Here are our numbers for the New York Giants’ 20-15 loss to the Dallas Cowboys.

Offence

We’ll forgive tight end Daniel Bellinger, the victim of a phantom mask call that forced the Giants to settle for the first of five field goals on the night. But what the heck happened to the running game? The Giants, against the 32nd-ranked rushing defense, ran the ball 24 times and controlled just 26 yards, 24 of which were by Devin Singletary. That’s an average of 1.1 yards per carry, which, to put it bluntly, is pathetic.

Daniel Jones finished 29 of 40 (72.5%) for 281 yards and an 81.4 passer rating. Most of the time he played well enough to win, although he missed the target on most of his deeper throws. Wan’Dale Robinson couldn’t come up with a big third-down play on the Giants’ final drive that could have added to their point total, and Darius Slayton, bad thumb and all, also took a drop. The Giants beat the Cowboys (barely), but it didn’t do them any favors in the

Figure: C-

Defense

Aside from Deonte Banks’ blunder against CeeDee Lamb, which resulted in a 55-yard touchdown, the defense played well enough to keep the Giants in the game. Outside linebacker Kayvon Thibodeaux came up with the Giants’ first sack of Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott since 2021, and both safety Tyler Nubin and linebacker Micah McFadden finished with a team-leading eight sacks.

The run defense held a struggling Dallas running game, coming into this week’s game, allowing just 80 yards. Prescott finished completing 81.5% of his passing attempts as the defense managed just three hits on him all game.

Figure: c

Special teams

Greg Joseph was perfect on the night, but the Giants better come up with a solution on the kickoff return, as at this point neither Eric Gray nor Tyrone Tracy, the latter of whom had a fumble on a kickoff return that was thankfully recovered by the tight end end Chris Manhertz, we’re going to get it done.

Point returner Ihmir Smith-Marsette looked promising on his only kick return, which went 22 metres, and Jamie Gillan’s only kick was placed inside the 20 meter line.

Figure: b

Coaching

The Giants will never admit who was to blame, but it’s maddening that they took zero shots into the end zone once they got into the red zone. This conservatism only destroys this team’s chances of scoring, as they average 15 points per game – 0.6 points less than what they finished with last year. New York has now had two games, Minnesota and this one, in which they have failed to reach the end zone, both losing.

Daboll decided not to go for it on fourth down after Wan’Dale Robinson caught a pass that put the ball on the 3-yard line in the third quarter because, given how close the game was at that point, he wanted the points to have. The field goal made it a two-point game, but the Giants never quite overtook the Cowboys in the points column.

Figure: D