The season begins now. The push begins instantly. The Commanders will go to MetLife Stadium subsequent Sunday, and that's after we will study for sure who the New York Soccer Giants are.
Are they the workforce that blitzed to a 6-1 begin?
Are they the workforce that's 1-3 for his or her final 4 video games?
We'll study for positive beginning in 9 days. The Giants, regardless of their 28-20 loss Thursday to the Cowboys in Arlington, Texas, are nonetheless in advantageous form for the playoffs so long as they will get a few of their injured gamers fairly wholesome and if these gamers play as they did for many of the season’s first half.
It’s troublesome to guage what the Giants are, who they're, primarily based on what we noticed at AT&T Stadium on Thanksgiving Day. We noticed a variety of coronary heart and a variety of effort within the first place, and a variety of regressing to the imply within the second. The Giants performed near completely within the first half, turning the Cowboys over, taking part in sensible with the ball, seizing a 13-7 lead.
It was a advantageous half-hour.
However throughout the complete 60, the Cowboys reaffirmed who they're, and who they are often, dashing again to assert the victory and sweep the Giants in each video games this season. They electrified the house crowd and reestablished themselves because the co-favorites (together with the Eagles) to do some critical injury this 12 months out of the NFC East.
The Giants have been decimated by accidents, after which devastated by the Cowboys’ resilient second half, and they're now 7-4 after that 6-1 begin. So the season can go certainly one of two methods from right here, relying on how the Giants reply at this crossroads:
They will play a whole sport in opposition to the Commanders subsequent week, a sport that may vault them into the bell lap of their season and preserve their playoff aspirations alive.
Or they will let the dropping get the higher of them. They will succumb to the contagion of damage, and hop onto a slippery slope that would take them filter of the playoff image.
It’s as much as them.
“Guys competed,” Giants head coach Brian Daboll stated. “We simply didn’t do sufficient.”
The Giants knew they wanted to play pristine soccer to have an affordable likelihood in opposition to the Cowboys, and so they began out doing simply that. They have been feisty on either side of the ball all the first half. They harassed Dak Prescott and compelled the Dallas quarterback into a few picks. Graham Gano’s discipline purpose on the halftime gun put them up 13-7, and it felt like a splendid piece of soccer craft.
However there have been nonetheless half-hour to go.
“It was a tricky sport,” stated Daboll, who sounded considerably extra irritated than after any of the season’s earlier 10 video games. “Give Dallas credit score. I believe we missed some alternatives and that begins with me. We simply didn’t get an entire lot going. We didn’t do sufficient.”
And never solely did the Cowboys play a lot better, the Giants performed considerably worse. That they had 10 males on the sphere once they misfired on a simple go on their very own fourth-and-1 on their aspect of the 50. There have been a few ill-timed penalties. The Cowboys scored touchdowns on three straight possessions. For a second straight sport they received virtually nothing out of Saquon Barkley (11 carries, 39 yards).
The Giants merely weren’t going to win that approach — and so they didn’t.
“We’ve received to discover a couple or extra performs in there,” quarterback Daniel Jones stated.
“They have been a greater workforce than us at the moment,” Barkley stated.
“We knew we had a shot, we performed laborious and performed quick,” Giants security Julian Love stated. “We let the sport slip away.”
However they don’t must let the season slip away. They'll have an extended week. They'll face Washington two of the following three weeks, with Philadelphia sandwiched in between. The Commanders are taking part in effectively, and the Eagles are the category of the division. However the Giants have confirmed that they will play at a stage excessive sufficient to emerge from this in good condition.
They simply must get again to that stage. They will do it. We’ve seen it. They're in a lull, and good groups discover methods to emerge from lulls. If the Giants are pretty much as good as they appeared not so way back, they may discover a approach, too. Beginning subsequent week.
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