Why the Giants Will Beat Dallas, Why They Won't and a Prediction

The Giants are set to rock the house Monday Night against the Dallas Cowboys. Can they make it three in a row to start the season?

NFC East week continues with the second half of the division--the New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys--facing off Monday night at MetLife Stadium.

It's a huge early season matchup as the key to a potential playoff berth is to win the division.  

"These divisional games, you understand the rivalry and the tradition of these games." said quarterback Daniel Jones. "Especially in the NFC East, where these franchises have played each other for a long time, and there's a lot of historic battles back and forth. It's fun to be part of that. 

"Divisional games mean a little bit more in getting a win. So, we're trying to do the best we can to prepare and play our best ball Monday night."

New York Football Giants

Besides the game, the Giants will be inducting seven new members into their Ring of Honor at halftime to increase the total to 50. The seven members include former running backs Joe Morris, Ottis Anderson, and Rodney Hampton, defensive end Leonard Marshall, Ronnie Barnes (senior vice president of medical services), defensive back Jimmy Patton, and halfback/receiver Kyle Rote.

All seven men share something special in common: they were members of Giants championship teams: Patton and Rote in 1956; Morris in 1986; Anderson and Marshall in 1986 and 1990; Hampton in 1990; and Barnes in 1986, 1990, 2007, and 2011.

With the Giants off to a surprising 2-0 start, the stadium environment promises to be electric. But can the Giants, who have lost six straight and eight of their last nine Monday night games, finally get on track in games played under the lights?

"We see every opportunity as a chance to show everyone what we can do, and we're going to try to play our best football every time we step on the field," Jones said. "Monday night game, there's some energy, there's some excitement to it. Every time we step on the field, we're trying to play as well as we can and show everyone what we can do."

Let's run down the scenarios.

Why the Giants Will Win

The defense. Simply put, Wink Martindale's defense has been nothing short of spectacular. The secret to the NFL's ninth-ranked defense overall has been changing its look much like a chameleon changes its color, making it more challenging for opposing quarterbacks to get a feel for what might be coming their way.

"It’s easy for us to teach, easy for our players to learn, but yet it’s something completely different," Martindale said of his system. "You’ve heard me say this many times before: It’s a position-less defense. So, just because a guy--let’s use (safety) Julian (Love)--has safety next to his name in the program, he can play anywhere on the field.

"Why can he do that? Because (of) the way we teach the system. He’s a smart player. And wherever we need him and wherever I think his skillset would fit us best is where we play him that week. And you’ve already seen two different defenses, and it's a credit to the players because they’re studying their tails off not only with what we do but what they do. "

Simply put, if Martindale comes up with another variation of his defense--one that the Cowboys and their quarterback Cooper Rush don't see coming--the Giants will give themselves a pretty good chance of keeping things close.

Why the Giants Will Lose

That Cowboys defense is nothing to sneeze at. Outside linebacker Micah Parsons is quite a game wrecker all by his lonesome, but the real concern is how well the Giants interior offensive line holds up. In Week 1 against the Titans, the interior had a decent showing. Last week against the Panthers, the interior wasn't quite as stout, leaving quarterback Daniel Jones with a soft pocket in which to work.

And speaking of the offense, if receiver Kadarius Toney doesn't play this week--and it's not looking promising--that will be a huge loss for the Giants. We all saw what Toney did last year against the Cowboys.

That kind of deployment is part of what this coaching staff had hoped to do with Toney this year. If nothing else, having a healthy Toney in the lineup would sure help the passing game, which right now is averaging 159 yards per game, 30th in the league. Teams just aren't going to win many games with that kind of average, which is why losing guys with speed and shiftiness.

Prediction

My head says this is a brand new era of Giants football, and what happened in the past doesn't mean it will happen in the future. That said, I have concerns about the Giants offense being able to sustain drives against this Cowboys defense, which by the way, I fully expect to key in on stopping Saquon Barkley.

I think this will be a low-scoring game highlighted by both teams' defenses, and whoever gets the ball last will emerge victorious.

Cowboys 21, Giants 17 

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