For Daniel Jones and Giants, it doesn't get bigger than beating rival Cowboys
Credit: Getty Images/Jonathan Bachman
There are two standards by which Giants quarterbacks will always be measured.
The first is Super Bowl wins. Daniel Jones won’t be able to do much about that one this week.
The second, and nearly as important, is wins against the Cowboys.
That is where Jones, on Sunday, can start to put his imprint on the rivalry that the entire Giants organization understands to be the most significant on the schedule. Jones, playing at the highest and most consistent level of his young career, will lead the Giants into AT&T Stadium – a place where they have not won a game since 2016 – with a chance to truly establish himself as the player who can lead the team back to prominence.
His performance last week against the Saints made it clear he is a franchise quarterback. A win over Dallas on Jerry Jones’ front lawn would go a long way toward solidifying him as this franchise’s quarterback.
That this game carries such significance only heightens the impact it will have on Jones’ young legacy. A victory pulls the Giants right into the middle of the NFC East race. A loss would drop them three games behind front-running Dallas with head-to-head losses against them and Washington.
Jones, of course, will not have to do this alone. He has teammates to help him. Really, for the first time, he has teammates capable of helping him.
"As the environment gets better around him as we protect better and we get some guys outside who can make some plays for him, he’s going to continue to play better," offensive coordinator Jason Garrett said. "That’s been my experience with quarterback play. You make the environment better, all of a sudden, the guy starts to play better and better."
That was the focus of the offseason, right? To improve the players – er, environment – around Jones and give him a chance to thrive. Last week Kenny Golladay and Kadarius Toney and John Ross and Saquon Barkley – four players who were not on the field for the Giants last year – all made massive contributions to the win over the Saints. They can certainly carry the Giants to a win over Dallas.
But it’s the quarterback who will get the credit or the blame. The whole Giants team didn’t line up to sign the wall after they won the first game played at the new stadium in Dallas in 2009, after all. Only Eli Manning put his name on the building.
If there is any doubt about what a win over Dallas would mean to this organization, just ask defensive coordinator Patrick Graham. He said he’s been getting texts from former Giants players all week stressing the importance of beating the Cowboys.
Graham remembered his first taste of the rivalry. It was in 2016, his first year as a defensive line coach with the Giants. He’d been part of big division games before, including ones with the Patriots. He stood next to Jason Pierre-Paul for the national anthem of that opening day game at AT&T Stadium.
"This ain’t the Jets," JPP told Graham because that was the rivalry he was most familiar with.
"I said: ‘Yeah, it’s a little different, man. It’s a little different,’" Graham said. "At the end of the game, and he had a great game, I remember that I looked at him and said, ‘This is a little different, man.’ He said, ‘I told you. This is Cowboys-Giants."
"I know it’s important to the people around here," Graham said. "I know it’s important to the fans around here."
And now it’s important to Jones’ growth as a Giants quarterback. He did beat Dallas in the regular-season finale last year, ending a grueling seven-game losing streak to them. That win only set up the heartbreak that would come later in the evening, though, when Washington beat the Nate Sudfeld-led Eagles to clinch the division title. A victory in this game, in Dallas, would announce the Giants as division contenders and Jones as the quarterback who has brought them there.
Not everyone is putting so much into this one contest, even if it will have a huge impact on the standings in the division.
"This race goes the entire length of 17 weeks, so we’re going to make sure that every week we keep taking a step forward," Joe Judge said. "All the big-picture stuff, that’ll take care of itself … We’re going to keep it small and keep it focused."
There’s nothing small in Texas, though. This game will be no exception.
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.
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