But today, McAdoo was looking for what went wrong, as his team returns home to play the Saints on Sunday, so there’s no time to celebrate.
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The defense came through when it had too, especially in the redzone where Dallas only managed 1 touchdown in 3 attempts. It is something the team, like all teams, reserve for wins. He probably would’ve earned his first win if drops and mental mistakes – like wide receiver Terrance Williams not going out of bounds on the game’s final play – didn’t happen. There just weren’t very many creases.
What they’ll likely do is paint it, put his name on it and label it with the details of the game: date, score, stadium, etc. That might have been him pressing a bit as the team struggled to get into the end zone. In a game that was dominated by the Dallas Cowboys as far as time-of-possession, the Giants were able to pull through on the back of quarterback Eli Manning who threw for three touchdown passes. And he was far from awful. Quarterback Dak Prescott hit Williams along the sidelines for a 14-yard gain. Despite this, Prescott handled his debut well.
“I think he knocked the rust off”, Beckham told reporters as a big grin came over his face.
And they were. McAdoo obviously wants more turnovers on defense and also less penalties from his team, but those are always the complaints from any head coach. That is something that needs to be worked on, and the blame may not be as much on Prescott as the coaching staff. The play calling seemed to be timid in nature with a mix of runs and short passes. The Cowboys didn’t complete their passes, and the one that it look like they completed, it got overturned. The lack of efficiency running the ball also has to be addressed. In fact, they very almost ended the game in a victory formation when Rashad Jennings ran for 11 yards on third-and-12. He’s held down the fort since 2006, but injuries have kept him from leading the Cowboys to reaching even the NFC Championship game. The yardage total was the most against NY and the TD total tied the highest in an National Football League game.
At least that was Ben McAdoo’s philosophy when he spoke on a conference call yesterday, the day after a 20-19 win over the Cowboys in Dallas.
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The Cowboys had hoped things would be different in 2016 with Prescott starting the first six games for an injured Romo instead of the crew of Brandon Weeden, Matt Cassell and Kelen Moore that played in Romo’s absence last season.
