New York Giants Report Card: Another Epic Meltdown

The Giants were no match for the Dallas Cowboys, who took New York apart 49-17.

Here are our grades for the New York Giants’ 49-17 to the Dallas Cowboys.

Offense: F

Tommy DeVito tried to compete but behind an offensive line that continues to struggle with pass protection and which also couldn’t run block to save its life in the first half—11 carries for 11 yards, including seven carries by Saquon Barkley for one yard in that half—DeVito didn’t have a chance, not that he would have been the savior as he had his blips in the game as well, such as not driving the offense in for a score after gaining possession following an interception by the defense that the offense couldn’t get into the end zone. 

DeVito was four of nine for 24 yards in the first half, finishing 14 of 27 for 86 yards with two garbage-time touchdowns. The offense going zero for 12 on third down? Yuck! Five sacks allowed. Yuck! 

And memo to tight end Lawrence Cager. Congratulations on scoring your first career touchdown as a Giant, but next time, read the room before breaking out in a ridiculous celebratory dance after scoring when your team is getting its door blown off.

Defense: F

The Giants defense allowed 640 total yards of offense to the Cowboys. You read that right. Six hundred forty yards. In fact, by the end of the third quarter, the Cowboys pulled many of their starters as the game was firmly in hand.

The defense again failed to sack Dak Prescott—that’s now four games under defensive coordinator Wink Martindale in which that has happened. Prescott finished his day going 26 of 35 passes for 404 yards and four touchdowns. 

Receivers Brandin Cooks (9-173, 1 touchdown) topped his season yardage total of 165 yards while CeeDee Lamb (11-151, 1 touchdown) had his way with the Giants defensive backs. And the Cowboys finished by averaging 8.3 yards per play and converting on six of seven red-zone visits (86 percent).

The lone positive? The Giants got a goal-line stand on the first series when defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence and outside linebacker Azeez Ojulari stopped Tony Pollard on the 1-yard line. But that was a drop in the bucket.

Special teams: B

Jamie Gillan had an inconsistent day, launching seven punts, two of which landed in the 20, and one went for a touchback. Gillan got away with a poor 39-yard punt that was only returned for 11 yards. 

By the end of the day, the Cowboys only managed nine return yards on three of those punts, so that was a positive. Randy Bullock nailed his only field goal attempt from 40 yards, and Parris Campbell returned a kickoff for 36 yards. Randy Bullock hit a 40-yard field goal in the fourth quarter. Parris Campbell had a 36-yard kickoff return.

Coaching: F

We get it; the Giants weren’t playing with a full personnel deck. But again, some of the decisions were headscratchers, such as Daboll’s throwing a challenge flag on the very first play of the game only to change his mind and not realizing that the rule says once you drop the flag, the challenge—which in this case he wasn’t going to win—has to go through.

Wink Martindale’s defense was completely dismantled by the Cowboys again. One of the biggest headscratchers—and there were many—is why, with a banged-up defensive secondary, it didn’t go with more zone coverage to help out the secondary, which was being eaten up alive in man coverage where Dallas was gaining many of its chunk plays. 

---

• Get the latest breaking news and analysis on the New York Giants
• Follow and like us on Facebook
• Submit your questions for our mailbag
• Check out the Giants Country YouTube Channel.
• Subscribe and like the LockedOn Giants YouTube Channel
• Connect with us via text alerts! Free 14-Day Trial!