Those Same Old Giants

The Giants are 0-2 for the 5th season in the last 6, and the talk of playoffs looks laughable so far

Eli Manning gets planted by Cowboys linebacker Jaylon Smith after a short run

Same old, same old. I’m too used to it at this point. Fans across the country, myself included, were hyped for Sunday night’s Giants game against the Cowboys… this was their chance to prove that they were above a subpar Dallas team, to live up to all the preseason hype they didn’t deliver on the week before, and they played… well, terribly. On the third play of the game, about a minute and a half in, Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott casually threw a 64-yard touchdown pass to wide open receiver Tavon Austin. Two things to note with this play: Prescott has always been criticized for being very inaccurate on longer passes, and, just like last week and throughout last season, the Giants showed they are always vulnerable to giving up the big play. On the ensuing Giants possession, they punted, and the Cowboys quickly moved the ball back down for a field goal. Just like that, 10-0. The Giants went on to punt on each of their possessions through the end of the first half, and shortly after they got the ball to start the third quarter, Eli Manning was quickly sacked and fumbled, which the Cowboys recovered. Just two minutes later, they had yet another field goal, making it 13-0. The Giants actually managed to drive and get a field goal on their next possession, making it 13-3, but after punts by each team, Dallas went on an 82-yard drive ending in a touchdown, eating up a lot of time in the fourth quarter. The Giants looked good for the last five minutes of the game – going on a long scoring drive of their own, recovering an onside kick, then getting a field goal to pull within a touchdown with less than a minute to go. Giants kicker Aldrick Rosas put the finishing touches on the game by badly shanking an onside kick out of bounds, giving the Cowboys the ball back and the win.

A wide open Tavon Austin catches a deep ball as Curtis Riley looks on

MVP: For this game, the Cowboys defense as a whole takes this award. The Giants made this average-at-best unit look like All-Pros out there; they rendered both Saquon Barkley and Odell Beckham non-factors, and sacked Eli Manning an astounding 6 times. A lot of Manning’s passing yards came in the second half, because the Cowboys effectively took the running game away; as a team, the Giants gained only 35 yards on 17 carries. Saquon Barkley was his usual electric self, making the first tackler miss most times, but the Cowboys swarmed and were always able to bottle him up.

LVP: This was a tough call, but I’ve gotta give this one to the Giants offensive line as a whole. The picture above has been going viral, and for good reason. The Giants longest run of the night was 10 yards, Eli Manning was under pressure the whole night, there were costly holding penalties.. they were a disaster out there. Bringing in three new faces, including highly-paid Nate Solder from the Patriots, was supposed to jumpstart and fix last year’s train wreck, but they looked awfully similar out there. Eli was sacked 6 times, hit eight times, and the constant pressure forced him to keep throwing quick check-down passes to Barkley, who had 14 catches for only 80 yards (an average of 5.7 yards per catch). Draft bust Ereck Flowers was just as bad as the first game, and the lone bright spot, center Jon Halapio, is now lost for the season with a fractured right leg and ankle. The Giants offense can only go as far as the O-line takes them, so if this kind of play continues, there is no way the Giants make the playoffs this season.