Cowboys show how far away NY Giants are from relevancy in 21-6 loss | Takeaways

The NY Giants, as the Dallas Cowboys showed during a 21-6 loss Sunday afternoon at MetLife Stadium, are a dysfunctional mess 

At halftime of Fox’s broadcast of Sunday’s NY Giants vs. Dallas Cowboys game, Michael Strahan offered a biting yet painfully accurate description of his former team.

“If you want to get your team right, play the Giants,” Strahan lamented.

Strahan is absolutely right.

Following Sunday’s uninspiring and largely uneventful 21-6 loss to the Dallas Cowboys, the NY Giants fell to 4-10, officially missing the postseason for the ninth time in the ten seasons since Strahan helped lead a Giants victory in Super Bowl XLVI.

Despite Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard playing through nagging injuries, the Cowboys rushed for 126 yards against the NY Giants.

Dak Prescott completed 28-of-37 passes for 217 yards and a touchdown, offering up a subpar effort by the Cowboys’ quarterback’s standards.

While the NY Giants held the Cowboys to three first-half field goals, New York also turned it over three times.

One of the teams on the field at MetLife Stadium has a legitimate chance to compete for a Super Bowl this season and needed far from its best effort to win. The other, might not have three foundational centerpieces on the roster.

Care to guess which team was which?

These are dark times in East Rutherford, for a franchise that is a shell of what it was in Strahan’s prime, and before. Sunday’s game showed just how far away the NY Giants are from competing on a day where the Cowboys seemed to expend little effort to make a victory look so effortless.

Here are three key takeaways from Sunday’s NY Giants loss to the Dallas Cowboys:

At this point, the NY Giants aren’t even functional

It’s almost impossible to assess blame for the depths the NY Giants have fallen to this season.

Coaching certainly plays a role. So, too, does play-calling.

But the inability to involve players who were expected to be playmakers has been a critical component to this season rapidly unraveling.

Through the first three quarters on Sunday, if you’re reading this, you had as many receptions as Kenny Golladay and Sterling Shepard. Darius Slayton caught just one pass through the first three quarters, for nine yards, and was targeted only twice.

It is wholly unacceptable in the modern NFL for a team’s top three receivers to produce one reception for nine yards.

Be it subpar quarterback play, after all Mike Glennon completed just 13-of-24 passes for 9 yards with three interceptions [before being pulled for Jake Fromm with 4:16 remaining], or conservative game-plan, or terrible effort and execution, it’s impossible to win this way.

Which is probably why the NY Giants are 4-10 and have won just once since Thanksgiving …

Cowboys’ Dan Quinn found, exploited NY Giants’ weak link

All season, NY Giants offensive guard Will Hernandez has struggled mightily against stunts, and even at times bull-rushes from opposing defensive lineman.

Clearly, NY Giants defensive coordinator Dan Quinn noticed.

Sunday, Quinn essentially planted All-Pro defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence opposite Will Hernandez, and Lawrence feasted, as a result.

On the NY Giants’ first possession, Lawrence bull-rushed past Hernandez en route to Mike Glennon, forcing an errant throw that was intercepted. Later, Lawrence simply beat Hernandez one-on-one before forcing a third-down incompletion.

Lawrence finished with four tackles, one forced fumble, and one tackle for loss, largely playing defensive tackle.

Hernandez entered Sunday afternoon having allowed six sacks and 29 quarterback pressures. So, clearly, Quinn identified a would-be mismatch on film and Lawrence exploited it, nearly to perfection.

No forgiveness for early mistakes

Teams that make opponents pay for turnovers by converting them into points are the teams best equipped to make a run, and that’s exactly what the Dallas Cowboys did on the NY Giants’ first possession Sunday.

On New York’s opening drive, Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn bumped edge rusher DeMarcus Lawrence inside, and Lawrence simply bullied Will Hernandez on his way to Mike Glennon, forcing an errant pass that was intercepted by Jourdan Lewis.

Two plays later, Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott sprinted 13 yards for a touchdown, to give Dallas a 6-0 lead.

In order for the undermanned — and undertalented — NY Giants to have a shot at an upset, New York needed to play a nearly flawless game. Glennon and the offense couldn’t even produce a clean opening drive.

The Cowboys produced three first-half turnovers, including Lawrence punching the ball out from Saquon Barkley, forcing the first lost fumble of Barkley’s career — after 598 rushing attempts.

By game’s end, the Cowboys produced four takeaways, for the third consecutive week. Defense like that could carry Dallas on a Super Bowl run, the kind the NY Giants once were capable of but seem lightyears away from mounting in their current state.