I’m not a bettor, but if there was a prop bet for which NFL game would be the 2025 game of the year, I’d guess not many people would have placed money on a Week 2 clash between the New York Giants and the Dallas Cowboys. Nonetheless, that may be what we just witnessed. Of course, it’s heartbreaking when the Giants come out on the short end of one of these spectacles, especially when they had the ball after an overtime defensive stop, only needed to drive for a field goal to win, and instead chose that time for their two worst offensive plays of the game.
Let’s see what we learned from this latest Giants loss.
Russell Wilson can still throw the ball
After last week, Russell Wilson looked as if the end was near. He was getting pressure, looked skittish in the pocket, was not accurate when he did throw, and forgot that he built his passing reputation on the deep ball. The thinking was that another game like that in Dallas, and we might see Jaxson Dart sooner rather than later.
Well, we did see Jaxson Dart, sooner than any of us probably expected, but only for a few decoy plays. What we got, though, was a 30-for-41, 450-yard performance that was second in yards only to a 452-yard effort against Houston in 2017.
Maybe it’s no surprise, given the Giants’ dual deep threats, Malik Nabers and…Wan’Dale Robinson? I (and I think most everyone else) have been skeptical of the idea that Robinson could be anything more than a short-to-intermediate range receiver. Sunday, though, he caught one for 50 yards, another for 25, and then a third for 32 yards and a TD that briefly put the Giants back in the lead in the fourth quarter. He caught 8 of 10 targets for 142 yards.
Nabers, not to be outdone, had 9 receptions in 13 targets for 176 yards, including 29 and 48 yard TD catches. Darius Slayton seems to have become the forgotten man, with only one target last week and only three this week with 2 receptions, albeit one of them for 52 yards.
The bad news was that Russ imploded late in OT, first throwing an ill-advised backwards pass to Devin Singletary that had to be retrieved for a big loss, and then following that with a “bad-moon” ball that Donovan Wilson intercepted. With Brandon Aubrey’s amazing leg, it was only a matter of a few plays before the Giants were sent to defeat in a game they could have, maybe should have, won.
This was a painful loss. Still, I’ll take it over the pathetic product the Giants put on the field against Washington. Dallas isn’t winning anything this year, but they gave the Eagles all they could handle in their first game.
The real reason the Giants lost this game was their pathetic offensive performance in the red zone. They were at or inside the 20 four times and only scored one TD. Dallas scored TDs on three of their trips inside the red zone. One of the Giants’ big problems is that while their offensive line has improved (at least this week) from the horrid OL we saw in 2023 and much of 2024, the improvement has mainly been in pass protection.
This is not an offensive line with any road graders who just push back opposing defensive linemen. Tyrone Tracy had 2 more yards after contact than he had total rushing yards (only 15). Cam Skattebo had 34 of his 45 rushing yards after contact. This line simply never opens a hole for their running backs to go through. Consequently we see trick plays like the attempted pass to Marcus Mbow, we see Brian Daboll bringing Jaxson Dart in for a play or two to do who-knows-what, and so on.
Has the Marcus Mbow era begun?
I don’t think I’ve ever seen an offensive lineman take four penalties in a single drive. James Hudson III did it, though. Good offensive linemen often play with an attitude; think, e.g., Trent Williams. You have to be good, though, to get away with it, and you have to be subtle enough to pull it off. Hudson is neither of those. He’s a journeyman with a reputation for having a temper. That’s a bad combination. It showed in training camp, and it reared its ugly head today. It got him pulled from the game, and he continued to beef on the sideline, apparently not getting the message very quickly.
Of course Andrew Thomas is the future at left tackle…we hope. With Lisfranc surgery recovery, you never know until you know. For the moment, though, rookie Marcus Mbow is the immediate future. He wasn’t perfect, giving up a hit and a hurry, but overall he did a creditable job with no prior notice. Assuming that Thomas returns soon and returns to his old form, Mbow will be back on the bench. If not, though, he showed today that he can hold the fort for a while. Perhaps more important, if Jermaine Eluemunor chooses to go elsewhere next year for more money, Mbow may just be able step into a starting role.
Is the Deonte Banks era coming to an end?
It’s hard to be too critical of Giants’ defensive backs when they are facing a pair of elite wide receivers like CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens (although Wan’Dale Robinson outgained Pickens, the receiver fans wish Joe Schoen had taken in Round 2 in 2022, today), plus a receiver with elite speed like KaVontae Turpin. Overall, none of the Giants’ DBs really distinguished themselves today (not that Dallas’ DBs did either).
Still, Banks only saw the field for 22 coverage plays. He gave up two receptions in two targets to CeeDee Lamb for 49 yards. Lamb was a problem for everyone who covered him today, but Dru Phillips at least got two incompletions against him. Cor’Dale Flott, on the other hand, gave up two completions in four targets for 25 yards, and he got credit for one pass breakup. It increasingly seems as if Banks is becoming a spare part on the defense, and that he won’t see the fourth year of his contract.
Bonus thing we learned
On the Abdul Carter snap count watch: Granted, the game went to OT, but Carter played 67 snaps today, five fewer than Brian Burns and five more than Kayvon Thibodeaux. Forty-seven of those snaps were rushing the passer.
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