Week One 2015: Giants at Cowboys

The battle for the NFC East kicked off in brutal fashion Sunday night as the Giants faced off against the Cowboys in Dallas. It was truly a battle of “Who wants it less?”, as both teams were acting like they were playing hot potato with a time bomb. After the dust settled, after it was all said and done, it looks like the Giants wanted the win just a little bit less.

I don’t mean to say the Giants gave that game away. I hate that mentality. True, the Giants put themselves in a bad spot late in the game, but it was still up to Tony Romo and the Dez Bryant-less Cowboys’ offense to drive down the field with ninety seconds left to score seven points. And that’s exactly what they did... with the ease of Thor breaking open a piñata. Seriously, it looked like the Cowboys were wielding the all powerful hammer, Mjölnir, and making candy rain down from the heavens all over the Giants.   

Dammit, Thor! I know you're the god of thunder, but you didn't even let Timmy take a swing on his own birthday piñata!

Even though this game was terrible for the most part, there were still some glimmers of hope. Let’s break down what went right and what went wrong. Since it was against the Cowboys, there’s only one way to do it...

The Good
Prince Amukamara and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie both played really well. It’s strange to consider that the cornerstone of Spags’ defense is the cornerback position, but, nonetheless, they are, above and beyond, the best part of this defense.

The defense, at times, were in position to make big plays and capitalized on those opportunities. Whether it was DRC’s fumble recovery taken to the crib, Unai ‘Unga’s interception of a bad connection between Romo and Witten, or Trumaine McBride’s pick off of Merriweather’s great (and clean) hit on Cowboys’ receiver Devin Street, the defense was able to make big plays.

The run defense on the Giants was fine as well. The Cowboys rushed for eighty-one yards against Big Blue.

From what I saw on Sunday night, the offensive line looked pretty good. Eli wasn’t running for his life the whole game. There were a few possessions where the offensive line struggled with pass protection, but, overall, they did a good job protecting Eli.
At times, especially towards the end of the game, the run blocking looked good too. Big running lanes were created for the running backs.
Now I’m not saying they are anywhere near the same level as the 2007 squad and they have a lot more work to do, but they played better than I expected.

Newly acquired punter, Brad Wing, also played well.

The Bad
Landon Collins needs to grow a lot more in coverage. On Jason Witten’s goal line touchdown catch, it looked like Collins forgot he had to cover him until just before the snap, so he was completely out of position to make a play. He looks far more comfortable playing off the line of scrimmage and going after the quarterback or running back, but the idea of a safety is to have help in the secondary.

I mentioned earlier about how good the Giants’ run defense looked, but, unfortunately, the G-Men almost looked like they were repelled by running backs catching balls out of the backfield. Most of this happened in Dallas’ piñata smashing drive while the Giants were playing deeper for the pass. If you know this, then you should not be surprised that Lance Dunbar was the Cowboys’ leading receiver.

Preston Parker’s performance must have Giants’ fans everywhere praying for a speedy return of Victor Cruz. For every pass that bounced off his hands, or went through his arms like a human basketball hoop, I was yelling his name like J. Jonah Jameson.

PARRRKERRR!

The Ugly
Two words, pass rush. I want you to read this sentence slowly, very, very slowly, and while you’re reading this drawn out sentence I want you to envision the Giants’ pass rush running after you. By the time it took you to finish that last sentence, the Giants would still be making their way to you. I’m not sure if it’s because the Giants’ pass rush is that awful or if Dallas’ offensive line is so good. Probably both? Mostly the former?

I have two other words for you, clock management. The display of stupidity that the Giants displayed in the final two minutes of the game against Dallas was so mind-numbingly baffling. How do professionals not keep track of the opponents time outs? How do Coughlin, and McAdoo call a pass play on third down when the other team is only down by three points and there’s over a minute left to play? How does Eli Manning not take a dive when nobody was open to insure that the clock would keep running? Why did he tell Jennings “not to score”?
There are so many questions to ask about this complete mental meltdown. But you have to expect that kind of clock mis-management from a coach in his first year. What? It’s not his first year? Well, surely with a rookie quarterback, he wouldn’t know to take a sack to keep the clock... Huh? He isn’t? He’s been in the league for over ten years? Oh. So it was just a horrible clock management by a regime that’s won two Super Bowls? Good to know.

Manning after reading Jennings' comments.

The fallout from this blunder lead to some interesting finger pointing from the Giants’ locker room. No, I’m not talking about JPP (See that? Finger jokes!). I’m talking about Rashad Jennings who said that Eli told him not to score while near the goal line. It’s not that big of a deal, and it was accurate. But, you don’t throw your teammate under the bus, and that’s what Jennings did. He threw Eli right in the path of a Greyhound speeding down I-95. Jennings should know that Eli don’t play no sh*t! He was never about playing no sh*t! But in reality, it was made into a way bigger deal than it should’ve been, plus it didn’t seem like Easy E really cared that much about it at all. Unless he just kept it inside and will eventually burn down Jennings house. It's always the quiet ones that you gotta look out for.


Look, not every game will be pretty, and not every win will be pretty. Regardless of how ugly the game was, the Giants almost beat the defending division leaders on their home turf. So maybe there will be something to look forward to this season. They just have to lick their wounds, learn from this loss, and move on.


On To The Next One
Coming up on Sunday, the Giants have one of their few home one o’clock games against the Falcons. I don’t know what to make of the Falcons yet. To be honest, I don’t know what to make of almost every team yet. Was the Falcons’ defense that good, or did the Eagles just underperform? Even if the Falcons have a better defense, I don't think it's as good as the Cowboys'. Hopefully we'll see the offense go wild like Odell's hair on the Falcons this week.

The new head of Head & Shoulders got inspiration for his new locks from Doc Brown, and the onions you pull from the ground from Super Mario Bros. 2.

No matter how their defense is, we know their offense, especially Julio Jones,  is dangerous. Let’s see if the Fresh Prince and DRC are up for another challenge.

The ever growing injury list is still much longer then I would like. Cruz, Beason, and Odighizuwa are still on the list. Now new names like Flowers, Kuhn, and 'Unga are on the list. We'll have to keep out eyes on those guys and see who's gonna suit up on Sunday.

I honestly think the Giants will take a step forward this week. They need to get a win here even if it's to get the bitter taste from last week out of the mouths of Giants and fans alike. I just hope they aren’t too worried to score touchdowns.