The New York Giants have once again lost on the opening day of the season to the Dallas Cowboys. These losses to the Cowboys aren’t exactly unfamiliar for anyone that’s been following the Giants for these past few years, and once again, the offense wasn’t able to do enough to get the lead and the defense wasn’t able to contain Dallas on a number of fronts, leaving the offense in an impossible position to work with.
It was a typical result against a team that the Giants have trouble with, and will almost definitely raise questions about whether or not the Giants really are set for a turnaround this year after a terrible 2018. It will also raise some questions about the coaching.
Coaching is, of course, one of the most important aspects of the game and since Pat Shurmur arrived with the team, they haven’t exactly pulled out many victories thanks to coaching prowess. Coaching definitely wasn’t able to save the Giants against one of the rivals that seems to have their number.
“We didn’t score enough points and we certainly gave up too many. It’s a credit to them. They played well and we didn’t play well enough, so we’ve got to learn from it. There’s things that we didn’t do, obviously, on offense. I think we were 2-for-12 on third downs. That’s very unacceptable and we’ll get that fixed,” said head coach Pat Shurmur about the loss.
“There were a couple, there, that we’ve got to get closer in coverage. I’ll look at it. I’ve got an idea of what happened but I want to make sure I see it before I follow-up with a full answer,” Shurmur also said after the game, speaking about coverage breakdowns. That was, of course, one of the major factors that affected the outcome. The Giants have a new secondary this year, but with some new players getting regular season play for the first time, things didn’t go as planned.
Another thing that Shurmur was criticized for was the underuse of Saquon Barkely, but according to Shurmur, the current amount of rushes is fine. “Games play out differently. I think he had really good production when he touched the ball. We threw him the ball as well,” Shurmur answered when asked about Barkley’s 11 rushes.
We’ll just have to wait and see how Shurmur and his team adapt after the poor result in week one – the team’s next matchup is against the Buffalo Bills, a team that is 1-0 right now after scoring fourteen points in the fourth quarter to take a win from the Jets. Will the Giants be better than coverage by then? We’ll see.