divisional playoff, and if all goes well, the conference championship.

This possible reality is made all the more amazing because of just how poorly the Giants offense has looked. Yet despite the ineptitude, here we are.

2. Dak Prescott isn't perfect

It was bound to happen: Prescott -- a fourth-round pick who was the eighth quarterback selected in the 2016 draft -- would sooner or later turn into a pumpkin. It's not a slight against his talents, or an indictment against the team's decision to keep him as the starter, even after Tony Romo got healthy. It's the laws of probability, and on Sunday night they caught up with him.

Prescott finished 17 of 37 for 165 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions. Coming into the game, he had 19 touchdowns and just two picks. He looked out of sorts all evening -- and some of the credit has to go to the Giants' defense -- but it was no doubt a worrisome sight for owner Jerry Jones, who originally hedged at the idea that Romo wouldn't return to the starting lineup before finally relenting in the face of overwhelming evidence.

But any hiccup could cause the sometimes impetuous Jones to rethink his plans, which explains this tweet from CBS Sports NFL Insider Jason La Canfora:

This is the second straight week a defense has had success against the Cowboys' passing game. Last week, it was the Vikings, but on Sunday, the Giants took discombobulating Dak to another level.

So what happened? When ESPN analyst and former NFL safety Matt Bowen describes it, it sounds simple:

The truth is, you need a tenacious front four and a just-as-tenacious secondary, both of which the Giants have, even with the absence of Jason Pierre-Paul.

If we were to offer Jones a reason for optimism (and perhaps a reason to step away from the ledge), it would be this: The Cowboys still have the league's best offensive line, they still have Ezekiel Elliott, and there's also this little nugget.

3. The Dallas line stands tall yet again

Remember, in 2014, when Jerry Jones admitted that he wanted to use the Cowboys' first-round pick on Johnny Manziel? But thankfully, someone (everyone?) in the organization talked him into right guard Zack Martin? Martin is a two-time Pro Bowler and Manziel is out of football. Martin is also a part of an offensive line that includes former first-rounders left tackle Tyron Smith and center Travis Frederick, who are also two-time Pro Bowlers.

Seeing a pattern here?

Smith is probably the best of the bunch, and the ninth pick in 2011 is still just 25. That means he could still grow.

In related news: Yikes.

4. Winning in spite, not because, of Eli

Manning was only slightly better than Prescott, and you could even make the case that he was worse. Some of his throws ranged from "inexplicable" to "unconscionable," and twice the results were interceptions. This one was particularly egregious because it came early in the fourth quarter, on the Giants' best drive of the game:

But even in an offense as inept as New York's, it only takes one play to turn things around when you have Odell Beckham Jr. running routes. This came after a Prescott interception, late in the third quarter:

My word.

And that brings us to this ...

5. Keep It Simple, Stupid

Look, the Giants' offensive line is a hot mess. There isn't much of a running game as a result, and Manning looks more frightened than ever when he drops back to pass. It explains why he chucks the ball in the general direction of his receivers as soon as possible (that goes some way in explaining the mind-bending decisions that lead to interceptions), even if it's to the detriment of the unit's ability to consistently move down the field. But instead of complicating things, why not simplify them?

This is a rhetorical question, but it occurred to us after seeing this:

And while this was meant to be a joke, it's not really a joke at all. It should be the Giants' offensive game plan for the rest of the season:

Because remember, Eli ain't carrying this team on his back like he did in 2011. It's just not built that way.

6. Next up

The Giants host the Lions (9-4, second in the NFC) while the Cowboys host the Buccaneers (8-5, sixth in the NFC) right back here on Sunday Night Football.

In the meantime ...

You can relive all the magic from our Sunday Night Live Blog below: