I thought it could be our year. I was probably wrong.

This was the quietest offseason the Cowboys have ever had in my 28 years on Earth. Everything lined up- Caleb Downs fell down from the heavens to fall to the Boys, Pickens gracefully accepted the franchise tag, Rashan Gary could provide some d-line support, Von Miller (!!!) could potentially provide double digit sacks on important downs. Jerry appeared to have swallowed his ego to make moves that would provide for the team. If Dak could play as his MVP fringe candidate self and this team could have an AVERAGE defense they could likely be in title contention. It was a nice dream that all came crashing down on Sunday night at 8:20PM.

I want to first and foremost iterate that I refuse to overreact to week 1. Defenses haven’t been allowed to hit going full-speed yet and are getting up to speed and into rhythm. However, this effort on the defense transcended some minor kinks that need to be worked out in the coming weeks. This game was one of the worst efforts I have ever seen from a defense in the National Football League. Guys were wide open in the second level. Isaiah Likely is a good player, sure, but he looked like prime Gronkowski versus the defense. There was one sack in the entire game by (would you have guessed this?) Caleb Downs. The Giants possessed the ball for 36:40 compared to the Cowboys 23:20. They were 9/11 (kind of poetic) on 3rd down. They had 29 (!!!!) first downs and had an even turnover ratio with each team giving up 1 turnover. The Giants offense, which I think is going to be a very mediocre offense this year, marched down the field consistently with little to no resistance. The Giants ran the SAME PLAY to Devin Singletary THREE plays in a row to give up 30 yards and a touchdown. If I ran the same play in Madden three times in a row the defense would stop it at some point. Schotty had this to say in the postgame presser:

“Not an excuse, guys: we did not play well but you’ve got young players. A young player closes and Jaxson Dart boots and gets outside. We don’t push three different times to the fucking flat route, excuse my language. Those are going to happen, and we have to coach the young players better. But when you play young players, it’s part of the deal. And they need to learn quickly.”

You have young players, but they need to be better if you want to compete.

It’s hard for me to even talk about the offense in this game because they didn’t have a fighting chance. They only possessed the ball TWICE in the second half. Dak played pretty well except for an inexplicable Italian Club sandwich interception at the end of the first half. Javonte rushed for 3.4 YPC. Dak had two TD passes and passed for 175 yards. Pickens drew his classic pass interferences. The offensive line held really well against a truly terrifying Giants defensive front. Lots of positives that will probably work themselves out on this side of the ball- if their defenses give them a chance going forward. Dak is the best QB in Cowboys history- the numbers support this.

Again, I refuse to overreact to a week 1 loss. If they make Jayden Daniels look like Tom Brady next week, we will be having a different conversation, but I think this team will likely be fine going forward.

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J.A. Riley