The Dallas Cowboys play their first home game of the season on Sunday afternoon, remaining in NFC East play for the second week in a row by hosting the New York Giants. Both teams come in having dropped their season opener, but the perception around both 0-1 teams could not be more different.
The Cowboys impressed a national audience on the Thursday night opener by going blow for blow with the Philadelphia Eagles, falling just short 24-20. The Giants did no such thing, failing to score a touchdown in Russell Wilson’s first start, and losing 21-6 at the Washington Commanders. Already, this feels like an early season meeting of two familiar teams where both sides are trending in opposite directions, but both will also have the chance to send their rival to 0-2.
The Cowboys have not been 0-2 since 2010, but it is a much more familiar place to be for the desperate Giants team Dallas will host in week two. The Giants lost their first two games last season under Brian Daboll, and doing so again would be just the latest thing working against a coach firmly on the hot seat with a difficult decision to make at quarterback looming.
The Cowboys are going to get whatever the best shot from the Giants looks like in this game, in what could very well be the last meeting between Wilson and Cowboys QB Dak Prescott. Wilson’s ineffectiveness in week one has stoked interest in the Giants switching to first round pick Jaxson Dart at QB much earlier than expected. Wilson has been successful against Prescott in his career, but Prescott has also been stellar against the Giants with 13 straight wins. It will be interesting to find out which trend becomes more meaningful on Sunday in the Cowboys’ quest to get Brian Schottenheimer his first head coaching win.
What does the clearest path to victory look like for the Cowboys, and where can Giants fans find hope for their first win at AT&T Stadium since 2016? Welcome back to our weekly win/loss scenarios.
The Dallas Cowboys will win their home opener against the New York Giants if…
Dak Prescott is himself, and the offense finds balance
Prescott’s 2024 season might as well be remembered as a complete wash, but the fact still remains he did start eight games, winning just three of them. So many things were broken in and around the team a season ago that the reigning 2023 MVP candidate never remotely looked like himself, even before injury. Still, one of Prescott’s wins came on the road at the Giants. Since his rookie season, the Cowboys’ franchise quarterback simply does not know how to lose to the Giants.
The road back for Prescott to reassert himself as one of the game’s top passers is a long one, but got off to a strong start in Philly. The Cowboys offense, as promised by Schotty, looked way more modernized around Dak with shifts, motions, and play-action. The best part about the use of play-action passes was the way Dallas established the actual run game early, with Javonte Williams capping off both of their first two drives with short yardage touchdowns. Prescott looked incredibly comfortable, in control, and able to deliver the ball on time. The passing game ran through CeeDee Lamb to no surprise, but plays were also there to be made by KaVontae Turpin, George Pickens, and Jake Ferguson.
The Cowboys left themselves plenty of room to open up the playbook even further, and doing so in the home opener against a rival would be a great place to start. While it’s true the Giants’ defensive line is heralded as their best overall position group, and the one that needs to have a large say in Big Blue winning games, outside of Dexter Lawrence they are more of a pass rushing group. The Cowboys offensive line comes into this game with a good chance to take away what the Giants front does best, but scheme will go a long way here as well. If the ball continues to come out of Prescott’s hand on time, and the Cowboys get a push with their interior run game, this could be another very long road game for the Giants.
Last week in Washington, the Commanders had 11 first downs through the air and 11 on the ground. They threw it 30 times with Jayden Daniels and ran it 32 times, and averaged over six yards a play for the game. The Commanders were balanced and effective, but still were forced to punt five times. The Cowboys punted only twice against the Eagles, both in the fourth quarter as the defenses took charge of the game post weather delay.
The opportunity for the Cowboys to dictate the terms of this game with their best players on the field will be there, right within reach. All they need is Prescott to stay within the offense and play another efficient game, while avoiding turnovers as always and finishing in the red zone, to put pressure on the Giants that could prove insurmountable like it already did in week one.
The Dallas Cowboys will drop to 0-2 if…
Brian Daboll has a game plan to save his job
Now in his fourth season as head coach of the Giants, Brian Daboll’s situation around a team that hasn’t finished better than third in the division since 2020 under Joe Judge somehow continues to only get worse. Daboll is 4-13-1 against the NFC East since 2022. The New York market as a whole is desperate for a contending team, and few fans of the once proud Giants are convinced Daboll will be the coach to bring them back to this status. Already by completing three full seasons though, Daboll has been in place longer than any Giants head coach since Tom Coughlin. The organization is looking for stability from any direction to build around, and likely want to see what Daboll can do with Dart once that switch is flipped.
For Daboll to even get there though, putting up a better fight to avoid an 0-2 start within the division feels like a massively important step. Whether or not the Giants’ offensive approach against the Commanders was really that bad, or if it had more to do with Wilson, will start to be figured out going up against a Matt Eberflus defense that impressively adjusted on the fly against the Eagles. The Giants’ offense as a whole looked uninspired as they ended up in 16 third down tries against Dan Quinn’s aggressive defense, converting only four of them. They run game was nonexistent and New York seemed insistent on spreading things out for Wilson, despite Malik Nabers being their only consistent receiver.
The game plan for the Giants has to look better against the Cowboys, primarily on offense. They draw a Cowboys defense that didn’t stop the Eagles from scoring on their first four drives (3 TDs, 1 FG) last Thursday night, and now one that will be without starting CB DaRon Bland. An already thin secondary is even thinner for the Cowboys at the moment, and Nabers does have game-wrecking potential if things go right around him.
The typically even-keeled Daboll having a game plan that matches the level of desperation the Giants should have in Arlington on Sunday could keep this game close for longer than expected. If it gets into a fourth quarter game, Wilson turning back the clock and leading a vintage game winning drive can’t be ruled out, and is something the Cowboys need to avoid by scoring early and often if possible.
The Cowboys defense is also hunting for their first turnover of the season, a major point of emphasis under Eberflus, so Daboll and the Giants will need to be careful but at the same time aggressive. If it seems like their path to victory as the visitors in this game is narrow, that’s because it is, but nothing is even a foregone conclusion in this league – least of all places the NFC East.
A Giants win would be Daboll’s first in his head coaching career against the Cowboys, as the time to get it is quickly becoming now or never.
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