‘Kudos & Wet Willies’: Winners and losers from Giants-Cowboys

Dishing out praise — and criticism — after Giants’ 20-15 loss to Dallas

Let’s review the New York Giants’ 20-15 loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Thursday night in our traditional ‘Kudos & Wet Willies’ style.

Kudos to …

Malik Nabers — The rookie wide receiver was — once again — outstanding. He finished with 12 catches on 15 targets for 115 yards. It was the second time this season Nabers has reached double-digit catches and more than 100 receiving yards.

Nabers ended the game with a concussion after being unable to haul in a difficult sideline catch on a fourth-and-6 with 3:30 to play.

Should Nabers have made the play?

“I thought he (Malik Nabers) did a great job of keeping his feet in bounds,” head coach Brian Daboll said. “It was a perfect throw, and as he was going to the ground, the ball kind of got jarred out there. But he (Daniel Jones) put it right where he needed to put it on the scramble and it was close.”

Wan’Dale Robinson — The diminutive slot receiver had one red zone drop he admitted he would like to have back, but otherwise had an excellent game. Robinson had career-highs in targets (14) and receptions (11). Robinson’s longest reception was for just 11 yards and he ended up with just 71 yards on his 11 catches, but he created a lot of that on his own.

Greg Joseph — After he badly missed a 48-yard attempt in his Giants debut on Sunday, Joseph did not inspire much confidence. Thursday night, though, Joseph made the Giants look good for sticking with him. He went 5 for 5 on field goals, hitting from 52, 41, 38, 22, and 42 yards. It was Joseph’s second career five-field goal game. On Oct. 2, 2022, he made all five of his attempts for the Minnesota Vikings in a 28-25 victory at New Orleans.

Those light up bracelets — The Giants handed out light-up bracelets before the game, and they led to a spectacular pre-game light show. It’s the coolest thing I have seen at MetLife Stadium. Unfortunately, the Giants’ performance did not light up the night nearly as well.

Giants’ pass protection — Quarterback Daniel Jones was sacked just once for a loss of 4 yards and hit just three times while throwing 40 passes. Some of that can be attributed to the amount of passes thrown less than 10 yards beyond the line of scrimmage, but the line — as it has done the last three weeks — did a good job in pass protection.

Wet Willies to …

Giants’ running game — Dallas entered the game last in the league, giving up 5.4 yards per rushing attempt. They won’t be last once the dust settles from Week 4 in the NFL The Giants gained only 26 yards on 24 rushing attempts, a meager 1.1 yards per rushing attempt.

“I thought a big difference was we controlled the game in the passing game, but we didn’t do enough in the running game,” Daboll said. “Give them credit. We knew they were going get some of it fixed, but we have to do a better job than that.”

Guard Jon Runyan was not pleased with the offensive line’s work in the run game.

“Definitely got to be better in the run game. I felt like we just weren’t really at times blocking the right people in some plays, and it kind of came back and bit us in the butt at the end,” Runyan said. “We weren’t able to really move the ball efficiently in the run game, and that’s the kind of thing they wanted to do going into this game really well.

“I feel like they changed the style of their defense, but just kind of how they fit things a little differently in previous games. They were getting gashed in the run game early in the season, and they fixed that this game, and we thought we were going to take advantage of it.”

Tae Banks — Another game, another huge play given up by the second-year cornerback. Matched up one-on-one with Cowboys’ star wide receiver CeeDee Lamb, Banks was burned for a 55-yard touchdown in the second quarter. That’s the fourth touchdown this season given up by the 2023 first-round pick, a player whom the Giants are counting on guard the best receiver on the opposing offense.

Giants’ pass rush — Prior to the game, I pointed to pressuring Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott as a key to the game. Kayvon Thibodeaux got his first full sack of the season, but that was it for the pass rush. The Giants only hit Prescott three other times as he went 22 of 27 for 221 yards and two touchdowns.

Phantom face mask penalties — I really don’t like calling out officiating. I rarely do it, and one horrible call is not why the Giants lost the game on Thursday. Still, how do you call this a penalty against Daniel Bellinger? Instead of first down in the red zone, the Giants had second-and-18 at the Cowboys’ 48-yard line and needed Joseph’s 52-yard field goal to get points.

Kwillies to …

Daniel Jones — The Giants’ quarterback did a lot of excellent things on Thursday. He completed 29 of 40 passes (72.5%) for 281 yards. That follows a Week 3 game in which he went 24 of 34 (70.6%) for 236 yards.

Jones marched the Giants into scoring position on five long drives despite the complete absence of a running game. Yet, he couldn’t get them into the end zone. And, once again, Jones struggled to complete anything more than 20 yards beyond the line of scrimmage.

Jones drew praise from Daboll.

“Three games in a row, I’m proud of the young man. He’s made good decisions. He’s thrown the ball where he needs to throw the ball,” Daboll said. “The last play to (Jalin) Hyatt, that’s a heave it down there and see if we get a DPI (defensive pass interference) or we can go up and try to make a play.

“But he’s, I thought, for three games he’s been locked in. He’s played well. He’s seeing the field. He’s delivered the ball where he needs to. Again, we had some opportunities to continue drives today, as well. I’m proud of how he’s performed, how he’s prepared. He’s done a nice job for us.”

His teammates praised him, too.

“You see his confidence growing, and you can tell he’s just getting more and more comfortable at taking command of the offense and just getting the ball to the guys that need to get it,” Robinson said.

“He’s been really efficient. He’s been taking care of the ball extremely well, putting us in the right positions to score points,” Runyan said. “He’s got to keep doing the same thing, and he’s feeling very comfortable with this offense.

“I’m really happy with how he’s been playing so far.”

As efficiently as he has been playing, though, the big play has been missing. And the Giants desperately need it. In my post-game ‘Things I think’ column, I wrote that it felt like the Giants were “playing offense by inches.”

The Kansas City Chiefs might be good enough to get away with playing that way. The Giants aren’t. Jones is now 3 of 15 on passes of 20 yards or more down the field this season. He has to be better than that.