The New York Giants suffered a disappointing defeat at the hands of the Dallas Cowboys on Thanksgiving Day, officially getting swept by their division rivals on the season. The Giants fought hard and held the lead for a while before ultimately losing a 20-28 matchup. In this game, the Giants’ paper-thin secondary was shredded apart in the second half, allowing Dallas to take command of the game. On the defensive line, however, the Giants did enjoy a breakout performance from a young star-in-the-making. Kayvon Thibodeaux did not stuff the stat sheet, but he quietly had a breakout game on Thanksgiving that Big Blue will look to build upon.
Kayvon Thibodeaux had a breakout game against Dallas in Week 12
Despite the New York Giants’ loss on Thursday, there were positives for Big Blue to draw from the game. Most notable was Kayvon Thibodeaux’s dominant performance against the Dallas Cowboys’ offensive line. Thibodeaux failed to tally a sack in the game, though, that could have been a different story if not for some blatant holding penalties that the Cowboys got away with.
In Thursday night’s matchup with the Dallas Cowboys, Kayvon Thibodeaux led the Giants with 9 pressures, 4 quarterback hurries, 5 quarterback hits, and an absurd 33.3% pass rush win rate (via NFL Rookie Watch). Kayvon was a force to be reckoned with and gave Dallas’s offensive line problems all game long.
The New York Giants’ fifth overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft made a name for himself on Thanksgiving as 42 million people tuned into the big matchup, making the matchup with Dallas the most-watched regular season game on any network on record (per Bruce Feldman). Kayvon Thibodeaux came to play in prime time and stood out among the stars, despite his team’s inability to secure the win.
“You can’t have emotions in this sport. Emotions will eat you alive. So for us, we just try to continue to stay poised, stay monotonous and kind of just keep growing. Keep getting better. And just realizing things happen and all you can do is rebound. You can’t do nothing with that game. You just have to flush it and keep going.”
Kayvon Thibodeaux on whether he shared the anger Coach Daboll flashed in the coach’s press conference following the game via Giants.com
The New York Giants are frustrated that they were unable to come away with the win on Thanksgiving. Head coach Brian Daboll was particularly upset during his postgame interview. But Kayvon Thibodeaux is trying not to let the loss get to him and is looking ahead to the upcoming games on the Giants’ schedule. The New York Giants have a tough stretch of games to end their season, including four more divisional matchups to play. They will need the very best out of Thibodeaux in order to win these games and push to earn their first playoff berth since 2016.