Do you smell that? The fall has finally arrived. Well, sort of. It has been 90+ degrees in the tri-state area this week, but football is back. For the first time since Jan. 21, the Giants will play a meaningful football game this weekend.
The Giants will open the season in primetime at home. This hasn't happened since the 2013 campaign. Big Blue will host their bitter rivals, the Dallas Cowboys, on Sunday Night Football in front of what should be a packed MetLife Stadium. The Giants have a fantastic chance to send a statement to the rest of the league. You heard it here first - NY will take down the Cowboys on Sunday night. Here are four reasons why:
4. Daniel Jones will deliver for the G-Men
Joe Schoen paid his quarterback not long ago. Danny Dimes, the now nine-figure quarterback, will get his first opportunity to prove to Schoen and the Giants front office that they made the right decision this offseason, one that people in Dallas believe was lunacy.
Those people in Dallas will be proved wrong on Sunday. Jones, who posted the sixth-best QBR in football, is a better quarterback than Dak Prescott, even though many don't want to admit it. Whoever has the better quarterback wins most NFL games, so the Giants have the advantage.
Jones played in one drive this preseason, completing eight of nine passes for 69 yards and a touchdown. The only incompletion was a drop by Darren Waller. He was flawless. During joint practices, he feasted on the Lions and cooked the Giants defense, a top-half unit, all offseason.
Jones is poised for a massive 2023 campaign that starts Sunday. All the focus will be on the new Giants weapons and Barkley in Week 1, but watch out for Jones' legs. Jones ran for the fifth-most yards amongst NFL QBs in 2022, and Dallas allowed the 22nd most rush yards per game. This could be a night to remember for the fifth-year signal-caller.
3. NY's new faces will be ready to rock
The Giants added speed, depth, and versatility to their skill position groups this spring, trading for All-Pro caliber tight end Waller, signing speedster Parris Campbell Jr., and drafting lightning-fast receiver Jalin Hyatt.
Waller and Campbell were Jones favorite targets this summer, and that shouldn't change Sunday night. The Giants passing game is built to be played through Waller and he's going to be ready to give the Dallas defense issues all night.
Campbell and Waller played one series this preseason with Danny Dimes, receiving a combined seven targets on Jones' nine passes for six catches and 53 receiving yards.
As for Hyatt, he will be the first receiver off the bench, but he can completely change the pace of Mike Kafka's offense. We saw Hyatt dust Giants DB Sauce Gardner and score a deep touchdown from Tyrod Taylor in the Carolina game. The Giants desperately need a burner who can outrun the opposing team and catch a 60-yard touchdown. Hyatt is that dude, and he could likely be matched up one-on-one with Cowboy corner Trevon Diggs, who has given up more than his share of big plays.
2. The mind of Wink Martindale
The Giants defense is a very underrated unit and has Top-10 potential. The Giants defensive line, which ESPN's Mike Clay ranked as the number one DL in football, features PFF's 2022 No. 2 ranked DL Dexter Lawrence, Pro Bowler Leonard Williams, and veterans A'Shawn Robinson and Rakeem Nunez-Roches.
They will have their hands full going against a solid interior offensive line featuring future Hall of Famer Zack Martin and youngsters Tyler Biadasz and Tyler Smith. Rushing the passer with those big boys will be Kayvon Thibodeaux and Azeez Ojulari, both of whom are poised for 10-plus sack seasons.
These two are the keys in this matchup. The Giants secondary has its hands full as two rookies, Deonte Banks and Tre Hawkins, are starting at corner, with Adoree' Jackson lined up in one-on-one matchups against CeeDee Lamb, making it imperative Big Blue's pass-rushers get home quickly, forcing Dak Prescott to make quick decisions and not give him time to pick apart the Giants secondary.
Wink Martindale will likely deploy sub-packages and add extra defensive backs onto the field to aid the inexperienced Giants secondary. Wink has had seven months to invent new exotic blitz packages, and there is no doubt we will see them Sunday night. Big Blue's D will live in the Dallas backfield all night, making life rough for Prescott.
1. Dak Prescott struggles in primetime
Prescott's interception over/under this weekend is 0.5, with the odds above even that he will throw a pick. The sportsbooks expect a pick to be thrown, as they should, considering Dak was tied for the lead league with 15 interceptions last season despite playing just 12 games. He also threw two picks in Dallas' NFC Divisional Round loss to San Francisco.
If the Cowboys received below-average quarterback play, they would've beaten San Francisco. But they received straight awful quarterback play and failed to make the NFC Championship for the 27th straight season.
The Cowboys let Zeke Elliott go this offseason and moved Tony Pollard up to the starter role. Dallas doesn't have a complementary back to Pollard on the roster, which will force Pollard to play all three downs, a job he is not suited for. That will put even more pressure on Prescott.
I could see two scenarios playing out on Sunday, both of which will end badly for Prescott. Scenario one, Dak tries to show out and prove to Jerry Jones he made a mistake trading for Trey Lance, forcing the ball into harm's way, leading to some easy picks for the Giants defense. In scenario two, Dak is gun-shy, afraid he will throw interceptions, and doesn't take shots down the field. In both scenarios, the Giants beat the Cowboys.
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