Giants lose to the Cowboys 23-16

"This was the only Monday night game scheduled for the Giants this season, and it was at MetLife Stadium. I was anxious to see the Giants take on the Cowboys after winning their first two games. The Cowboys started off with two big plays, but then the Giants defense held and got them off the field. Daniel Jones got the offense down to the Cowboys 29-yard line, and It looked like the Giants were going to score first, but Graham Gano's field goal was blocked. The defense came on and held the Cowboys to a field goal, and then the Giants scored one of their own to tie the score at 3-3. That lasted for about two minutes.
It was disturbing to see running back Tony Pollard break off a 46-yard run on the Cowboys next drive, and soon they added another field goal. The Giants next got just past midfield and took a chance on a 4th-and-2 because there were just 10 seconds left in the half. When that failed, the Cowboys two plays later, attempted a 59-yard field goal that luckily went wide left, leaving the score unchanged at 6-3 in favor of the Cowboys.
The Giants got things going in the third quarter, and it wasn't an easy drive for Jones. He was sacked twice and had to scramble on two plays for 30 yards, but his third down pass to Sterling Shepard got the ball close enough for Gano to kick a 51-yard field goal to tie the score at 6-6. Things continued to go the Giants way when the defense forced a three-and-out on the Cowboys, and the offense on their turn, scored a touchdown to take a 13-6 lead.
Jones didn't have to do all the work this time as Saquon Barkley finished that drive off with a nice 36-yard touchdown run. Things went south after that, with the Cowboys adding two touchdowns and a field goal before the Giants got anything going. The clock was down to about three and a half minutes left when Gano kicked another 51-yard field goal to have the Giants trailing by 7 points.
I had some hope left when the defense held, but the Giants were stuck at their own 9-yard line with less than two minutes left and had no timeouts. After a few plays, Jones was intercepted trying to get the ball to David Sills who slipped on his break. To make matters worse, we saw Shepard go down and he had to be carted off the field. It was tough to see the game end like it did on that drive, and with the Giants taking a 23-16 loss."

"The Giants had started off this season winning their first two games. It was the first time they opened up with two wins since 2016. If they had managed another tonight, it would have been the first time they had a 3-0 start since 2009. The opportunity was there considering the Cowboys were playing without Dak Prescott, two offensive line starters, and wide receivers James Washington and Michael Gallup, as well as tight end Dalton Schultz.
Despite that, the Giants defense was unable to come up with even one sack tonight on backup quarterback Cooper Rush who targeted CeeDee Lamb on more than a third of his passes. Lamb caught 8 of 12, including one for a touchdown that put the Cowboys in the lead in the fourth quarter.
The Giants defense was without Leonard Williams, who was out for the first time in his career due to an injury. They were unable to adjust to that, though they managed to hold the Cowboys to just two field goals during the first half. Luck playing a role in that, as Lamb had uncharacteristically dropped an easy catch that could have been a touchdown.
Tony Pollard and Ezekiel Elliott took a lot of pressure off their fill-in quarterback, running with the ball 28 times, for a combined 178 yards and 1 touchdown. The Cowboys defense in that first half had limited the Giants to one long field goal. Daniel Jones was under constant pressure, with offensive lineman Evan Neal being a major weak point.
Aside from taking 5 sacks, Jones made no mistakes in this game, and the lone interception at the end wasn't his fault. Jones was also the second leading rusher with 79 yards on 9 carries, just short of Saquon Barkley's 81 yards on 14 carries. Jones always seems to be put in a position to do it all for the offense, working behind a weak offensive line, and has to deal with wide receivers who can't handle their responsibilities.
They were 11 of 22 for 105 total yards, including Kenny Golladay going 0-3 on his targets. Teams can't win games without protecting their quarterback, without scoring points, and with a defense that lets itself get run over. The Giants did not win tonight, and they know for sure what they have to fix now. They need to do so before the Chicago Bears drop in on them next week."

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