That was a gut punch to any Giants fans NFC East title dream. The Dallas Cowboys stormed into New York and once again showed the New York Giants who’s the real giant of the NFC as they trounced NY 40-0!
I wonder if the Giants thought they were playing Monday night?
Despite having a great, bounce-back regular season last year and all the hype and potential of actually challenging for the NFC East title, the New York Giants got served a Texas helping of humble pie at the hands of their arch rival Dallas Cowboys with a 40-0 trouncing at MetLife Stadium. And, to be honest, I did kind of expect this result.
Okay, let me be clear, I didn’t expect this game to be a 40-0 cakewalk blowout that saw Giants fans leaving the stadium after the first half, but I did expect that the Giants would get smacked up by the Cowboys.
I mean, just putting aside the facts that the Cowboys have won 12 of the last 13 matchups (which dates back to 2017) and have a head-to-head winning record of 74-47-2, what evidence was there that the Giants had any chance of defeating this Cowboys team?
The “star” moves the Giants made this offseason was they traded for an injury-prone, aging Darren Waller, resigned Saquon Barkley (which was a good idea), drafted Deonte Banks in the 1st round (again, another decent move), reigned Dexter Lawerence to a huge extension, brought in Bobby Okereke, and resigned Daniel Jones to a stupid 4-year, $160M contract. What does this list of star moves lack?
Oh, that’s right, meaningful additions to the offensive side of the football.
One year of having a fully heathy Saquon Barkley and a career-year Daniel Jones was good enough for the Giants to make an improbable run to the NFC Divisional Round last postseason, but it was never going to be enough to mount a consecutive year of winning football. Either Barkley was going to get hurt again, or, more importantly and likely, Daniel Jones was going to regress back into the bust 1st round pick he has always been.
And that’s exactly what happened last night as the Cowboys defense had him seeing the ghosts of his former turnover prone self with him only completing 15/28 passes (53%), throwing for 104 yards, 0 TDs (obviously), 2 INTs, 2 fumbles, and only rushed for 43 yards on 13 carries.
I still have no idea what the Giants were thinking giving Daniel Jones a $160M contract as the deal not only stifled their ability to bring in more quality skill players around Jones to mask his deficiencies as a QB, but it also forces Brian Daboll and the Giants coaching staff to rely more on Jones’ QB talent than they normally would.
When you make $160M as a starting QB, you’re forced into being “the guy” for the organization or else the huge contract would be worthless and better used on other players more capable of winning.
However, since Jones isn’t “the guy”, the Giants were going to be screwed regardless as they don’t have the players to cover Jones’ shortcomings, nor the QB capable of winning football games. And that’s what we saw last night.
Sure, Waller was the most productive of the Giants receivers/TEs, but even saying the word productive for Waller’s outing is a gross overexaggerating as he only had 3 REC for 36 yards. Meanwhile, the only reason why Barkley had 51 yards on 14 CAR and helped the Giants get over the 100-yard threshold (108 yards to be exact) was due to the fact the Cowboys were not stacking the box early on in the game.
Yet, when Daniel Jones regressed back into his old self, the Cowboys stacked the box and Barkley was quite the rest of the game.
Now, giving credit where credit is due, the Cowboys defense is one of the Top-5 best in the NFL as it is filled with superstar quality like Micah Parsons (3 tackles, 1 sack 1 TFL, 2 QB hits), DeMarcus Lawerence (1 tackle, 1 sack, 1 TFL, 1 QB hit), Leighton Vander Esch (6 tackles), Stephon Gilmore (4 tackles, 3 PD, 1 INT), Dante Fowler Jr. (2 PD, 2 QB hits), Trevon Diggs (3 tackles, 1 PD, 1 FF), Jayron Kearse (7 tackles), Jonathan Hankins (2 tackles), and DC Dan Quinn leading this unit.
The defense racked up 65 tackles, 7 sacks, 10 TFL, 8 PD, 12 QB hits, 2 INTs, 5 FF, 1 FR, a Pick-6, and a DEF TD against a side that made the NFC Divisional Round last season. That’s INSANE!
Reversely, the offense now coached and led by Mike McCarthy directly didn’t have to be great, but they performed well nonetheless as Dak Prescott (13/24, 143 yards, o TDs, o INTs) was effective, Tony Pollard (14 CAR, 70 yards, 2 TDs) and the running game had 122 total rushing yards, and CeeDee Lamb (4 REC, 77 yards) continues to show he’s a legit #1 WR in the league.
It wasn’t as pretty or explosive as last season’s offense, but it was efficient and ruthless. And that’s honestly far more important in the NFL as if you watched the Chargers and new OC Kellen Moore (who was the old Cowboys OC) game (they lost 36-34 to the Dolphins), you’d see why.
We’ll see if the Cowboys are able to keep up this dominating form for the rest of the season and finally reach the NFC Championship game, but I sure do know that the Giants are in HUGE trouble if they need to rely on Daniel Jones…which they do.
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