Let me rephrase - Dallas "played great" relative to how they were playing in the first 8 games of the season, against the run in particular. Back in October, the Giants dropped 41 on them. They cut that in half, despite the pretty good play of Eli.
Considering Dallas had a makeshift secondary, they did pretty well.
One thing is certain — Dallas played with a lot more emotion this week. ...most likely the result of the coaching change.