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Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott (4) throws a second quarter interception as he attempted to throw it out of bounds against the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, September 13, 2026. New York Giants safety Jevon Holland made the interception.<\/p>\n
Tom Fox\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
EAST RUTHERFORD,\u00a0N.J. \u2014 The Cowboys<\/a> have finally reached the point where they just need to play someone not named the Giants. And that\u2019s a terrible position to be in, given that New York was a 3-13 team before winning a meaningless season closer here in January, then following up with a 28-20 upset of Dallas to kick off the 2026 season Sunday night.<\/a><\/p>\n If you were looking for massive changes on defense that have been promised for more than six months, they did not materialize. The Giants outgained the Cowboys by 150 yards, controlled the clock for more than 36 minutes and made a hero of new coach John Harbaugh in his NFC debut.\u00a0<\/p>\n It was way too much of the same ol\u2019 same ol\u2019 for Dallas<\/a> although it did seem to reach a new level of absurdity when new coordinator Christian Parker\u2019s defense showed it absolutely could not stop a simple swing pass to running back Devin Singletary. New York used it for gains of 13, 7 and the final 9 yards in a four-play sequence that gave the Giants a decisive 28-14 lead midway through the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cI thought overall as a football team, we were pretty poor,\u2019\u2019 coach Brian Schottenheimer said. “They were the more physical team tonight. That\u2019s certainly not our standard. That\u2019s not how we see our identity playing. I mean we\u2019re turning guys free in the flat. We don\u2019t push three different times to the [expletive] flat route, excuse my language. We have to coach the young players better.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n While the Dallas defense made September heroes of Jaxson Dart and Cam Skattebo and Isaiah Likely and Malik Nabers and, yes, Singletary in the flat, the Cowboys\u2019 offense does not get a pass for this opening loss. The possession of the night came with just inside two minutes to go in the first half. It was a 7-7 game and a Giants fumble recovered by cornerback Shavon Revel gave Dallas the ball with 1:50 to play.<\/p>\n It was go time. It was money time for Dak, for CeeDee, for Pickens and Company.<\/p>\n At least that\u2019s what the recent offensive history and their salaries say it should have been. But Pickens had a huge drop (one of two) on what would have been at least a 30-yard gain down the right sideline. The Cowboys recovered from that to get one first down, but shortly thereafter, Prescott found himself under duress on a third-and-5. He heaved the ball down the field (trying to throw it away, Schottenheimer said) but found Giants safety Jevon Holland instead.<\/a><\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Now one can make the argument that a third-down interception\u00a0\u2014 especially a fairly long pass\u00a0\u2014 is no different than a punt one play later. But not in this case. If Dak gets sacked, the Giants have to burn a timeout. If he throws an incompletion, at least it gives big-legged punter Bryan Anger a chance to pin New York deep and take another six-seven seconds off the clock.\u00a0<\/p>\n Prescott\u2019s pass actually covered just 19 yards. A punt would have pinned New York at least 25 yards deeper and given them only about 40 seconds left in which to score.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n