The New York Giants exorcised a number of demons on Sunday in their heart-stopping 20-19 season-opening victory over the Dallas Cowboys.
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ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) – The salsa is back, and the New York Giants finally finished when the Dallas Cowboys failed to stop the clock in the final seconds. Dallas was able to gain the massive time of possession advantage that many fans predicted, but unfortunately, that did not translate into points. Those drives ended in field goals, which would come back to haunt Dallas.
Despite having the ball for almost twice the amount of time as the Giants, the Cowboys found the end zone just once on the afternoon, and if it wasn’t for two 50-plus-yard field goals by kicker Dan Bailey, the Cowboys would have come away with just 13 points against a Giants’ defense that struggled mightily to defend anything previous year. This time, Jennings ran hard, but the Giants were still unable to keep the ball away from the Cowboys’ offense in the game’s waning moments.
The Giants double-teamed Dez Bryant constantly, which gave Williams plenty of 1-on-1 opportunities.
But the rookie and his Dallas Cowboys’ team weren’t good enough near the goal line where the money quarterbacks turn 3s into 7s.
Prescott, whose near-perfect quarterback rating in the preseason had generated no shortage of national attention, picked up where he left off when the real games kicked in while becoming the first Dallas rookie to start at the position since Quincy Carter in 2001. Today’s win was his first career National Football League start, and Prescott had been playing lights out in the preseason. The defense looked bad for most of the game – with a small burst of decent play.
Manning (19 for 28, 207 passing yards, 3 TD, 1 INT) had a quiet, but efficient afternoon hitting three different receivers for scores: TE Larry Donnell, rookie WR Sterling Sheppard and Cruz. But he was instrumental in setting up scores and making the Cowboys secondary worry about him so much to the fact that it opened up doors for other receivers. Nearly every pass attempt was within 15 yards and the Giants eventually picked up on this and slowed the rookie quarterback down.
For Ezekiel Elliott, it was not the dazzling debut most rather expected. Not shockingly, the Cowboys ran it 30 times, and you can believe that will be their M.O.as long as Prescott is under center. Despite being targeted five times, the All-Pro wide out recorded only one reception during the entire game for a total of eight-yards.
This loss was tough for the Cowboys to swallow. The Dallas Cowboys are clearly going to need better production from their running game if they want to be anything more than an NFC East cellar dwellar. I would have liked to have seen the Cowboys allow Prescott to throw the ball deep more often. The rookies were given the keys to the Cowboys’ offense, and didn’t disappoint.
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The Giants vs Cowboys Week 1 clash is certainly going to be an exciting game that everybody will be watching. However, Prescott showed today that he is capable of getting wins in Romo’s absence. And the Cowboys’ game plan was to feed Elliott the ball.
