Thursday Night Football Preview: Giants host Cowboys

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – The Giants are celebrating their 100^th season this year, but Brian Daboll and his players were reluctant to discuss history this week, at least as it pertains to their recent encounters with the Dallas Cowboys.

When the teams meet tomorrow night in MetLife Stadium, the Giants will look to reverse their fortunes in a series that has been decidedly one-sided against them. Dallas has won six in a row and 13 of 14 games between the NFC East rivals. The Giants last beat Dallas in the 2020 season finale, 23-19.

But publicly the Giants are not using the past as motivation for their current challenge. They defeated the Browns in Cleveland Sunday to improve to 1-2 and their goal is to get to .500 and not to exact revenge for what happened last season or prior to that.

“I think each individual person is motivated by different things,” Daboll said. “And my main focus is getting ready to play this team, 2024, the team that’s just played these first three games. Different players, different schemes, making sure that we’re prepared. Doing a good job in our walkthroughs, in our meetings, in our communication. But our focus is on the task at hand.”

“All these games are different,” quarterback Daniel Jones said. “I think we’ll be prepared and ready to go. We don’t like losing to anybody, especially a divisional game. We understand what this game means, and we’ll be ready to go.”

Defensive lineman and captain Dexter Lawrence insists the losses to Dallas do not weigh on him more than a defeat at the hands of any other team.

“I’m sick of losing to anybody,” said Lawrence, who has one win in 10 games vs. the Cowboys since he arrived in 2019. “I don’t hold more weight on one game than the other. They all hit the same. I want to win regardless. It doesn’t matter against who or how we win. I just want to win.”

If one game epitomizes the Giants’ recent struggles in the series, it’s the 2023 season opener. Played on a Sunday night in MetLife Stadium, the Cowboys jumped all over the home team, 40-0. The Giants who played in that game have been asked about it this week.

“Yeah, that game was embarrassing,” left tackle Andrew Thomas said. “Home opener, that’s a tough way to lose. But it’s a new season, a new team. Some guys carried over from last year, and it’s a divisional opponent, so even if we won that game, it’s the same mentality. I’m sure they have the same mentality on the other side. You want to win that game, so that’s what we’re looking forward to doing.”

The hope is to build on their performance in Cleveland, where Jones threw two touchdown passes to rookie sensation Malik Nabers and nine different players combined to sack Deshaun Watson eight times.

The Giants would like to similarly harass Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott, who has won his last 12 starts against the Giants. Their last sack vs. Dallas was on Dec. 19, 2021, in MetLife Stadium. Lorenzo Carter sacked Prescott for a 6-yard loss and forced a fumble that was recovered by Austin Johnson.

“That’s going to change,” said Lawrence, who had four quarterback hits and 2.0 sacks in Cleveland and is tied for the team lead with 3.0. The Giants are tied for second in the NFL with 14 sacks. “I feel like we can get after him pretty good. We just got to hone in on the plan and execute it well.”

The Cowboys arrive with some issues of their own. They lost home games the last two weeks to New Orleans and Baltimore and have the same 1-2 record as the Giants. Dallas allowed three rushing touchdowns in each game, the first time that’s happened in their history. The Cowboys are last in the NFL in rushing yards allowed per game (185.7) and per carry (5.4).

Those numbers would seem to suggest Giants running back Devin Singletary will have some room to run, but he assumes nothing.

“You don’t really want to look at the numbers, because it’s a week-to-week league,” Singletary said. “Obviously, the first few weeks, that’s what’s it’s been, that’s what they put out there. But it’s a new week, new opportunities, and a division game.”

Singletary is the only active Giants player to score a touchdown vs. Dallas. But he did it for the Buffalo Bills on a 28-yard reception on Thanksgiving Day, 2019.

“Those guys will be coming with their A game,” Singletary said. “They’re hungry, it’s a division game, they’re on the road and they just lost two games. They’re going to try their best to come in there and go 1-0. For us, we have to play our A game and try to keep it rolling on our end.”