The days of watching “filler” sports and pretending to be into other sports are over. Football Sundays are back and I love it! And what better for the Cowboys to start the season than against their NFC East rival, the New York Giants.
The Cowboys are 62-44-2 all time against the Giants.
Jason Garrett is 7-4 all time against the Giants.
Let’s take a look at three key ways the Cowboys will win the game and three key ways the Giants will win. I reached out to my friend Marco over at BleedBigBlue.com to get his perspective on how the Giants will get the win over the Cowboys. Be sure to check out their site, they put out some great Giants material over there.
— According to BleedBigBlue, here are three reasons the Giants win:
1. Dial-up the confusion
Spending $200 million dollars is one way to retool your defense. Defense of Cordinator Steve Spagnolo now has the horses in the stable who are ready to attack and dial up the confusion. Get prepared for Olivier Vernon and Jason Pierre Paul to aggressively go after the Dak. Vernon in particular has had great success going against this brick wall Dallas cowboy OLine.
2. Trust in Eli
We head into this game with a proven winner, with a player who doesn’t care about stats, with a player who does it best in the clutch. The bright lights never bother Eli, he has always been calm, cool & collected. This year he has some toys to play with. Expect Eli to succeed in a short passing game hitting his wide outs and moving the chains. They may go for a few deep ones just to keep Dallas honest.
3. New Era
The Giants once again open the season up with the Dallas Cowboys. This will be the 5th pairing since 2007 where Dallas has won all 4. Under new head coach Ben McAdoo there is a noticeable push for youth. Plan for coach to start his own streak is Dallas letting the rookies play, & getting the win.
— Here are my three reasons the Cowboys win against the Giants:
1. Run-Pass Option
The Cowboys know the Giants are going to blitz Dak Prescott a lot, it’s been a hallmark of Steve Spagnuolo against the Cowboys in general. He’s had success keeping Tony Romo under duress in plenty games under his command. This time around however, the Cowboys will answer that blitz with the run-pass option. This isn’t something the Cowboys have had in their wheel-house under Jason Garrett, but we’ve seen sprinkles of it in the preaseaon, and I expect it to be a substantial part of the offensive gameplan against the Giants.
The Eagles ran option offense with great success against the Giants and gave their defense fits. Under Chip Kelly they amassed an impressive 5-1 record against the Giants, using the option offense with various QBs along the way. I’m not saying the Cowboys offense will look like Kelly’s offense against the Giants, but I am saying they will sprinkle it in. This will keep the Giants defense in check and make them think twice about constantly blitzing. Dak Prescott and Zeke Elliott ran similar offenses at Mississippi State and Ohio State, so the transition with the offensive gameplan will not be anything new for them.
2. Three-headed running attack
The Cowboys will pound the ball throughout the game, and they have the physical backs to wear down the Giants $200 million dollar defense. The Cowboys offensive line has another year under their belt under Coach Pollack and their play in the preseason showed they are ready to reclaim the title of best offensive line in the NFL. There’s no question the Giants front is quite formidable, but so are the Cowboys offensive line juggernauts. You could say the two may cancel each other, so the Giants better hope Ezekiel Elliott doesn’t get to the 2nd level or it will be a long day for their LBs and DBs. Zeke and Alfred Morris will pound them, and expect Lance Dunbar to get going in the screen game.
3. Receivers not named Dez
The Giants will cover Dez and double him with a safety over top, so this will leave a good amount of work left for the other Cowboys’ receivers. Dez will get his shots, but I expect the Cowboys to get Cole Beasley and Lucky Whitehead involved as well. Jason Witten will be the safety valve for Prescott just as he was with Romo, and don’t sleep on Gavin Escobar. Escobar has had some good games against the Giants, so look for him to get out there as well. We’ll see what Terrance Williams will do against the Giants, he’s in a contract year and I expect him to up his game this season.
I want to thank BleedBigBlue for contributing to this post, be sure to check them out during our games and follow them on twitter here @BleedsBigBlue
Alright everybody, our season is here, let’s hope for a healthier season this year and let’s stack some wins together. It all starts today!
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