Top 10 takeaways from Sunday’s Week 1 NFL action

New York Giants had Dallas Cowboys game in stunning loss

We could write a 5,000-word essay on how the Giants allowed Dallas to pull off a ridiculous comeback win at home on Sunday Night Football. The game in and of itself was among the most absurd in recent NFL history. Despite domingating every major statistical category in the first half, Dallas entered halftime down by six points after a Cole Beasley fumble was returned for a touchdown by Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie. Overall, the Cowboys turned the ball over three times with two of them leading to touchdowns for the Giants.

While that was the story for a vast majority of the night, the Giants decision-making in what should have been a game-ending drive at the end of the fourth quarter was the real story here. With first down inside the Cowboys 20 and just over two minutes left, the Giants were called for an illegal formation. After seeing that decline declined, which stopped the clock, the Giants were faced with third down, at which point Manning connected with Odell Beckham Jr. inside the five for a first down with the Giants up three and less than two minutes left.

That’s where the Giants baffled the entire football world. After failing to get into the end zone on the first two plays, and forcing the Cowboys to take their final two timeouts, the coaching staff inexplicably called a passing play on third down. Even worse, Manning made the decision to throw the ball away. This led to the Cowboys getting the ball with 1:37 remaining in the fourth quarter instead of about 50 seconds left. Down by six points, Tony Romo took the Cowboys the length of the field on a drive that culminated in the underrated quarterback hitting Jason Witten for a 11-yard game-winning touchdown with seven seconds left.

Most will point to the Giants’ decision to actually pass on third down as the reason why they lost the game. And while that’s fair, Manning needed to understand the situation at hand. He should have simply taken a sack in order for the Giants to run an additional 40-plus seconds off the clock. Instead, his incomplete pass gave the Cowboys just enough time for Romo to pull off the amazing comeback win. Even though this was just Week 1, a loss of this magnitude could have a major impact on the Giants moving forward on the season. It was that bad.