The Giants host the Cowboys in the first Sunday night game of the season, with one of those teams hoping to prove it's ready to challenge the Eagles in the NFC East. Dallas is a slight favorite, and I agree -- they've done well in this matchup lately.
Dallas has won four straight meetings, and 11 of the last 12. Most of the recent games have been close, including both of last year's (decided by 7-8 points). But the Giants offense, and Daniel Jones, haven't quite gotten over the hump.
Most notably, the Dallas pass rush has been an issue. Jones has played 5 full games against the Cowboys, and he's been sacked 17 times -- 8 in the two games a year ago. Some of that is that he's been forced to pass a lot, averaging 34 attempts in those five games. Last year he averaged 36 passes in the two games against Dallas, just 28 in his other 14 contests. But it's also just that Dallas has an elite pass rush and the Giants have struggled to deal with it.
Jones' numbers from his games against the Cowboys are shown below. Despite all those attempts, he's averaged just 217 passing yards, and with 4 touchdowns. He's run some, at least (31 yards per game), but he's also spent a lot of time running from pass rushers.
| JONES VERSUS DALLAS | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Site | Pass | Run | TD | Int | Sk |
| 2019 | N.Y. | 210 | 54 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| 2020 | N.Y. | 229 | 17 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| 2020 | Dall. | 222 | -7 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 2022 | Dall. | 228 | 14 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| 2022 | N.Y. | 196 | 79 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| Avg. | 217 | 31 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 3.4 | |
Not that you'd be sitting down the Dallas defense if you drafted them anyway, but they'll be ranked pretty favorably this week.
--Andy Richardson