Sunday Night Football Week 12: TV Schedule, Live Stream for Cowboys vs. Giants

The New York Giants enter the Week 12 edition of Sunday Night Football with hopes to both play for pride and play the spoiler to their NFC East rivals the Dallas Cowboys. 

The season seems a wash for Eli Manning and the Giants. They sit at 3-7, have been befuddled by injuries and have lost five in a row after an early-season streak of three wins that flirted with the idea that Manning led an offense capable of running with any team in the league.

Tony Romo leads such a unit, though. The Cowboys are the polar opposite of the Giants at 7-3, with two of the three losses coming mostly as a product of rough times without their leader under center.

Hanging in the balance of Sunday night's affair is a chance to keep pace with the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC East, so expect both teams to trot out their best in another iteration of the classic divisional rivalry.

Viewing Information

When: Sunday, Nov. 23, 8:30 p.m. ET

Where: MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, New Jersey

Watch: NBC

Live Stream: NBC Sports Live Extra

Betting Info: (via Odds Shark)

• Over/Under: 47.5
• Spread: Dallas (-3.5)

Preview and Prediction

Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

This is all about pride for the Giants, but something magical seems to be necessary for Manning and Co. to pull out a win. 

Look at it this way: Manning has had his usual up-and-down season, most recently throwing a ludicrous five interceptions in a loss to San Francisco last week, meaning he has 18 touchdowns to 11 picks on the season.

One game in which Manning was on absolute fire? Against the Cowboys, when he threw three scores to no picks.

The Giants still lost 31-21.

Things have certainly been dire straits as of late when quotes such as this one from Art Stapleton of The Record are getting tossed around:

Much of the problem rests on the defensive side of the ball. The Giants rank in the bottom 10 against both the pass and the rush this season, as Jason Pierre-Paul has little help getting to quarterbacks and the run defense is downright miserable.

It is a jarring role reversal for the two foes considering it is usually Dallas that has the leaky defense.

As the Week 7 result shows, this creates a situation in which even Manning at his best cannot compensate. In that loss, Romo effortlessly tossed three touchdowns on just 23 pass attempts and DeMarco Murray rushed for 128 yards and a score on 28 totes.

On the edges of the matchup, star wideout Dez Bryant brought in nine catches for 151 yards.

Murray, though, is the main point of emphasis Sunday night. The NFL's leading rusher by a large margin, Murray has a minimum of 100 yards in nine of his team's 10 games this season, which brings him to 1,233 yards and seven touchdowns on a 5.1 per-carry average.

As Clarence Hill of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram captures, there is little cause for concern over where Murray is at right now from a health standpoint, especially coming out of a bye:

For his part, Murray has been looking forward to this part of the season, per Todd Archer of ESPNDallas.com:

"

Obviously we’re running the ball well, and I think we’re throwing it well, too. So in this part of the year, it’s cold, the weather, so I think running is going to be a little bit more of a factor for us, which is good. We’ve got a strong offensive line. We’ve got some backs who can run and also got a lot of guys on the edge that can go up and get the ball. So it’s going to be huge for us.

"

Bad news for the Giants. 

In this particular matchup, it is quite difficult to see how the Giants shut down Murray coming off a bye with plenty of time to both heal and prepare for a defense he has already torched once. Ditto for Romo and Bryant.

New York may be at home, but Manning's best was not enough last time out. Sprinkle in the fact that he is coming off a game in which he tossed five picks, and the outlook is simply bleak.

Expect Dallas to roll as two teams headed in different directions create further separation.

Prediction: Cowboys 36, Giants 20 

Note: Stats courtesy of NFL.com. All advanced metrics via Pro Football Focus (subscription required).