Giants put up a fight vs. Cowboys, but it's the same old result
Daniel Jones of the Giants throws a pass against the Dallas Cowboys at MetLife on Sunday. Credit: Mike Stobe
There was no head-scratching decision that left the Giants shorthanded Thursday night. No big dropped pass or unsightly turnover that defined this game, and certainly no silly uniform combination to mock. The Giants seem to have outgrown those elements which led to — or at least exacerbated — their first two losses of the season.
Nor was this an embarrassingly lopsided game the way it was the last time these Cowboys came to MetLife Stadium to start the 2023 season.
There was no booing. There was no early abandonment of the seats by the home fans to cede the building for the visiting celebration. There was even a robust cheer when the final score of the Yankee game and a peek inside their champagne-soaked clubhouse in the Bronx was shown on the scoreboard in the third quarter, perhaps in hope that some of that pinstripe magic might make its way across the George Washington Bridge.
It did not.
The Giants lost to their most infuriating rival. 20-15, not because of anything dramatic or worth screaming about. They lost because they aren’t good enough to win these games yet. It was really that simple.
Even with a strong game from Daniel Jones at quarterback (29-for-40, 291 yards), a 115-yard receiving effort from rookie sensation Malik Nabers, and a defense that held Dallas to no touchdowns in the second half, the Giants couldn’t get their long-awaited win in the series.
After talking in the previous days about how this was a “new” team and a “new” phase of this feud, the Giants were saddled with a very old, very tired result. They came into this game with a staggering anomaly on their squad having no active players who had ever scored a touchdown for them against the Cowboys. They left the same way.
They kept it close and put up a fight but they clearly are not a team with the talent to compete against opponents such as Dallas. The Cowboys may not be a great team this season, but they are still better than the Giants and they demonstrated that on Thursday night.
The Giants have clearly closed the gap a bit – or perhaps the Cowboys have regressed back toward them, it was hard to tell – but they are still one of the weaklings in their division. They’ve been there for a long time, too, losing seven straight now to the Cowboys and having lost to Washington in Week 2 to mire them at the bottom of these early standings.
Coming out on a short week after their win in Cleveland on Sunday seemed to keep their season afloat, the Giants were limited to five field goals and gave up two big passing plays with a banged-up secondary. Dak Prescott threw a 15-yard swing pass to running back Rico Dowdle with 2:06 left in the first quarter that looked as if it was going to be negated by the two flags thrown but the officials waved off all the fouls they must have thought they saw. Then, after the Giants had closed to 7-6, Prescott launched a deep pass for CeeDee Lamb down the right sideline. Cornerback Deonte Banks was beat for the catch, rookie safety Tyler Nubin took a poor angle to help him, and Lamb eluded both players to complete the 55-yard catch-and-run.
The Giants’ offense had a few chances to reach the end zone, more agonizingly close on the first possession of the second half when they drove all the way to the 3. On fourth-and-goal from there, though, Brian Daboll decided to kick a field goal rather than risk coming away with nothing. The kick by Greg Joseph cut Dallas’ lead to 14-12. Cowboys kicker Brandon Aubrey drilled a 60-yard field goal on the ensuing possession, though, to separate the teams at 17-12.
After Aubrey’s 40-yard field goal made it 20-15 with 6:56 left, and with Cowboys star defenders Trevon Diggs and Micah Parsons both dealing with injuries, the Giants embarked on a drive that ultimately decided the game. On fourth-and-1 from their own 39 they converted on a 2-yard run by Devin Singletary, but on fourth-and-6 from their 45 Jones’ pass to Nabers failed. The receiver nearly made a spectacular catch along the sideline with his toes dragging inbounds after Jones had scrambled to his left, but the ball was not caught cleanly and correctly ruled incomplete. Adding to the long-term concern was that Nabers suffered a concussion on the play.
Aubrey missed a 51-yard field goal with 28 seconds left to give the Giants one last chance to prove themselves. From his own 41 Jones threw two incompletions before a desperation heave for Jalin Hyatt down the right sideline was intercepted.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
