Giants scored the dagger touchdown, but once again, found a way to lose
ARLINGTON, Texas - It would have been enough for a good team. That miraculous touchdown from Russell Wilson to Malik Nabers. The fact he managed to split Donovan Wilson and Kaiir Elam? Get behind the Dallas defense? Have Wilson's moon ball fall right in his hands with 25 seconds left? Silence the nearly 93,000 in attendance at AT&T Stadium, giving the Giants a three-point lead?
It's a dagger.
But the Giants are not a good team. They haven't been, absent an anomaly in 2016 and 2022, for a decade-plus. And here's the thing about bad teams: They find, oftentimes invent, ways to lose.
And that's exactly what happened Sunday. Final score: Cowboys 40, Giants 37.
This one hurts," a despondent Brian Daboll said. We put a lot into it."
It's almost unfathomable that the Giants lost this game, even taking recent history into consideration. There are morgues with more life than Dallas' visiting locker room after this one, players helplessly trying to explain what just happened.
The Giants trailed, 17-16, at the end of the third quarter. Then came the barrage of points. Brandon Aubrey connected from 44 to build Dallas' lead. Then Cam Skattebo scored the first touchdown of his career to give it back to the Giants. Dallas answered with a Miles Sanders touchdown. The Giants with a Wilson pass to Wan'Dale Robinson. The Cowboys with a Dak Prescott throw to George Pickens.
Then came Nabers' heroics.
Wilson lined up in the shotgun. He took the snap with 32 seconds left. He looked left. He came back right. He let one fly that landed perfectly in Nabers' arms as he fell to the turf. Nabers, who finished with nine catches for 167 yards and two touchdowns, brought his hands together in a goodnight" celebration.
When Leek scored," Robinson, who finished with eight catches, a career-high 142 yards and a touchdown, said, I was like, We've got to be able to get this one.
But, obviously, football is crazy."
New York Giants wide receiver Malik Nabers (1) reacts after scoring a touchdown during the fourth quarter at AT&T Stadium. / Raymond Carlin III-Imagn Images That's the thing: It doesn't have to be. The Cowboys were only in this game because of self-inflicted Giants wounds. They committed 21 penalties (14 accepted for 160 yards). They were in the red zone after a Prescott third-quarter interception with a chance to blow it open, went for it on fourth and one, but gave it back to Dallas on a Skattebo drop.
Co-owner John Mara eviscerated the defense in his post-season press conference. So the Giants invested immense resources in that side of the ball (Abdul Carter, Paulson Adebo, Chauncey Golston, Jevon Holland) to close out games like this. Yet there they were, nursing a three-point lead with 14 seconds left, allowing an 18-yard completion from Prescott to Jake Ferugson to put the Cowboys in Aubrey's field goal range. Then watching Aubrey, whom receiver Darius Slayton lauded for his bionic leg" after the game, tie it as time expired with a 64-yard field goal.
They had a chance to win it in overtime, too. Twice. Only to watch their offense, unstoppable the previous 15 minutes, hit a wall. They punted after four plays and seven yards on their first series of overtime. Wilson, who finished 30 of 41 for 450 yards with three touchdowns, threw an interception on a miscommunication between himself and Nabers.
It's extremely frustrating," said Slayton. We have to find a way to do better and close these games out."
And yet still, they had a chance. Until Pickens got past Adebo for 27 yards. Prescott broke free later himself for 14. And Aubrey trotted out for a game-winning chip shot, by his standards, of 46.
We beat ourselves," said Dexter Lawrence, who finished sackless for the seventh straight game.
That's what bad teams do.
The Giants spent the entirety of this offseason preaching this year would be different. They rid themselves of the source of their problems when they cut Daniel Jones, who's enjoyed a career revival in Indianapolis, in favor of Wilson. Add another offseason of Joe Schoen's draft picks and free-agent signings, and New York would be so much better than what the experts thought. This wasn't your run-of-the-mill, 3-win team from a year ago.
The key to it all was to start fast. They needed to do that, and they would. They were sure of it.
They lost the opener to the Commanders, 21-6, because their offense couldn't get out of its own way. Now they've lost to the Cowboys because of their defense and penalties. They're 0-2 for the 10th time in the last 13 years. They have the worst record in the NFL since 2017 (40-93-1). They are 11-31-1 under Daboll since he started his head coaching career 7-2.
It's an all-too-familiar feeling: Here they go again. It's unclear what, if anything, will stop the spiral. These two losses in themselves are sickening, but because of how the Giants convinced themselves, their fanbase, and the outside world they'd changed, they feel magnified. A continuation of last year's embarrassment.
You've got to be tough asses," said Kayvon Thibodeaux, who had one of the Giants' two sacks. You've got to be strong. I believe in our leaders and I believe in our support players."
It's getting late early. Not only did the Giants drop their first two games, but they came within the division. A silver lining: Their once-vaunted schedule doesn't look as daunting at the moment. Next week, they face the Chiefs, who are 0-2 themselves. Then it's a game against the Chargers (1-0) before traveling to New Orleans to play the Saints (0-2).
There are winnable games coming up.
If only the Giants knew how to.