New York Giants Week 13 Storylines: Can Giants Snap Out of It?

Don’t look now, but the New York Giants are making yet another appearance in front of a national television audience this week when they visit the Dallas  Cowboys for a Thanksgiving afternoon kickoff.

Certainly, given how the two teams’ respective seasons have unfolded, much more was expected when this game landed on the schedule. The Giants (2-9) have lost six in a row, their last victory almost two months ago on October 6 (Seattle). What’s more, the Giants have lost three of those six games by two or more scores.

The Cowboys? Standing at 4-7, they’ve fared slightly better than their NFC East foes after snapping a five-game losing streak this weekend thanks to their 34-26 upset win over the Washington Commanders. 

But Dallas, who topped the Giants in their first meeting back on September 26 by a score of 20-15, have yet to win at home this season (sound familiar, Giants fans?), though they do have a 2-1 record in division games also going for them.

Interestingly, both teams will have different starting quarterbacks this week. After benching him a week ago, the Giants waived Daniel Jones on Saturday and plugged Tommy DeVito in the position. 

The Cowboys, meanwhile, lost Dak Prescott to a season-ending hamstring injury and, depending on health, will either have Cooper Rush under center or Trey Lance.   

We’ll find out soon enough which of these two teams ends up the bigger turkey, but in the meantime, here’s a look at the top storylines from the Giants’ perspective ahead of this Week 13 divisional matchup.

The Giants made the wrong kind of headlines after their 30-7 shellacking by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday when A-listers like Dexter Lawrence and Malik Nabers used the “S” word (soft) to describe the team effort.

Lawrence walked back his initial comment by clarifying that he was referring to the execution, which lacked consistency in the loss, while Nabers seemed to unleash his frustration over not getting the ball against head coach Brian Daboll.

Presumably, Daboll and the players have put all that behind them as they try to get as best prepared as possible on such a short work week as they look to snap the Cowboys’ seven-game win streak against them.

In addition to having fallen to the Cowboys in seven straight games, the Giants haven’t won in Dallas since September 11, 2016, when Giants fans could rest easy knowing that Eli Manning would always be at quarterback for them.

In their last road game at Dallas, the Giants were blown out by the Cowboys 49-17, after Dallas blew them out at home 40-0 in Week 1. Four of the Cowboys’ seven home wins against the Giants have come by two or more scores. 

Again, the Giants kept it close in the first meeting this year, losing 20-15. Although that team looked much different, at least on offense, can this version keep it close, if not upset the Cowboys, who are also reeling? 

In case you missed the opening injury report for this week, both Giants starting offensive tackles (Evan Neal and Jermaine Eluemunor) are dealing with injuries that would have kept them out of practice had there been one on Monday. (The team had a walkthrough, so the injury report was projected.)

Neal is dealing with a hip issue, and Eluemunor is a quad. If both can’t play on Thursday, the Giants are likely looking at Tyree Phillips at left tackle and Chris Hubbard at right tackle. 

Fortunately for the Giants, the Cowboys pass rush has struggled this season. Per ESPN, the Cowboys are ranked 22nd in the league with a 39% pass-rush win rate. However, per Pro Football Focus, the Giants have the fourth-worst pass-block efficiency rating (81.5), and that was with the lineup they’ve had for the last three weeks. 

Something’s gotta give, and for the sake of DeVito, who was drilled on Sunday against the Bucs to where he had to come out of the game for one play (he’s not on the injury report, which is good news), let’s hope that Eluemunor and Neal are both ready to go.

Given how bad the Giants have looked, some have wondered if team ownership will consider dismissing head coach Brian Daboll if the Giants get their doors blown off by the Cowboys on Thursday.

The most likely answer is no. It’s believed that co-owner John Mara, who told reporters that he didn’t anticipate making any changes in season last month, will finish out the rest of this year, for better or worse. 

However, one potential move to keep an eye on is defensive coordinator Shane Bowen. 

The Giants defense has had its ups and downs, but two glaring issues that don’t seem to be going away under his watch are the struggles against the run, where the defense is ranked 30th in the league (149.9 yards per game) and last in rushing yards per play (5.23 per play), and turnovers (only one interception this season). 

If the Giants get rolled over, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Daboll fire Bowen and replace him with defensive line coach Andre Patterson or passing game coordinator/defensive backs coach Jerome Henderson, the latter a candidate for the team’s defensive coordinator role this past offseason. 

Also, if a change is made, whoever gets the interim label a few extra days to get his planning situated.