2024 Week 4: Cowboys 20, Giants 15

The Giants were in this game from start to finish, somewhat surprisingly. Was it the Giants playing well and being ~equal to the Cowboys or was it the Cowboys playing down to the Giants? My gut is telling me the Cowboys played down to NYG.  Daniel Jones was the downfall for the Giants.

While I think Dallas played down to the Giants, they also are not a good team. They’re mediocre at best and won’t win the division. That will go to either Washington or Philly, and the way things are going right now it looks like it will be Washington.

The Giants have a problem with Daboll-Schoen-Jones. Daboll has anchored himself to Daniel Jones and is going to go down with the ship. If the Giants keep losing, Daboll may be fired midseason, which likely means Tommy DeVito gets the reins… he’s the Giants best QB.

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QB Report:

- Daniel Jones (29/40 for 281 yards, 1 INT, 4 rushes for 3 yards) had good volume and nearly got to 300 yards, but there are a few issues lying underneath the stat sheets.

- Another reason to be ‘out’ on Daboll – he blamed the receivers for not bringing in multiple bad throws by Jones. 

- The issues that I see with Jones, let’s start with the deep ball. There were probably 4 or 5 plays where the receiver burnt their coverage off the line, Jones dialed it up and under threw it every single time. One of them connected to Nabers early on but if that was thrown right it would have been a 60+ yard TD. Nabers again beat Trevon Diggs off the line and Jones underthew Nabers again, allowing Diggs to gain his 3+ step deficit and make a play on the ball. If Jones were able to connect on any of those plays, mentioned or not, this would have been a Giants victory and a 350-400 yard game for Jones, with a couple of scores to add to it.

- The other problem I saw was Jones hardly ran the ball… only 4 rushing attempts for one of the better running QBs in the league. Jones has used his rushing ability to aid his passing work in the past but has hardly done that this season. He might be afraid of another injury,

RB Report:

- Another boring run game from the Dallas side, Deuce Vaughn isn’t getting any work despite being the most energized back they have. 4 snaps and 0 touches.

- Hunter Luepke (2-8-0, 2 catches for 14 yards) is starting to break out in the Dallas backfield, someone has to because their two main guys are dreadful. Luepke was mostly used in a FB and TE capacity since that’s his background, but I would like to see him get more use out of the backfield. I know it won’t happen but Luepke could be Dallas’s version of Taysom Hill.

- Dallas stacked the line and dared Daniel Jones to throw deep. As we know in the passing game that worked perfectly… and they absolutely stifled the Giants rushing attack.  Devin Singletary (14-24-0, 1 catch for 14 yards) reminded me of Saquon a lot watching this game back. D-line breaking through the O-line with little resistance, and a running back wearing number 26 turns a negative play into a net 0 play.

WR Report:
- Malik Nabers (12-115-0/15) is so much fun to watch. I can’t wait for the Giants to have a new HC and QB next season. Hopefully they can get him to work. Nabers left the game late with a concussion but with the long week I doubt he’ll miss time.

- Wan’Dale Robinson (11-71-0/14) did what I expected him to do, he caught a gazillion passes thanks to all of the focus on Nabers. Robinson is essentially the Giants run game.

- CeeDee Lamb (7-98-1/8) and Jake Ferguson (7-49-0) are the only competent receiving threats that Dallas has. Jerry Jones has built a terrible offense. They have one good wide receiver and misuse their backfield to the point it is incapable of helping the passing game.

D/ST Report:

- The Cowboys defensive line was killed in this game, from an injury standpoint. Both of their edge rushers were hurt and are going to miss multiple games. Micah Parsons (2 tackles, 1 TFL) and DeMarcus Lawrence (2 tackles, 1 sack, 1 TFL) both went down.

- Brandon Aubrey (2/3 FG, 2/2 XP) missed his first 50+ yard kick of his career. He’s still the best kicker in the league.

Image source: (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)