The Dallas Cowboys are down 20-9 at halftime in their Week 17 finale with the New York Giants. Struggling on both sides of the ball, Dallas will need a dramatic second-half shift if they want to stay alive in the NFC East race and keep their playoff hopes alive.

Andy Dalton has been way off today with just 59 yards on 7/15 passing. While poor pass protection has contributed to the struggles, Dalton has had bad throws without duress and looks nothing like the quarterback we saw last week against the Eagles.

This game could be completely out of hand if a couple of Dalton’s errant throws had been converted into interceptions. In fact, winning the turnover battle has been Dallas’ only saving grace thus far.

Chidobe Awuzie recovered a fumbled handoff between Daniel Jones and Wayne Gallman to set Dallas up at the Giants’ 27-yard line. But they stalled out on offense and only produced a field goal.

Outside of the turnover the Giants offense has been able to do whatever it wants so far. Daniel Jones has 150 passing yards and two touchdowns while various rushers have combined for 89 yards on the ground already.

Three Greg Zuerlein field goals, including a 57-yarder to close the first half, have kept the Cowboys in scoring range of the Giants..

Both Dallas and New York are fighting for a chance at taking the division and making the postseason. The winner will be waiting until tonight’s game against Washington and Philadelphia and hoping for an Eagles win to make them NFC East Champions.

The Cowboys will receive the ball to start the 3rd quarter. We’ll see if they can finally do something with it.