EAST RUTHRFORD, N.J. – Shocking.
No, seriously, shocking.
Look, we knew what the Giants were going to do, right. No secret. Even us. They were going to put their big boy pants on. Play physical football. Lot of two tight end offense. Sometimes two tight ends with that ridiculously huge fullback on the field, too, 6-foot-3, 300 pounds. They were going to wham you. That is the way new head coach John Harbaugh made his living all those years with the Baltimore Ravens.
And just when things were going to get frustrating and them ears were going to get pinned back, like I'm gonna go get you suckers, the quarterback Jaxson Dart would bootleg you to death. And oh, there was that most Likely tight end to keep you honest, no surprise there, with the Skattebo plowing along,
But cone on, these were the new-fangled Cowboys. Upgraded defensive personnel. New defensive coordinator. New defensive assistants. A defensive alignment more suited to their personnel. A new day was dawning.
And if nothing else, as took place many time last year, when all seemed lost this offense would come riding to the rescue, having this ability to outscore their opponents, so why worry about even these Giant upgrades on the defensive front with this collection of first-round draft choices.
We thought.
Ha!
Why in this 2026 season opener, with the 25-year 9/11 Remembrance theme Never Forget at every turn here Sunday night, honoring those who perished, those who were disabled, those who had to live on through the haunting memories of those terrorist attacks inside our country's borders for the first time on Mainland USA, the Cowboys got hit upside their heads.
Hard.
Giants 28, Cowboys 20, a beating they aren't likely to forget anytime soon, and no doubt, for those who experienced last year's 7-9-1, a one-week reminder of those days they thought had gone by.
And look, don't need me to pile on, especially when considering all these new pieces on defense were playing together for the very first time, eight new starters, this real game rendering those somewhat impressive scrimmage performances against the Rams and Saints mostly moot.
Just listen to a somewhat shocked head coach Brian Schottenheimer afterward tucked away in a MetLife Stadium interview room. He'll tell you what's needed to know.
"Overall, we were pretty poor," he began.
"They shoved us around."
"Not what we expected to do."
"Right now this one is pretty bad."
"Give them credit, they played more physical than we were."
"This is a humbling beginning."
If all that is not indictment enough having started the season 0-1 now five of the past seven years, and the last time they didn't, why began 2024 at 1-2, then let a few numbers do the talkin', illustrating just how disappointing this performance was, though somewhere in the back of mind knowing it truly is just one game.
Only four times last year did the Cowboys score less than 20 points in a game.
Dak Prescott throwing for just 175 yards is the fewest in a game he started and finished since Game 14 of the 2023 season when
Buffalo held him to 134 yards passing. But in his defense, the Cowboys if you can believe this, only had two second half possessions, both touchdowns after falling behind, as badly as it seemed they were playing, just 14-7 at halftime. Also, should put an asterisk on those 175 yards. The Giants committed four pass interference penalties worth 69 yards and of all people after a fabulous training camp, George Pickens drops two passes, one deep that could have been a touchdown.
The 244 total yards gained against this Giants defense is fewer than they gained in any of their first 16 games last season, since the 17th one against the Giants in that loss occurred when pulling Dak at halftime to take a look at Joe Milton. Let's see, only once last year did the Cowboys rush for less than the 69 yards they did Sunday night. Never did they throw for less than the 175 yards, lowlighted with CeeDee Lamb and Pickens combining for just eight catches gaining just 72 yards, the two 1,000-yard Pro Bowl receivers getting off to a slow start.
Oh, and when it came to time of possession, the Cowboys had the ball for just 23 minutes, 20 seconds, when their low last year was three times in the 25-minute range.
Which brings us to the defense. The Giants hogged the ball for 36:40, far more than last year's opponent average of 29:36. They ran for 165 yards, and while perceiving they had fixed that problem, that fit in nicely to last year's performance against the run giving up more than 150 yards rushing five times when we thought that was bad.
And the only reason they did not give up 400 total yards comes thanks to the Giants kneeling out the victory three times to burn the clock. And speaking of kneeling, Dart would have finished with 59 yards rushing if not for these final three negative kneel downs. And whatever their game plan was to deal with Giants quite versatile tight end Isaiah Lively, sure didn't work, leading the Giants with eight catches for 78 yards and two touchdowns.
Big ouch.
And while the stats will say the Cowboys defense finished with two sacks, six QB hits, four forced fumbles (recovered one), Dart completed 23 of 29 for 230 yards, three touchdowns and a 134.2 QB rating, the most irritating of the three was Dart's nine yard pass to backup running back Derek Singletary, identical running back dump offs in the fourth quarter to two previous catches in a four play sequence totaling 29 yards.
Geesh, if we count that throwaway 17th game last season, the Giants have now beaten the Cowboys in two of the past three games, and in the one they didn't, the Cowboys needed to score 40 points in an overtime game, in Game 2 last year but only by the three points thanks to Brnadon Aubrey's 46-yard field goal with two minutes remaining in extra time.
And while there indeed was some weird occurrences in this game, like the Giants recovering their own fumbles twice for positive yards, the end of the first half proved a significant turning point. While Dak never suffered a sack and was hit just three times according to the official stats that belies my own eyes, the Giants chased him out of the pocket far too many times, forcing him to throw on the run and run out of danger twice for 14 yards.
There was just 58 seconds left in the first half of a 7-7 game, the Cowboys facing a third-and-5 at their own 36, and this after four plays earlier Picken dropped what appeared could have been a 78-yard touchdown pass. And here goes the leaky protection again, Dak scrambling out to his right with nobody open and appeared to be heaving the ball away on the run down the sideline to preserve a sack and time on the clock. But he missed his mark, the Giants safety Javon Holland makes a sliding interception at his own 45.
The Giants with just two timeouts remaining, converted two consecutive third downs, and on second-and-5 from the 15, the Cowboys of all things busted a coverage, something they have been priding themselves on improving over last season, allowing Dart to throw a gimmie to an uncovered Likely in the end zone, the Giants able to grab a 14-7 lead in a mere 29 seconds with 20 seconds remaining in the half.
The Cowboys were fortunate to trail by only seven at the half, having gained just 122 total yards, completing just 10 of 17 passes, usually a quarter total for this offense.
And since theyGiants deferred after winning the coin toss, they double-dipped, taking the half-opening kickoff 74 yards in a second more than 8 minutes for Likely's second touchdown on a well-designed play angling in on the line of scrimmage as if getting ready to block for Cam Skattebo running play-action the other way for a two-yard TD and 21-7 lead.
Good thing there are 16 more games to play, because as Cowboys COO Stephen Jones said the morning after, "That was a tough pill to swallow last night, we felt really good about our football team . . . it takes a day but I'm sure everybody is waking up with a proverbial hangover from last night because it wasn't to be expected because we felt really good coming into the opening week that we could go out and play really good football and do something to really feel good."
Stephen is not alone. That feeling is pretty much universal.
Thus the "shock" the Cowboys did not.
