4 biggest losers from NY Giants' disheartening TNF loss to Cowboys

The New York Giants didn't have much time to bask in the glory of their Week 3 win, as they hosted the Dallas Cowboys on Thursday Night Football and lost the game by a score of 20 to 15. The loss drops the Giants to 1-3 and as far as positive takeaways go, there weren't many.

Kicker Greg Joseph knocked through all five field goals and scored all 15 of the Giants' points. Malik Nabers balled out until he was ruled out with a concussion in the fourth quarter. But, we're not here to talk about the positive stuff today.

Nope, with the Giants losing yet another game to the Cowboys and dropping to 1-3 on the year, we're going to talk about the biggest losers from the 20-15 defeat.

4. QB Daniel Jones

Oddly enough, Daniel Jones' numbers weren't atrocious in this game. He completed 29-of-40 passes for 281 yards and didn't have a turnover until his final throw of the game, which resulted in an interception. That being said, as the quarterback of the team, the blame is going to be on Jones.

Between underthrown balls, overthrown balls, and not executing when he needed to, Jones once again underwhelmed. This is such a bummer too because he had such a great game in Cleveland on Sunday that there was some hope that maybe this was the start of the reemergence of the 2022 version of him.

The Giants posted five field goals on the night and if Jones had hit his receivers accurately, perhaps this game could have ended with a better result.

3. CB Deonte Banks

The Giants spent a first-round pick on Deonte Banks in the 2023 draft with the hopes that he'd become their next lockdown cornerback. That has definitely not been what has transpired, as Banks has been torched by Justin Jefferson, Amari Cooper, and CeeDee Lamb to start the 2024 season.

This isn't all on Banks, of course. The Giants didn't get any veteran help in the offseason to give the guy some help, but they continue to let him cover teams' top threats when it's clear that he's not able to cover those players.

That being said, Banks is considered to be one of the biggest losers from this game because he got burnt to a crisp against Lamb on a long TD and continues to show that he isn't the player the Giants need him to be.

2. HC Brian Daboll

While we didn't see Brian Daboll throwing down his headset in anger after this loss, it still wasn't a good game for the Giants head coach. Not only did the Giants move to 1-3, but Daboll is now 0-5 against the Cowboys since getting hired as the Giants' head coach. Divisional games are supposed to be difficult, but not knocking off the Cowboys a single time in five attempts is a rough look.

It was also frustrating that Daboll continued to stick with the run game despite nothing happening there. That's also a talking point, as the Cowboys run-defense had been abysmal in their first three games, but they were a brick wall against New York. The Giants rushing attack (or lack thereof) rushed the ball 24 times for a measly 26 yards.

1. WR Darius Slayton

The Giants had to settle for five field goals and it's hard to win when teams have to do that. Darius Slayton had a chance to extend one of the Giants' drives, but failed to haul in a catchable ball on 3rd down. Yes, you can argue Jones underthrew the ball a bit, but Slayton could have and should have caught that ball. Had he done that, the Giants get a fresh set of downs and who knows what would have happened from there.

Slayton didn't have a terrible game stats-wise (three catches for 56 yards), but that drop was brutal. His job is to catch passes and help his quarterback out and Slayton didn't do that when called upon. He has to be included on this list, but he wasn't the only one with a costly drop, as Wan'Dale Robinson and Nabers both had costly ones late in the action that will haunt them for a little while.