ARLINGTON, Texas — Nothing to see here.
Move along.
The Giants are not worth your time, not worth your energy and not worth your attention. They took their hideous traveling road show into the heart of Texas and got smoked like a piece of brisket, except instead of a savory aroma all that came out of the Giants was the stench of lousy football.
A season that has spiraled out of control took another wrong turn Sunday and the time has come to declare the Giants as the worst team in the NFL this season. They did nothing right and everything badly in a moribund 49-17 loss to the Cowboys inside AT&T Stadium, and overmatched, undrafted quarterback Tommy DeVito is only part of the sad tale this franchise is telling.
The Giants dropped to 2-8 with their third consecutive loss, swept in terrible fashion in the two-game season series with the Cowboys. Adding in the 40-0 rout in Week 1, the Cowboys outscored the Giants 89-17 in the two games.
There is no hope, no sign of life, no hint of improvement and no reason to believe any coach, player or front office executive anticipated this astonishing dearth of competitive play the year after the 2022 team actually won a playoff game.
In the past two weeks, the Giants have been outscored 79-23.
The bright side? If the season ended today, the Giants would own the No. 2 overall pick in the 2024 draft.
So goes the DeVito feel-good story about the local guy who makes good. Sure, DeVito grew up nine miles from MetLife Stadium and, now that he is with the Giants, returned to live with his parents in Cedar Grove. DeVito came in off the bench when Tyrod Taylor suffered a rib cage injury against the Jets as the Giants fell in overtime. The next week, DeVito came in when Daniel Jones was lost for the season to a torn ACL, tossed two interceptions in the first half before settling down in a 30-6 loss in Las Vegas.
DeVito’s first NFL start was forgettable and nightmarish. He had no chance — finishing 14-for-27 for 86 yards, two touchdowns and an interception, and getting sacked five times and under constant pressure — as the Giants were embarrassed in front of 93,338 Cowboys fans in full-on party mode.
This was the 12th consecutive victory over the Giants for Dak Prescott, who lost his first two starts as a rookie in 2016 to what is now his favorite NFC East punching bag. Prescott threw for 404 yards and four touchdowns to four different targets. Brandin Cooks (9-173) and CeeDee Lamb (11-151) made their fantasy football owners happy.
Wide receiver Darius Slayton said at midweek he never goes into a game thinking his team cannot win because in the NFL “it’s never like Alabama versus Sam Houston State.’’ Well, this was worse because the Giants did not receive a big payday for taking their sad act on the road to get thrashed by a clearly superior opponent.
The first half was one of the least-compelling and most-dispiriting performances you will ever see in an NFL game. The Giants trailed 28-0 and were toyed with by the Cowboys. The first downs were 20-1. The total yards were 368-26. The rushing yards were 129-11. The passing yards were 239-16. The Giants were 0-for-6 on third-down conversions. The Giants averaged 1.3 yards per play. Saquon Barkley ran it seven times and totaled 1 yard. DeVito in the first half was 4-for-9 for 24 yards.
Barkley got into positive yardage with a 13-yard run early in the third quarter on a 91-yard drive finished off with DeVito’s 10-yard touchdown pass to tight end Lawrence Cager — who danced to celebrate his score. So, there would be no shutout on this day.
DeVito on his first two series got the ball on the Giants’ own 2- and 6-yard lines. Not ideal. The Giants twice barely avoided a safety on two three–and-outs. On the third series, the Giants actually picked up a first down.
An interception by Cor’Dale Flott gave DeVito and the Giants the ball on the Dallas 11-yard line. No way they could not get some points, right? Wrong. DeVito on first down looked for Cager and was nearly intercepted by safety Juanyeh. Barkley on a direct snap picked up 2 yards and on third down DeVito scrambled for 6 yards to the 2-yard line. Coach Brian Daboll figured going from 7-0 down to 7-3 down was insignificant and he rolled the dice. On fourth down, Barkley was stopped for no gain and the Giants came up empty.
Meanwhile, the Giants on defense were getting shredded. Other than a goal-line stand on the first series, the Cowboys had no trouble picking and choosing how they wanted to advance the ball. A 14-yard end-around to Lamb made it 7-0. A 96-yard drive ended with Prescott’s TD flip to tight end Jake Ferguson. Cooks won a one-on-one with Flott and hauled in a 10-yard scoring pass to make it 21-0.
With 16 seconds remaining in the first half, Prescott went back to pass on third-and-9 from the Giants 10-yard line and never had to get rid of the ball, running it in to complete a noncompetitive 85-yard scoring drive on the sagging Giants defense.
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