Giants reach new lows in loss to Cowboys

There’s a reason why it’s hard to remember a prolonged era of Giants football that was as bad as this current stretch has become.

It’s because none exists.

Despite notoriously long dry spells without successful football, the Giants have never reached the depths that they have been plumbing since their last postseason appearance in 2016. Sunday’s 21-6 loss to Dallas at a MetLife Stadium so overrun by Cowboys fans that you could hear the drawl when they erupted in cheers wasn’t necessarily the nadir of this forgettable period of play, but it did push them into a category of ignominy never before witnessed in the almost 100 seasons of franchise history.

The loss dropped the Giants to 4-10, giving them a fifth straight year with double-digit losses. Before this stretch, they had never had 10 or more losses in more than three straight years, which happened just once, from 1978-80.

What this game did indicate, if it wasn’t already obvious, is the need for organizational change that almost certainly will be coming once this season mercifully ends three games from now.

"We can’t shoot ourselves in the foot," Joe Judge said of the four turnovers and six penalties that helped doom his squad in this particular venture. "The entire team knows that. That’s something that we talk about ad nauseam, we work on in practice ad nauseam."

He inadvertently may have stumbled on the title of the team’s highlight film this season with that remark —

SEE PHOTOSPhotos: Giants vs. Cowboys

"The 2021 Giants: Ad Nauseam."

That the Giants failed to reach the end zone was one of the least embarrassing elements of this resounding defeat.

It was a game in which Saquon Barkley lost a fumble for the first time in his career, ending a streak of 790 touches without a turnover.

It was a game in which Kenny Golladay’s best play was his attempt to defend an interception in the end zone thrown by Mike Glennon; Golladay appeared to pull the ball away from cornerback Trevon Diggs, but the call was overturned and ruled a pick.

It was a game in which the defense foiled a play in which the Cowboys tried to throw a touchdown pass to an offensive lineman — the Giants covered him in the end zone — only to leave tight end Dalton Schultz open for a scoring pass on the second read.

It was a game in which Sterling Shepard was carted off the field with 1:26 remaining after a non-contact Achilles tear, perhaps the final appearance in a Giants uniform for the longest-tenured player on their roster.

And it was a game in which the Giants dawdled away most of their afternoon with the uninspiring Glennon (13-for-24, 99 yards, three interceptions) playing for the injured Daniel Jones before finally giving Jake Fromm a chance to make his NFL debut with 3:41 left.

Fromm completed his first four passes to inject a smidge of energy into a hopeless situation, finishing with nearly as many passing yards on his one drive (82) as Glennon had the rest of the game.

Of course, he couldn’t reach the end zone either. He was drilled on a fourth-and-5 from the Cowboys’ 9 with 1:18 left. But that’s the way things go for the Giants these days. Even the glimmers of hope are doused in disappointment.

"I thought we had a chance for success," Judge said. "We had our shots, but we’ve got to make the most of them. You’re not going to win a lot of games in this league with four turnovers."

Plus another two on downs, including one in the third quarter when the Giants attempted to convert a fourth-and-1 from their own 29. At the time they trailed just 15-6, which should be a manageable score for a football team but felt like a baseball score considering their offensive woes.

The Giants even got the look they wanted with the middle open for a quarterback sneak by Glennon.

"Right when I got the ball, I thought we were going to get it and it felt like we got a little push," he said. "Then I looked over and I could tell we were short."

The Cowboys took over at the 29 and scored a TD five plays later to make it 21-6 (they missed the extra point after both of their touchdowns).

There were other chances that slipped away, too, maybe not to forge a comeback but to at least score some points. Such as a fourth-and-1 in the fourth quarter when right tackle Matt Peart jumped offsides.

"That’s a pivotal play in the game that we’ve got to convert to get a chance to win the game," said Barkley, who showed his frustration as the yardage for the penalty was being marched off. "There were a lot of plays that we had to convert to give us a chance to win the game."

The Giants took over at the Cowboys’ 27 midway through the fourth quarter after Lorenzo Carter stripped the ball from Dak Prescott on his second sack. On their second play after that, Glennon threw the awful pass into the end zone that was ruled incomplete but overturned into an interception.

"I wasn’t able to get my body all the way around and I tried to make a play," Glennon said. "It wasn’t a smart decision to do against the guy that’s leading the league in interceptions [Diggs]. A couple of kind of dumb decisions on my end forcing the ball that were not good decisions."

All of which piled up for a dumb result in a dumb season in a dumb era.

One day someone will be smart enough to turn the mess around.

Until then, this is who the Giants are. Ad nauseam.

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

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.