Brett's Cowboys Corner

A (amazon)Primetime matchup, The Dallas Cowboys are in New York to face the Giants. A quick turnaround for the Dallas Cowboys, a first in franchise history. The Cowboys have never played a Sunday game and then a road Thursday game. It was not until recently that the Cowboys had to play two Thursday games, of course, they would always play at home on Thanksgiving Thursday.

Dallas just played Sunday and on a short week got right back to work Monday and Tuesday with practice, skipping their typical scheduled day off, the team made their trip to New York Wednesday.

The Cowboys could benefit on the short week, moving on quickly from two bad home losses, and now they will face a familiar opponent in New York. This will be a bar test for the Cowboy’s defense, we saw two great offenses slash the Cowboy’s defense, now a good but not as great Giants offense will try to attack you the same way. The defense needs to make a mark and gain some confidence this week. While the Cowboys offense needs to get into a rhythm and attack New York’s secondary.

• Beebe will have the toughest matchup of the day, going against the powerful Dexter Lawrence. The rookie will have his hands full, and typically defensive tackles will either be used in run or pass situations, Dexter dominates in both areas and will be attacking Beebe early and often.
• DLaw needs a bounce-back game, and no better time, than playing against a team he generally likes to beat up on. Lawrence actually leads the Cowboys in missed tackles this season, but he will be needed in the run defense, wrapping up Singletary. Also in the pass game, he will be matched up with the Giants left tackle, Andrew Thomas who may be their weak link.
• Smooth like Butter! Aubrey has been the most consistent guy on the field and will look to continue his domination. He has made five 50+ yard field goals and is 10/10 overall. Also, look for him on the new dynamic kickoff creating trouble for New York returners.

• Nabers will be in motion often for the Giants, someone needs to keep an eye on him at all times. He is the number one weapon for Daniel Jones, he holds 35% target shares for his team, which leads the league. Any success in 10 yards or more throws from Jones has been to Nabers.
• Burns was acquired in free agency via trade from Carolina. He has been a force in the NFL and now in New York. He has generated 15 pressures on 84 snaps this year, on pace for a career-high. He will likely matchup with rookie Tyler Guyton at left tackle.
• Singletary is a shifty runner and should start as the focal point for the Giants because of the poor run defense. He has created 19 missed tackles this season, 3rd most by any player and the Cowboys have recorded 32 missed tackles this season (14.7%), resulting in the 3rd-most yards lost to missed tackles (241).

1 – Start Fast and Push the Ball Downfield.

Each week the Cowboys have started slow pace, opting into a lot of dump-offs to the backs and receivers running a lot of curl routes. This week the Cowboys could benefit from a quicker tempo offense and targeting the secondary’s deep coverage.

The secondary for New York has a lot of young and inexperienced players, as well as they are dealing with several injuries. Two corners won’t be playing today, Adoree Jackson who has been missing a few weeks, and their starting nickel back Andru Phillips. Their best corner plays tight coverage, 2nd-year Deonte Banks. On the other side is a glaring red flag, Cordale Flott, he tends to play more soft coverage and can fall victim to quick cuts. This is the man to attack.

If the Cowboy’s offense can get out to a lead and dominate mistakes made by the Giants, this should be a manageable win for Dallas. The Giants tend to fall into large deficits and when they need to push the ball downfield to get out of them…that’s where they dig a deeper grave.

2 – Disguise Coverages and Keep Everything Infront of You

If the Cowboys secondary can disguise coverages and play tricks on Daniel Jones’s eyes pre-snap they will see a lot of ill-advised throws, and have opportunities to create turnovers. It seems he still has predetermined throws and will base it off his pre-snap reads, confusing Jones can be a key here.

A big problem Dallas could see is from the receivers. The Giants have a lot of talent in their room. A big problem will be the previously mentioned Malik Nabers. Also be on the lookout for Jalin Hyatt as their speedy deep threat, the scary part is that Hyatt really has not been able to get anything going in the Giant’s system…how on brand for him to figure it out this week.

It is likely the Cowboys will be without rookie Caelen Carson, who is their rookie outside corner, though he did not have a great game against the Ravens. There is not much depth behind him at the moment as the Cowboys are still missing Daron Bland, it will likely be Andrew Booth Jr getting the starting nod, who was acquired in a trade with Minnesota in August.

3 – Offensive Line Needs to Hold Up

This Giants defensive front is scary, filled with talent all over. Not being able to hold up against the blitz hurt Dallas last week, The Giants come into this game with the 2nd highest blitz rate in the NFL, at 43% of dropbacks. In the run game, the interior pressure has been crucial in stopping the run, and it has been on the back of Dexter Lawrence who is a star for them.

The Cowboys are on a short week, so that means less time for their O-line to get rested after the beating from Baltimore. With a mix of rookies and veterans, this will be a real test to see if the conditioning is right with these guys. The two rookies will have to be watched as they get two of the more difficult matchups, Beebe vs. Lawrence and Guyton vs. Burns.

4 – Stop the RUN

This should be higher up the list…Nothing should be more important and if we have time to teach anything in a short week, let’s make sure we know how to stop the run. The Cowboys have been gashed two weeks in a row, at this point, we should not focus on anything else but run defense, you need to get this figured out. If they can’t this week, then everyone in the league will have a field day against Dallas.

5 – You Know the Giants

The final key is to remember this is the New York Giants, you are better than them and you have been for years. In the last decade, the Cowboys are 16-4 against the Giants with those four wins against Matt Cassel, Andy Dalton, and two versus rookie Dak Prescott, who hasn’t lost to them since. Last week the Giants fumbled their opening kickoff and allowed the Browns to score a play later. As for Cowboys vs. Giants, we look to last year to open the season on the road, New York’s Graham Gano attempts a 45-yard field goal on the opening drive which was blocked by Juanyeh Thomas and returned for a touchdown by Noah Igbinoghene. The Giants found themselves down 26-0 and 28-0 in the first half of both of their games against Dallas last year.