By Michael Stewart@TheTruthNYG
The 2023 season is finally upon us as the New York Giants will play a familiar rival in the Dallas Cowboys this coming Sunday night. Over the last 10 meetings between these two teams, the Giants have only won one game (1/3/2021) 23-19 at MetLife Stadium. Not an encouraging stat and one that the Giants must reverse if they expect to make noise this season. This season, I will list my top 3 ways the Giants can win and top 3 ways they can lose each game, so let’s start with game 1, Giants versus Dallas.
Top 3 ways they could win
- Giants Offense Executes: Last season the Giants only had Daniel Jones and Saquan Barkley for opposing teams to be concerned with. This off season GM Joe Schoen embarked on adding more weapons and by all accounts, he has succeeded with new comers like Tight End Darren Waller, Wide Recievers Jalin Hyatt and Paris Campbell.
- Giants Defense Shows up: Last season, the Giants run defense allowed 148 yards per game as they only totaled 41 sacks. Once again, Joe Schoen addressed these areas with solid players in A’Shawn Robinson, Bobby Okereke and Rakeem Nunez Roche.
The key player here is Bobby Okereke, who is expected to elevate the Giants defensive front 7.
- Giants Special Teams Shines: This game could be closer than expected and one play could decide the outcome. Over the last few seasons, the Giants special team units have not been in the top tier in the NFL and that needs to change. Punter Jamie Gillian needs to put the Cowboys offense inside the 20 when he can, and Graham Cano just needs to be Graham Cano.
Top 3 ways they could lose.
- Poor Execution: The Giants margin for error on both sides of the ball is limited as they can’t allow the Cowboys offensive line to manhandle them or their defensive front 7 to control the line of scrimmage as they did collect 54 sacks in 2022 (13.5 by Micah Parsons). If they do, the losing streak will continue.
- Turnovers: As I mentioned earlier, this game could be a lot closer than expected and if so, then an untimely turnover could lead to a Giants defeat. I don’t expect the Giants to play a perfect game, after all this is opening day and I expect both teams to be a bit rusty. If the Giants can keep this category even with Dallas then they will have a chance to victory.
- Big Play Mishaps: The Giants will be employing two rookie cornerbacks in the starting lineup in Deonte Banks (1st round) and Tre Hawkins (6th round). The Cowboys lethal wide receiver will be Cee Dee Lamb who totaled over 1000 yards. I don’t expect the Giants two rookie wonders to shutdown Lamb, but if they want to keep this game within reach, they do need to minimize the big play by Lamb.
This game will have a lot of emotion and a lot of physical play. After all, this is a divisional game and both teams don’t like one another. Although this is game 1 for both teams, it could set the stage for both teams on how their season will go. This holds especially true for the Giants as they must shake off the demons which are the Cowboys and start a winning streak against them of their own.