As expected, for the second time this season, the Dallas Cowboys laid a thorough beatdown on the New York Giants as they came away with a 49-17 victory at AT&T Stadium.
In their two meetings this season, Dallas has outscored New York 89-17. In many ways, Sunday’s game was more embarrassing for the Giants than the 40-0 season opener loss as the Cowboys had 640 yards of total offense.
This game was over at halftime as the Cowboys outgained the Giants 368-27 and had 20 first downs to New York’s one.
You really can’t assess a team that is starting their third-string rookie quarterback and a team that has been decimated by injuries. But here are three takeaways from another blowout loss for the Giants.
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The defense didn’t show up again
Everyone knew the Giants offense would struggle with Tommy DeVito making his first NFL start playing against one of the best defenses in the NFL. But no one could have imagined how poorly Wink Martindale’s defense would perform on Sunday.
Dak Prescott had one of the best games of his career, completing 26-of-35 passes for 404 yards with four passing touchdowns and one rushing touchdown. Although New York would lose Deonte Banks and Cor’Dale Flott in the game due to injury, that’s no excuse to allow the Cowboys trip of receivers in CeeDee Lamb, Brandin Cooks, and Michael Gallup to have 22 receptions for 394 yards and three touchdowns.
In addition to being putrid against the pass, New York couldn’t stop the run as Dallas gained 168 yards on the ground on 33 carries.
After performing well in Weeks 6-8 against the Bills, Commanders, and Jets, this is the second week in a row the defense has been embarrassed, and who have to start to wonder if Martindale has lost control of his unit.
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Things are starting to boil over
When a team continues to lose in embarrassing fashion, it won’t take long for things to boil over on the sidelines. Just before halftime, head coach Brian Daboll and Martindale had a long conversation, and Darius Slayton and Sterling Shepard had a heated exchange on the sideline. We don’t know exactly what was said during these conversations, but the optics didn’t look good.
Even Saquon Barkley, who is normally calm on the sidelines, was visibly frustrated by what has been transpiring. Earlier this week, safety Xavier McKinney said he believes the coaches don’t listen to the captains. Martindale responded by saying the following.
“I think it was a case where the kid is just frustrated from losing. We spoke, we cleared it up. The example that he gave me of what he was talking about was an in-game adjustment and it was over – I mean it really took a while for him to point out to me exactly what it was, but I think that you grow from that. I just told him that’s something that it’s hurt the locker room, it hurts the defensive room when you say something like that.”
Based on what we saw on the sidelines on Sunday, you have to wonder if this was just the first of the heated exchanges we’ll see in the second half of the season.
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Changes could be coming to the coaching staff
Nobody wants to advocate for someone losing their job, but when a team continues to put an embarrassing product on the field, someone will eventually have to be the fall. The Giants have been outclassed in all three phases of the game, and any in-game adjustment they’ve tried to make hasn’t worked.
Not only is the team 2-8, but their point differential of minus 148 is by far the worst in the league. Daboll’s job might be safe for the remainder of this season, but it will be difficult for him to keep his entire coaching staff intact if things don’t improve.
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