EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — One drive late in the fourth quarter Monday night against the Dallas Cowboys summed up the state of the Giants perfectly. Trailing by 7 with about seven minutes remaining, Daniel Jones threw two of his best passes of the night, but his receivers, Sterling Shepard and Kenny Golladay, dropped them.
The drive stalled at the Giants’ 22-yard line, and KaVontae Turpin’s punt return put the Cowboys in position for a 44-yard field goal, essentially sealing the contest, which finished as a 23-16 Dallas victory.
“You can’t let these things linger, just like you can’t let a win linger,” the Giants’ first-year coach, Brian Daboll, said in a postgame news conference. “To ride the roller coaster, there’s going to be a lot of ups and downs throughout the year with any team.”
The optimism that had surrounded the Giants’ first 2-0 start since 2016 quickly turned to frustration as the game opened with a sloppy first half. Both teams missed field-goal attempts, and the game went into halftime with the Cowboys ahead, 6-3. Dallas receiver CeeDee Lamb also dropped a potential touchdown pass.
The Cowboys responded with a nine-play, 75-yard drive that culminated with an Ezekiel Elliott 1-yard touchdown run.
But in the fourth quarter, Giants errors allowed Dallas to pull away. On a Cowboys’ first-and-10 from the Giants’ 27-yard line, a defensive breakdown allowed Dallas quarterback Cooper Rush to find Lamb for a 26-yard completion. Lamb finished the drive with an acrobatic one-handed catch for a 1-yard touchdown that pushed the score to 20-13 with nearly eight minutes remaining.
Jones could find no such breakthroughs. He finished with 196 passing yards and was sacked five times as the Cowboys’ pass rush constantly pressured him.
In the Giants’ final offensive possession, with about one minute remaining and a chance to tie the game, Jones threw an interception to cornerback Trevon Diggs, ending any comeback attempt.
In the Giants’ final offensive possession, with about one minute remaining and a chance to tie the game, Jones threw an interception to cornerback Trevon Diggs, ending any comeback attempt.
But Jones’s teammates said they admired his toughness and blamed the offensive performance on drops and poor protection.
“We have to be better — we have to make plays for him,” Barkley said after the game. “Daniel is a hell of a competitor.”
On the Giants’ last offensive play, Shepard appeared to injure his leg and was carted off the field. Barkley, who is trying to revive his career after years of serious injuries, rushed for 81 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries.
The Giants had earned close victories in their first two games, overcoming a 13-point deficit to beat the Titans, 21-20, in Week 1 and besting the Panthers, 19-13, in a sluggish offensive outing in Week 2. The contests allowed Daboll and the new general manager, Joe Schoen, to evaluate their roster with an eye toward the future.
Because of questionable contracts doled out by the previous leadership group, the Giants’ brass entered the season with salary-cap trouble. Next year, when those contracts are alleviated, they will have an expected $60 million to operate in free agency. The Giants this off-season must also decide on the future of Jones and Barkley, who are both playing on the last years of their rookie contracts.
“I think where we are right now, we’re going to compete as hard as we can in 2022 with what we have and continue to turn over the back end of the roster,” Schoen said in an interview at the Giants facility in late August. “But you come out of it next year maybe in good financial health and a second draft and really start to really build the foundation. We’re going to try to build it the right way.”
The new leadership has been bold in its strategy, and has not apologized for its methods. Golladay, the receiver acquired in free agency by the Giants’ former leadership last season, has played sparingly, as has the 2021 first-round pick Kadarius Toney.
“I think something we want to create is as competitive of a team as we can,” Daboll said last week in a news conference. “Regardless of where you’re drafted, how you got here, how much money you make, we believe in everybody goes out there and competes, and we play the guys that earn the right to play that week.”
The rookie offensive tackle Evan Neal struggled on Monday night, allowing three sacks against the veteran defensive tackle DeMarcus Lawrence. Kayvon Thibodeaux, the rookie edge rusher who played in his first game for the Giants since injuring his knee in a preseason game, registered one tackle.
The Cowboys, contrastingly, won while overcoming key injuries and mistakes. The backup quarterback, Rush, playing while Dallas’s star quarterback, Dak Prescott, recovers from thumb surgery, threw for 215 yards and a touchdown, while the running backs Elliott and Tony Pollard combined for 178 rushing yards. Lamb caught eight passes for 87 yards and a score.
Comments