4 NY Giants who were a major disappointment in the Week 1 loss vs. Cowboys

With months worth of excitement having been built up prior to the NY Giants' Sunday Night Football matchup against the Cowboys, many thought there was a real chance that New York could beat their division rival to start the season. Instead, we got one of, if not the worst games in the entire history of the Giants.

Not only was this the largest margin of victory for a blowout in the history of this rivalry, but it truly seems like everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong for the Giants. While the entire team didn't show up this week, it's hard to watch the performances of these four players and not put a good amount of blame on them:

4. QB Daniel Jones

It's hard to put all the blame on Daniel Jones considering the fact that he was constantly under pressure due to some horrid offensive line play. Despite this, he simply didn't look good on Sunday and has to improve going into Week 2 against the Cardinals.

For the game, Jones completed 15 of his 28 pass attempts for 104 yards and two interceptions. While in all fairness, Jones' first interception was the result of Saquon Barkley dropping a pass after a hit, but his second pick was simply inexcusable. These sorts of plays were nonexistent from Jones last season and if he goes back to making them, the Giants could be in big trouble.

Jones started the game off incredibly well, the whole team did. However, after the opening drive ended in disaster, it was over for the Giants offense. Everything snowballed into chaos and there was no returning to the fluidity we saw at the start of the contest.

The supporting cast around Jones was not helping him by any means, but that's no excuse for this sort of throw and a lot of the other miscues he had this game. Jones is in Year 5 now and with the contract he received this offseason, he must play better. Jones will have a much better opportunity heading into next week against the Cardinals. With how bad Arizona is looking to be this season, there are no excuses for Jones not to show out.

3. OL Mark Glowinski

After a near-disastrous 2022 season, fans were hoping for a bit of a resurgence from 31-year-old hoss Mark Glowinski. However, it seems like a real possibility that Glowinski could be benched shortly if he doesn't improve his level of play. While he made some nice plays as a run-blocker early on, his abilities as a pass protector continue to hurt the Giants deeply.

According to Jordan Raanan, Glowinski ranked 56th of 58 qualifying guards in pass-block win rate for Week 1. This is absolutely unacceptable and cannot be allowed to continue. Whether Glowinski is benched for Josh Ezeudu, or Joe Schoen signs a veteran like Justin Pugh, Glowinski cannot be allowed to play so poorly with how high the stakes are for this season.

Glowinski looked lost all game long and it was just embarrassing to watch. It's one thing to watch him get cooked by Micah Parsons, but the Cowboys were throwing guys like Osa Odighizuwa at Glowinski and he just couldn't stop them. This game defined Glowinski's career with the Giants thus far and showed that the team has to consider other options moving forward.

The 2023 season is going to be very vital for the Giants moving forward. If Glowinski cannot improve his play, then there is a real chance that he will be gone before the end of the year. There was hope that he could be a solid piece for New York when he was signed, but so far he has been anything but.

2. EDGE Azeez Ojulari

This more goes out to the entire pass-rushing unit, which was massively disappointing. However, Azeez Ojulari stuck out a little more than the rest. Not for good reasons either, as he was a complete non-factor on the field. The Giants' defense racked up a whopping zero sacks and three QB hits the entire game. When you compare this to the Cowboys' defense, which had seven sacks and 12 QB hits, you begin to see how big of a problem this is.

While this is clearly an issue that pertains to the entire Giants defense, Ojulari wasn't doing anyone any favors this game. Not only did he do little to nothing as a pass-rusher, but he racked up just one tackle in 35 snaps.

Ojulari has always been known as a pure pass-rusher, which explains his low tackle count for his career. He usually makes up for this by constantly pressuring opposing QBs, but Ojulari was nowhere to be found all night. This has us concerned that teams may be catching up to the fact that he can't do much aside from rush the QB.

Players like Kayvon Thibodeaux and Leonard Williams may not have had crazy pass-rushing games, but they made up for it by being all over the field and making plays against the run. This is what separates these two from Ojulari for now. Maybe Ojulari can develop into a more versatile edge rusher in the future, but for now, he's going to have to be more active on the field.

1. OT Evan Neal

Following an offseason in which he worked with NFL legends, cut weight, and was looking like a prime breakout candidate, Evan Neal could not have had a worse start to the season. Not only did he look slow getting out of his stance, but Neal's hands were all over the place, making it easy for opposing defenders to slip past him easily with their counters.

The duo of Glowinski and Neal on the right side of the offensive line has to be one of the worst in the NFL right now. Back to Raanan's report, Neal ranked 59th out of 60 qualifying tackles in pass block win rate with a percentage of 70.6 - which is just unbelievably terrible for the expectations he had coming out of college.

The Giants didn't need Neal to emerge as a superstar in Year 2, but he had to show progress. While it's only Week 1, it's not looking like Neal has improved much thus far. A lot of the issues he had last season were still existent against the Cowboys and it cost the Giants big time.

READ MORE: 5 takeaways from the Giants embarrassing loss to the Cowboys