Behind Enemy Lines: Cowboys-Giants rematch has NY media waving white flags?
New York City is a proud city with proud inhabitants, and it makes for fun banter anytime the Giants are on the Cowboys’ schedule. By fun, we mean delusional. Our enemy intel series, where we trade questions with the managing editor of the Dallas opponent for the week has brought some classic examples of a lack of self awareness. To a tee, every time we link up with Dan Benton, he has a ton of negatively skewed questions and euphoria-laced responses when we try to size each other’s teams up.
Has he learned his lesson? The Giants are struggling at 2-7 on the year, have lost their starting and backup quarterback and neither of them looked good anyway. The last time we spoke, Benton was highly confident Daniel Jones was the much better option to Dak Prescott, the Giants were on an elevator up and the Cowboys were in for a season of disapppointment. Then 40-0 happened. So we figured it’d be a good time to check in with Benton once again to see if his tune has changed from, well, this prior interview.
Giants Wire: Dak Prescott has been playing better this season but is still on pace for 11 interceptions and two fumbles. Are the turnover issues becoming at all concerning?
Cowboys Wire:
Not sure if you noticed, but Prescott has been insanely good at protecting the ball this season. His interception percentage is below 2.0 and, seriously… two fumbles on a season? That’s supposed to be a bad pace? His turnover-worthy percentage is at a career low 1.5% this season which means, as those who actually study these things have always said, 2022 was an aberration.
Cowboys Wire: When we last spoke prior to Week 1, you commented that the tables had turned and Daniel Jones was no longer the injury prone, turnover prone QB and that mantle had been passed on to Dak Prescott. Care for a mulligan?
Giants Wire:
Not necessarily. The injury issues are obviously unfortunate and it’s become a fair criticism of Jones at this point, but the situation isn’t quite as black and white as some would like to believe. Playing behind the Giants’ offensive line should require life insurance coverage and that’s clear given the other injuries sustained by those under center. I actually have fear for Tommy DeVito’s well-being on Sunday because this team is incapable of protecting the quarterback to an alarming degree. The amount of hits being taken by these guys is unparalleled not just in comparison to other teams this season but throughout NFL history. They are on pace to surrender 93 sacks, which would fall just shy of the all-time record. The ACL injury may have been non-contact but it’s a product of returning too early (only two full practices and a walkthrough) from the neck injury.
As far as the turnovers, I’d encourage everyone to go back and watch DJ’s turnovers this season and judge for themselves who was at fault (three of the interceptions were just drops grabbed by the defense).
Giants Wire: The Cowboys are 5-1 against teams with a record of .500 or worse and 0-2 against teams above .500. Is that an anomaly or are they a mid-pack group?
Cowboys Wire:
I think the bigger issue than the caliber of team Dallas plays has been the circumstances, specifically the playing surface. Dallas is 5-0 when playing on artificial turf and 0-3 playing on pure or hybrid grass. The defense just hasn’t been able to keep the same energy when their footing isn’t sound. Fortunately that means they’re absolute heat-seeking missles on their home turf of AT&T Stadium.
The offense has found their footing after the first month and a half of shifting to Mike McCarthy’s scheme, but the offensive line is still working to adapt to Mike Solari. Overall though, no one will care until they beat SF or Philly in the playoffs.
Cowboys Wire: After signing Jones to a ridiculous contract in the offseason, it looks like New York will be in position to draft a top QB in April. They can escape Jones' deal after 2024, will they pull the trigger and start over?
Giants Wire:
“Escape” isn’t quite the word given that the Giants would still endure significant dead cap hits. That being said, I personally think it would be beneficial for Jones if the Giants moved on from him. It would provide him an opportunity to go play for a competent franchise with capable offensive linemen and quality surrounding talent. That would mean spending a high draft pick on another quarterback, of course, and my prayers go out to whoever that might be. Believe in Daniel Jones or not, this isn’t a new trend for the Giants.
They wasted the final five years of Eli Manning’s career, couldn’t get anything out of Geno Smith, who is now a quality starter, left Tyrod Taylor out to dry and completely destroyed DJ from Day 1. For more than 10 years, Giants quarterbacks have endured the same weekly hardships and somehow this organization does absolutely nothing to fix the issues — they just keep ruining quarterbacks.
Giants Wire: Micah Parsons has proven himself to be an absolute class act. What about him do you like more -- his play on the field or his personality and leadership off of it?
Cowboys Wire:
Parsons is the alpha this team has needed, so that’s a really great and tough question. I don’t think the two can be separated because his off-field demeanor and leadership qualities so clearly go hand-in-hand with his onfield performance. They fuel each other and it’s amazing to get to witness on a weekly basis. Have we thanked the Giants recently for passing up on him in order to draft (checks notes) Kadarius Toney and Evan Neal?
Cowboys Wire: Brian Daboll won Coach of the Year last season and the Giants have had the luxury of playing a third-place schedule in 2023. How have perception and reality changed in how he's viewed?
Giants Wire:
It’s a mixed bag. Daboll of 2022 is very different than Daboll of 2023 and you see it in his decision-making and personnel decisions. His handling of injured players is appalling, his personnel decisions are questionable at best and his lack of faith in the roster he and Joe Schoen compiled is jarring.
That said, save for a few players (see: Xavier McKinney), he still has the support of his guys and there’s something to be said for that with the team sitting at 2-7. But, very much like Giants co-owner John Mara predicted, he’s gone from Bono to Bozo. And that sudden lack of confidence is evident given that he’s not regularly making the public rounds at Knicks and Rangers games. He’s lost the faith of a large percentage of the fanbase but there’s also a subset who refuse to criticize him for literally anything and treat any negative commentary like blasphemy.
Giants Wire: The Giants may be a dumpster fire but Dexter Lawrence has established himself as the best nose tackle in the league. How can the Cowboys limit him on Sunday?
Cowboys Wire:
Center Tyler Biadasz has been average this season, but the play of the guards will be important here because double-teaming Lawrence is a must. Fortunately, Zack Martin is a Hall of Famer and Tyler Smith is playing out of his mind right now and may be the best young guard in the league. It will be a tough task, but not having to also worry about Leonard Williams will be a big help in being able to focus attention on DL. Just don’t ask me how we’re going to stop Thibadeaux from rushing against Terence Steele at RT, because I have no answers there.
Cowboys Wire: How have Giants fans taken to the unloading of Leonard Williams but keeping Adoree Jackson and Saquon Barkley at the trade deadline? Did they want a full reset?
Giants Wire:
Many Giants fans would tell you Leonard Williams was a horrible and useless player, so they were thrilled that the team received a second-round pick (and more) in exchange for him. I, obviously, don’t see it that way and believe the team lost both a great player and locker room leader in the trade but can understand why the trigger was pulled given the return and expiring contract. There was no way they were going to unload Adoree’ Jackson given his contract and once the deadline to negotiate a restructure had passed, no one was going to offer anything up for the veteran. Saquon Barkley is an even hotter debate with some fans insisting he’s the second coming of Jim Brown and others recognizing that he’s sort of a boom or bust back with relentless injury issues.
There’s basically a Civil War among Giants fans as it relates to Williams, Barkley, Daniel Jones and just about every other player on the team. So many are still hanging into the “be competitive while rebuilding” notion even though we’re more than a decade into that and nothing has changed despite new GMs, new coaches, new assistants and a near-complete turnover of personnel because it’s all been done incrementally and not at once.
Giants Wire: Let's hear your prediction. Who wins, why is it Dallas and how bad are the Giants going to get smacked around this weekend?
Cowboys Wire:
The Cowboys are clearly the better team, playing at home where they’ve won 11 games in a row. It’s not going to be 40-0 ugly, but a close game against a UDFA rookie QB would be a huge disappointment. Hopefully Dallas doesn’t take anything for granted, comes out and exploits the talent mismatch and gets the thing put aay early. 42-10.
Cowboys Wire: What steps do you think the Giants need to take to return to prominence and how long will that realistically take?
Giants Wire:
Circling back to what I had said previously, these half-rebuilds obviously aren’t getting the job done. However, it’s difficult to have faith in any decision this organization makes because as many things change, so many stay the same. Whether they tore it all down completely and built it back up from scratch or keep going the way they’re going, it’s hard to see a light at the end of the tunnel.
There are these random fools’ gold seasons (2016, 2022) that almost seem to be holding the team back from making the necessary overhauls because there are random glimmers of hope. They’ll draft a quarterback next season and it will breathe life back into the building and the fans but rest assured, a few years from now and we’ll be having this exact same conversation all over again.
