Giants grades vs. Cowboys: Big Blue continues to fail in almost all phases
Cowboys running back Tony Pollard, center, is tackled by Giants safety Jason Pinnock and safety Xavier McKinney in the first half of an NFL game on Sunday in Arlington, Texas. Credit: AP/Roger Steinman
OFFENSE: F
Tommy DeVito turned out to be a much better story than a quarterback but this wasn’t on him. He completed 14 of 27 passes for 86 yards (48, more than half of those, came on the final meaningless drive that ended with a touchdown pass to Sterling Shepard) with two touchdowns and an interception. He scrambled for 41 yards and was sacked five times. Scary stat: DeVito’s three TD passes this season are the same as Daniel Jones and Tyrod Taylor combined. Saquon Barkley finished with 66 rushing yards on 13 carries but had just 1 in the first half after a series of losses, no-gains and short surges forward. The Cowboys knew the Giants were going to try to run the ball and they were able to stop it. By the way: Giants were 0-for-12 on third downs. Yikes.
DEFENSE: F
The Giants secondary was unable to stop Dak Prescott from throwing for 404 yards and four touchdowns and running for one as well. CeeDee Lamb caught 11 passes for 151 yards and it wasn’t even the highest output on the team (Brandin Cooks had 9 for 173). You have to go back to 1943 when the Giants surrendered 682 yards to the Bears for a game in which they allowed more than the 640 on Sunday. While there were two interceptions, the Giants haven’t had a sack against the Cowboys since 2021.
SPECIAL TEAMS: C
Welcome to the stats page Randy Bullock! After not even attempting a field goal or extra point in his first game with the Giants a week ago the veteran kicker connected on a 40-yarder for his first points with the team. Jamie Gillan came perilously close to having a few of his 7 punts blocked, but they all left his foot without impediment. Gunner Olszewski tried to deke the Cowboys into a touchback on the first punt of the game but it bounced out of bounds at the 6.
COACHING: F
When you challenge the first play of the game, realize you shouldn’t have, get charged a timeout and lose your challenge for the rest of the half anyway, there should be nowhere to go but up. That was not the case. Brian Daboll and his staff had no answers for anything that happened in the game. After the Cor’Dale Flott interception they could have kicked a FG to put points on the board for the first time this season against Dallas but were stuffed on a fourth-and-2 run from the 4 for no gain.
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.
