It’s possible, perhaps even likely, that they were tied 2-2 against the Dallas Cowboys in the first four games of the season. That would hardly shock anyone.

While that may or may not have been the case, the way Dallas got here was somewhat predictable, but that didn’t make crawling through it any less annoying. Anyway, here the Cowboys are actually .500 through four games and deserve a moment to sit back, breathe and reset.

Most of fans’ fears about this team were not allayed Thursday night, but finding a way to win ugly is a skill that may or may not make anyone happy. The Cowboys won ugly, but it counts the same as the next “pretty” win they can get, assuming they win.

In fact, that’s probably not true if we’re honest. Although this was “just the Giants,” it’s worth noting that the Giants are an NFL team and beating one is never easy. Furthermore, the win in question was a road win for the Cowboys, and a road win in the division at that. It couldn’t be more valuable and they put in the dub.

Such things become easier to say as the “dirt” of competition moves into the rearview mirror. That’s exactly why we’re offering three Day After Thoughts here each week, so we can properly contextualize what we saw in the game that just happened.

Let’s go.

The arrival of Mazi Smith is the best thing that happened

This is an assumption, but a safe one: Dallas Cowboys fans around the world had rejected the idea that Mazi Smith could be a viable player for the team at any point.

Smith wasn’t just serviceable on Thursday, he was phenomenal. Consider that the New York Giants had 26 yards rushing on 24 attempts. This was largely due to the role Smith played.

We’ve seen enough “not great” games from Smith to ward off any kind of establishment of completely different times; Still, it’s definitely exciting to see him take such an important step.

Jalen Tolbert and Hunter Luepke become important figures

This was mentioned in the afterthoughts last week and was second then (even though last week was only a few days ago) – Jalen Tolbert and Hunter Luepke are really starting to come into their own.

A big reason for this is the lack of other legitimate options, but Tolbert and Lüpke have both been reliable weapons in the passing game for weeks in a row. That’s some serious growth.

Additionally, Lüpke is developing into an explosive ball carrier who can emerge from the backfield. Consider that the Cowboys had a total of three carry-on rush attempts on Thursday night where the runner reached more than 15 mph. Two of them were written by CeeDee Lamb and the third belonged to Luepke. Tolbert and Lüpke get more chances.

It shouldn’t have been so hard to win, but we’ll be grateful

Some of the little good vibes that appeared Thursday night evaporated in the wake of the news about Micah Parsons and his high ankle sprain. Oh, and then there was DeMarcus Lawrence’s foot injury.

But even before that happened, it was difficult to stay particularly great after that win. Dallas had a remarkably efficient day from their quarterback, two of the players they can’t rely on in the slightest (Mazi Smith and Terence Steele) seriously stepped up, and the team didn’t allow a single touchdown. Despite all this, they narrowly won by five. They didn’t even cover the spread of 5.5 points (an admittedly large value).

It’s a lot of fun to see Dallas continue to prevail against a division rival, and we’ll always make the right jokes about it, but this round felt much more difficult for them. That’s not because New York is suddenly strong and difficult, but because the Cowboys are so ill-equipped.

Thursday night’s performance may have only been good enough to beat one team. Luckily for the Cowboys, it happened to be a team they were playing against.