Add The New York Post on Google New players, same old Cowboys defense.
The Cowboys tried to overhaul their defense this offseason, though you wouldn’t have known it after Week 1, as the Giants posted a dominant 28-20 victory on “Sunday Night Football” that was so brutal that even Cris Collinsworth couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
“I thought I saw some bad defense out of the Cowboys last year,” Collinsworth said on the NBC broadcast after Jaxson Dart found Isaiah Likely for a touchdown in the back right corner of the end zone. “That sequence was as bad as it gets. They’re going to leave this corner completely wide open against Isaiah Likely, who has been destroying them the entire half. I don’t know who’s blowing these coverages out here in the defensive left flat, but they had two guys chasing the wide receiver who was three yards down the field and nobody on the corner route.”
Things really started to unravel for the Cowboys at the end of the first half when Dak Prescott wound up on third and long for a deep ball that was poorly thrown and intercepted by Jevon Holland near the sideline with 49 seconds left in the half.
Holland’s interception near midfield set Dart up to get into field goal range at the minimum, though the quarterback led a masterful drive to close the first half.
Dart hit Malik Nabers and Darnell Mooney on beautiful out-routes to get gains of 16 and 18 yards while taking nearly no time off the clock to get them into the red zone.
With 20 seconds remaining in the half, Dart would hit Likely in the end zone for a touchdown as the Giants jumped out in front for a 14-7 lead, and they never looked back.
The Giants scored on their two second-half touchdown drives, playing old school style football.
John Harbaugh’s group opened the half going 12 plays for 74 yards and taking eight minutes off the clock for a touchdown.
On the next drive, they took 13 plays to go 65 yards and take 8:11 off the clock.
To end the game, they orchastrated 13 plays to go 46 yards and ran out the final 5:21.
Dallas had the worst defensive performance by any team in Week 1 based on Expected Points Added per drive.
The Giants had seven possessions, scored four touchdowns, had a fumble lost, punted one time, and ran the clock out in their last drive.
Per The Ringer’s Sheil Kapadia, the Cowboys’ defense had a horrific performance by even their standards, as it was the worst they’ve played in all but one game last season, and it ranked 571 out of 574 games.
The Cowboys added between six and eight new starters to this defense, including Rashan Gary and Dee Winters, though it doesn’t appear to have helped much.
After allowing 6.1 yards per play last season, they coughed up 5.9 YPP in Week 1, and Dallas finds itself 0-1 and has started the season with a division loss.
