Matt Meehan 

Giants 17, Cowboys 35: Week 1….Cowboys -7 covers

   The Cowboys routed the Giants 35-17 in week 1 of the NFL season under a new-look offense from Cowboys offensive coordinator Kellen Moore. The Giants moved the ball better than expected offensively, but the story of the game here came down to Dak and the Cowboys offense pummeling a bad Giants defense.

The Giants forced a punt from the Cowboys right out of the gate before Eli Manning led a beautiful 89 yard touchdown drive that culminated with a 1 yard touchdown pass to Evan Engram. Eli was 4/4 on the drive for 24 yards and the touchdown, but the big play came from Saquon Barkley on a 59 yard run up the middle. After stopping the Cowboys the first time, the Giants defense would completely collapse, allowing Dallas to easily score touchdowns on their next 5 drives. The Kellen Moore-led offense featured a heavy dose of play action (analytically backed to be a +EV play call), and the Dallas offense thrived in it. Dak was 14/15 on play-action passes, consistently finding guys wide open.

     Their first touchdown drive featured 83 yards of offense to tie the score at 7-7 off a Blake Jarwin 28 yard touchdown reception. The Giants would then move the ball fairly easily 40 yards down the field before Eli got hit with an intentional grounding call on 3rd and 1 at the DAL  35. There should’ve been a penalty on the play, but the refs never called it; Dallas got away with one as they forced the Giants to punt. On the Cowboys 2nd scoring drive, Dallas would go from their own 9 yard line in a quick 5 minutes to take the lead 14-7 on a Jason Witten 4 yard score. Dak was 7/7 on the drive for 91 yards, including two deep balls to Michael Gallup for 36 yards and 23 yards each. Following a quick Giants three-and-out at 8:00 to go in the half, the Cowboys would eat up almost the entire rest of the half before finding Amari Cooper on a 21 yard touchdown pass. Note that the Giants made a 3rd down stop on the drive, but an offsides penalty kept it alive. Giants got the ball back with a minute left for one final drive and moved the ball decently well before getting stymied at the Dallas 45. At the half, it was 21-7 Dallas.
   

     Coming out of the half, the Giants marched down the field to the DAL 10 before settling for a field goal to cut it to 21-10. In three plays, Dallas would go up 28-10 after finding Cooper for 45 yards and Cobb for a 25 yard touchdown pass. Again, all of these Dallas throws were pretty wide open, as the Giants secondary played horrendously. The Giants got the ball back and moved down the field again to the DAL 7, before Eli freaked out on a bootleg and ultimately got sacked to turn the ball over. The next Dallas drive saw Dak and Gallup connect for 62 yards, but was more Zeke-heavy as he scampered for a 10 yard touchdown, making the game 35-10 and effectively putting the game out of reach.

     Tony Pollard took the rest of the carries from there, and Eli led a garbage time touchdown drive before Daniel Jones came in for the final Giants drive. All-in-all, the Giants definitely left some points on the board, but when Dallas tried, they were able to score at will on Big Blue. Dak had seven 20+ yard throws, nearly all of which came to wide open receivers. 

Notes:

•    Cowboys 494 yards (8.0 YPP) vs Giants 470 yards (7.1 YPP)
•    Dak 12.66 YPA vs Eli 6.95 YPA (405 to 306 yards passing, respectively)
•    Michael Gallup was 7/7 for 158 yards, Cooper had 6 catches on 9 targets for 106 yards and a TD, and Cobb had 4 catches on 5 targets for 69 yards and a TD
•    Evan Engram had 11 catches on 14 targets for 116 yards and a TD as the Giants top target while Cody Latimer, Sterling Shephard, and Bennie Fowler all saw 5-8 targets
•    Saquon only had 15 touches in the game, racking up 120 rushing yards and 19 receiving yards
•    Zeke went 13 carries for 53 yards and a TD, splitting with Tony Pollard who went 13 for 23.
•    Both offensive lines held up well: Giants were sacked once and Dallas was not sacked at all; Dak was only pressured once the entire game
•    Giants 2-11 on 3rd down and Cowboys 6-10 on 3rd down
•    Dallas Dline had 6 QB hits and the D forced 3 fumbles
•    30 of Eli’s 44 passes were thrown either behind the line of scrimmage or within 10 yards of it

•    Dak was 8/9 throwing the ball beyond 10 yards for 3 touchdowns Tl;dr: Dallas offense stomped all over the Giants secondary, especially using play-action. The Giants secondary was completely fooled and probably would’ve given up 50+ points had the game stayed competitive. Zeke was just fine, as the running game was pretty much held in check. Despite the score, Giants left some points on the board. Even with the garbage time touchdown, they probably should’ve had more than 17. That’s not to say this game would have been that close, as Dallas scored a TD on every drive after their opening punt until the game was completely out of reach. Eli doesn’t throw deep often still, and both offensive lines were solid, especially Dallas’s OL. To be determined if the Cowboys really were this good, or if the Giants secondary was actually that bad.

Injuries:

Giants lineback Kareem Martin left the game and did not return
Giants safety Jabril Peppers left the game briefly with a leg injury but returned

Week 2 opening lines:BUF @ NYG (+2.5)
DAL (-4.5) @ WAS 

Matt Meehan