Sunday Night Football is the premiere NFL package and in Week One they get what could be the best game. The New York Giants beat the Dallas Cowboys twice last season, so there’s a chance not only for Dallas to start their perceived Super Bowl run, but get a little revenge in the process.
The Game: New York Giants at Dallas Cowboys (-7)
The History
The rivalry goes all the way back to Dallas’ inaugural season in 1960 and started with a 31-31 tie. The Cowboys lead the all-time match up convincingly, 62-46-2.
New York not only swept the Cowboys last season, but they’ve won three straight. Before that Dallas reeled off five consecutive victories over the Giants.
The early rivalry was dominated by the Giants as you’d expect. Dallas won just one game in their first eight tries, but did get two ties from December, 1960 to October, 1963.
From October, 1974 to October, 1980 the Cowboys won 12 consecutive games over New York in the Roger Staubach era bleeding over to the Danny White era.
The longest Giants win streak was September 1988 to September, 1990 during the Phil Simms, Bill Parcells, Lawrence Taylor era and it spanned six games.
NEW YORK GIANTS
Let’s start with this, Odell Beckham Jr. is officially questionable for this game and as bad as the Giants’ offense has looked this preseason (and last year), that certainly doesn’t help. Even if Beckham Jr. does play, he’ll be limited due to his injured ankle and his ability to cut on a dime is the strength of his game.
Ben McAdoo’s offense was terrible last season, in spite of a healthy Eli Manning and Beckham. They were No. 26 in points scored and No. 25 in yardage and he’s supposed to be an offensive coach. They’ll have to get more out of this unit this season and added some key parts in wide receiver Brandon Marshall and rookie tight end Evan Engram. I like Paul Perkins at running back coming out of college, but this job should belong to Wayne Gallman before the season is over.
The Giants need a better offense, but they already have an elite defense. They lost Jonathan Hankins on the defensive line and that’s significant, but the team loads up on defensive linemen like Donald Trump loads up on KFC. They have an elite secondary with Eli Apple, Janoris Jenkins, Landon Collinns and Darian Thompson and a decent set of linebackers led by Jonathan Casillas.
DALLAS COWBOYS
Not only is Ezekiel Elliott playing in this game, he’ll be playing the whole season just as I predicted. Not only that, I still think his entire suspension will be thrown out next year. Regardless of that, the Cowboys come into this game full strength with the reigning rookie of the year running the ball behind the best offensive line in the sport.
If you’re just learning about my man crush on Dak Prescott, all I can say is, welcome to the site. I was the only NFL writer in America that pegged Prescott as the best QB coming out of college last season and that prediction has paid off handsomely for me. Prescott looked even better when he played this preseason and will have his full compliment of receivers and tight ends against the Giants with a healthy Dez Bryant and ageless Jason Witten leading the way.
The questions for Dallas are all on defense. Pretty much their entire pass rush has been suspended for some, most or all of the season. They also lost starters and depth in the defensive backfield, but should still field a solid group of starters.
The Pick
Though the Giants definitely had Dallas’ number last season, the Cowboys have had an entire off-season to not only think about that, but their overtime playoff loss to the Green Bay Packers. This is a team with more than a division title as a goal this season and beating New York will be a solid step to achieving it. Cowboys 41, Giants 23
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