Three Adjustments Giants Should Make to Beat the Cowboys

The New York Giants first meeting with the Dallas Cowboys came down to a few fatal flaws but they can still fix them to alter the script in the second matchup.

Sep 26, 2024; East Rutherford, NJ, US; New York Giants safety Tyler Nubin (31) embraces Dallas Cowboys linebacker Buddy Johnson (57) following the end of the game at MetLife Stadium. / Julian Leshay Guadalupe/NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Before the New York Giants can barely lick their wounds from a humiliating and potentially franchise-altering loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the demands of gameday preparation are immediately upon them as they face a short week heading into a second matchup with the Dallas Cowboys. 

The two sides will square off in the second window of a three-game slate on Thanksgiving Day. It’s their first duel since Week 4 when Dallas came into MetLife Stadium and defeated the Giants, 20-15, on Thursday Night Football to extend their streak on the series to seven straight victories. 

Compared to most of their recent matchups, the Giants kept the game interesting and forced the Cowboys to make the difference-making plays in the final minutes. Still, the visitors prevailed, and New York suffered another one of their classic close defeats that came down to a few fatal errors on the primetime stage.

A lot has changed between the two franchises since that September meeting, though. The Giants, who sit at 2-9, are seeing another season circle the drain as they reel in all phases and contend for the top pick in the 2025 draft. The Cowboys have been marred by injuries on both sides, which have made their units vulnerable while derailing a campaign that had obvious postseason aspirations. 

There will also be two different quarterbacks starting this week, Tommy DeVito (assuming he's healthy) and Cooper Rush. The former will be coming off a disastrous first game under center since his predecessor was benched and released, and the latter rolling into things with a 1-2 record in the last three contests but with very little impressive production. 

With the two teams heading nowhere fast and searching for answers as to the futures of their respective organizations, their rematch on the holiday’s biggest stage will be about pride and progress while determining who belongs back next season and beyond. 

The good news for the Giants, who are looking to end a six-game losing skid and salvage their regime that is on the precipice of being blown up, is that the Cowboys are more beatable than ever.

The opportunity to cease their losing ways to their NFC East rival is right in front of them if they want it, and they can right the ship by making these three simple adjustments that prevented the cause just two months earlier. 

Rely on the Run

Nothing jumps off the page more when one studies the Dallas Cowboys film from the 2024 season than their massive ineptitude in stopping the opposing rushing workload. 

Once revered for their dominating presence up front that swallowed up running backs trying to gash them, the Cowboys have seen their defensive interior get eaten up on the ground all year. Through 11 games, they hold one of the NFL’s bottom-five overall defenses and it’s widely due to their unimaginably bad run response that ranks 31st and 32nd in yards and touchdowns allowed, respectively. 

In their first meeting with the Giants back in Week 4, the Cowboys had yet to hit the eclipse of their rushing woes and maintained a healthy defense against New York’s backfield. They held rookie running back Tyrone Tracy Jr. and company to just 26 yards in the trenches, which marked their lowest total of the season and forced the team to compete with the less-than-admirable arm of quarterback Daniel Jones. 

Since that primetime win, Dallas has left a gaping hole for ball carriers to barrel through. They have allowed opponents to average 4.8 yards per carry and 150.4 yards per contest when adding in their last seven games. They have also given up more than 100 yards in the last six in a row, including three games with at least 184 yards and six combined touchdowns. 

At the same time, the Giants have rediscovered a solid rushing effort behind Tracy, who has become a major lifeline of their dismal offense. The pairing has helped produce five games with 119+ rushing yards for the department and amassed eight total touchdowns, which are now even with the team’s passing scores. 

For Tracy himself, his rookie campaign has evolved to feature three 100+ yard performances with the same number of touchdowns, two of which have come in the last month of the schedule. He had his breakout game in Week 8 against Pittsburgh when he collected a season-high 145 yards and a score in the loss but he could chase another epic outing if the Giants can get back to their bread and butter against the Cowboys. 

While there is serious concern for the Giants' ability to build a viable dual-threat offense that can cause damage in numerous ways, they should look to hit the ground running on Thursday against the Cowboys.

Nothing will help them set the tone for this matchup and control the game's flow better than taking it to their defensive interior early and often and testing whether they can force plays to be made in the air. 

In their two victories over Cleveland and Seattle, the Giants did both things, but their run game was dominant and helped keep the pace in their favor, wear out the defense while eating the clock, and steal two difficult road wins. They had 100+ yards rushing in both contests, and Tracy had his first game against Seattle with 18 carries and 129 yards on his sheet. 

The Cowboys enter Week 13 ranked 30th in team run-stop win rate and have just one defender listed in the top 20 for that category. It could be a Thanksgiving Day feast for the backfield, an element that’s lifted the offense at times yet was missing in the season's first matchup.

Get to the Quarterback

With the offense lagging almost every week, the Giants have been relying heavily on their defense to get the job done. They have been putting pressure on the quarterback to shut down drives. 

In certain games, they’ve excelled with flying colors and dominated the line of scrimmage to rack up 36 sacks, currently the second-highest mark in the NFL. It hasn’t always led to wins, but it is bringing one positive element to Shane Bowen’s unit, which has six games with at least four sacks tallied and two with seven takedowns, which came in their two wins this season.

Yet, in recent contests, including the first matchup with Dallas, that strength has faded or been nonexistent, and the more drastic results show for themselves on the scoreboard. 

The Giants have just one sack in the last three contests dating back to Week 9, and their pass rush, now healthy with Kayvon Thibodeaux's return, hasn’t laid a finger on the opposing gunslinger to make his afternoon miserable. 

Last Sunday against Tampa Bay, the Giants struggled to get anywhere near quarterback Baker Mayfield, which empowered him to a 294-yard passing day with another 29 yards via his legs and a touchdown. Similarly, against Dak Prescott, New York touched the veteran just once for an eight-yard loss, which allowed the Cowboys to keep moving downfield with their passing attack and stay in a close ball game. 

When it comes to playing Dallas now, they aren’t the same team that once had an untouchable offensive line that gave the quarterback all the time in the world. The Cowboys starting front has fallen to 19th in the NFL in team pass-block win rate, winning just under 60 percent of their pass-blocking assignments in eleven games. 

In previous years, they would be in the top 5 every season, and that was an immense challenge for the Giants, who didn’t have the same push rush they do now with guys like Dexter Lawrence, Brian Burns, and Thibodeaux. 

The Giants now have a shot to even the score this time to boost themselves to a win, and there is a fresh face at quarterback who isn’t as keen under pressure as Prescott has been. 

When under pressure this season, backup quarterback Cooper Rush, who has started the last three games for Dallas, hasn’t been as mobile or efficient as a passer. He has faced 38 snaps with pressure in his face and has only produced 15 completions for 126 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception. 

Rush hasn’t had much of a workload against pressure snaps in that span (just 24.1 percent of his 158 dropbacks), but that is because the Cowboys offense has been nonexistent in two of their three games. He hasn’t easily escaped his opportunities, posting an 18.4 percent pressure-to-sack ratio while earning no successful scramble plays. 

When defenses send the blitz toward him, those numbers aren’t much better, with just 17 completions for 177 yards. Thus, Giants need to revive their once unstoppable pass rush and force Rush into some mistakes that could swing the game's momentum in their favor. 

It’s always been hard for them to get Dallas to make the mistakes that decide football games, but this opportunity doesn’t come often with a change of personnel and a more evenly matched offensive front. 

Finish in the Red Zone

This adjustment might be the biggest and most obvious of the three when the Giants reconvene with their NFC East rivals, the Cowboys: they need to finish drives and punch in the scores when they are fortunate enough to get inside the red zone. 

Making the most of their opportunities inside the opponents’ 20-yard line has been an issue for the Giants since the start of the 2023 season. They converted only 44.2 percent of their red zone visits during that season and have followed it up with the NFL’s worst number through 11 games, at 38.7 percent. 

In their first matchup against the Cowboys, New York experienced the same struggles that blindsided a generous opportunity to upset their divisional foe. They held Dallas to just one red zone visit, a touchdown by wide receiver CeeDee Lamb, and a slew of field goals, but couldn’t do much more than return five kicks of their own while going 0 for 2 in their red zone visits. 

That was not the first instance of the season when the Giants put up a goose egg in the red zone category, either. They’ve also had six other games where they finished with less than two successful scores inside the 20 and went 5-13 in their last five contests, respectively. 

Luckily for them, the Giants are facing a Cowboys defense that owns the league’s worst red zone scoring percentage on the other end, clocking in at a 75.7 percent success rate for their recent opponents this season. They’ve allowed nine more visits than the 28 their offense earned in 2024 and outpaced those results by nearly 33 percent. 

In their last four games, the Cowboys defense allowed their opponents to record scores on 11 of their 14 total red-zone appearances, which is good for a 78.6 percent ratio. With over 3-4 odds of earning some sort of score in the red zone against this team, there is no excuse why the Giants can’t take advantage and get some points on a battered Dallas unit.

The Giants' scoring has been abysmal this year. After Sunday’s loss to Tampa Bay, they dropped to averaging 14.8 points per game. That number is significantly worse at a mere single digit at home and marks the lowest offensive vitality through 11 games in the franchise’s storied history. 

There have been many different factors getting in the way of fixing this problem. One of the most blameworthy has been Daniel Jones's previous skillset, which struggles to make and respond to reads in a timely manner. Still, he hasn’t been responsible for the insane number of drops his receivers have made or the degrading of the offensive line amid injuries. 

Whatever reason one wants to point the finger at, the Giants know it’s very hard to win in the modern NFL if you can’t put up 25-30 points on any given Sunday. Doing so off a poor seven-point showing four days before might seem like a stretch, but the Giants can achieve it with the right poise and execution against the Cowboys’ dismal defense. 

What, if anything, can be salvaged from the rubble of the 2024 New York Giants season? We give you a few things that inspire hope plus we look at whether it really does make sense for the Giants to consider bringing Bill Belichick “home” should they decide to move on from head coach Brian Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen. 

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