ARLINGTON, Texas — Undermanned? Definitely.
Undeterred? Definitely.
Ultimately successful? Definitely not.
The depleted Giants gave it a shot Thursday but there would be no happy Thanksgiving for them. They battled as hard as they could and took a 13-7 lead into halftime but did not have enough on either side of the ball to hold off the mistake-prone Cowboys. The second half could be entitled Domination Dallas as the Giants wilted and left AT&T Stadium on the wrong end of a 28-20 loss.
The Giants were outscored 21-0 in the second half until Daniel Jones tossed 1 yard to Richie James for a touchdown with eight seconds remaining, making the final score look a whole lot closer than the game actually was.
This one seemed to especially annoy coach Brian Daboll, as his team lost back-to-back games for the first time this season. “Tough game’’ Daboll said before answering a series of questions with clipped, few-word retorts. He later apologized for his terse demeanor.
“I think we missed some opportunities,’’ Daboll said. “We’ve got to do a better job. It starts with me.’’
The loss hurt because the Giants, injury-depleted and forced to use backups all over the field, believed they had the Cowboys where they wanted them. And then they didn’t.
“We had the right intentions, we just didn’t get the job done in the second half,’’ linebacker Jaylon Smith said. “Any time you don’t take advantage of opportunities you suffer. That’s something us, as a group, have got to learn and grow from.’’
It all unraveled after halftime. The Cowboys (8-3) got the ball and held it for more than half of the third quarter on a 14-play drive. Still, the Giants were in good shape to limit the damage to a field goal but on third-and-goal from the 15-yard line, tight end Dalton Schultz beat fill-in cornerback Nick McCloud for a touchdown. Just like that, the Giants were down 14-13.
Next, Daboll gambled on fourth-and-1 from the Giants 45-yard line, turning down a punt to try to pick up the first down with his offense. “I thought we needed to change a little bit of momentum,’’ he said.
Daniel Jones’ hurried pass to the right side was low and behind Saquon Barkley, but the ball hit Barkley in the hands as he was falling backwards and he failed to catch it.
Opportunity lost.
“I’ve got to make that play, that’s it,’’ Barkley said, “I tried to get down to secure the catch and I didn’t make the play. I’ve got to be better.’’
Jones blamed himself, saying, “It was just a bad throw. I’ve got to get it out in front of him. Bad throw. Can’t miss that.”
The Cowboys took over in Giants’ territory and embarked on a touchdown drive, with Prescott hitting Schultz again to make it 21-13. The Giants’ offense fizzled again and rookie tight end Peyton Hendershot scored from 2 yards out to make it 28-13 and seal the deal.
The Cowboys (8-3) have now won four straight in this rivalry and beaten the Giants 11 times in the last 12 games in what has been a lopsided series.
For the Giants (7-4), this is crisis point No. 1 in Daboll’s first season as a head coach. This is the first losing streak and a rough way to open up a four-game stretch against NFC East opponents.
“On the outside world it’s gonna be easy for the critics or people to say the sky-is-falling type of thing,’’ defensive lineman Leonard Williams said, “but we know inside we have everything we need and everything in front of us.’’
The Giants were in it until they weren’t. They intercepted Prescott twice in the first half, were boosted by a brilliant leaping 44-yard reception by Darius Slayton that set up Barkley’s 1-yard touchdown run and took advantage of seven Cowboys penalties to take a 13-7 lead into halftime. This was against a rival that overwhelmed the Vikings 40-3 four days earlier in Minneapolis, ending the Vikings’ winning streak at seven games.
This was going to be an uphill battle for the Giants, who four days earlier lost five starters to injury in the loss to the Lions. Their offensive line was filled with backups to backups, with only two regular starters, left tackle Andrew Thomas and right guard Mike Glowinski, manning their positions.
It was an even more precarious situation at cornerback, where the top three players (Adoree’ Jackson, Aaron Robinson and Fabian Moreau) were all out, leaving rookie Cor’Dale Flott and McCloud as the starters on the outside and Darnay Holmes in the slot.
Barkley was limited to 39 rushing yards on 11 attempts. Jones was sacked three times and many times his hurried throws were off the mark. On defense, the Giants could not get the Cowboys off the field and did not do enough to contain Ezekiel Elliott (16-92) and their reserve defensive backs eventually could not deal with Lamb (6-106).
It certainly did not help that a 24-yard Jones-to-Isaiah Hodgins touchdown pass in the first quarter was wiped out when right tackle Tyre Phillips was hit with an illegal man downfield penalty. The Giants simply were not good enough for long enough.
“We knew they were going to come out swinging [in the second half] and we got to respond,’’ Barkley said. “And we didn’t do that.’’
