The Giants will try to shake off the loss to the Detroit Lions on Sunday with a quick turnaround this week and a Thanksgiving date with the Dallas Cowboys. The rivalry matchup comes as the Giants have dropped two of their last three games.
The Giants continue to deal with a number of injuries, including the loss of Wan’Dale Robinson, whose season came to an end because of an ACL injury suffered in Sunday’s loss to the Lions. Thursday’s game starts an important stretch for the Giants that will see them play divisional opponents through their next four games.
Below are three keys for the Giants’ rivalry matchup with the Dallas Cowboys.
Put last week behind them
The Giants’ loss to the Lions was a rough one, between the number of injuries and the poor game plan, it’s easy for New York to get in their own heads after a performance like that. However, the quick turnaround could prove to be a blessing for the Giants as a way to quickly turn the page and get back to their game in a contest where they’ll face a divisional opponent.
The shortened week makes the preparation for the game a bit different, but head coach Brian Daboll appeared to understand the need to address the prep in a unique way.
“What you try to do is you sit down with the training staff, sports science, and you come up with the best schedule you can for your team to make sure they’re getting rehabbed and they’re taking advantage of all the treatments after the walkthroughs. We’ll set it up similar,” he explained. “We won’t be out there running around, but we’ll do some walkthroughs. We’ll have a little break. Then we’ll go out there and do some more walkthroughs. Obviously, it’s a big mental week for us and then just getting your body right to play a game on such a quick turnaround.”
Effectively execute the run game
Saquon Barkley struggled in the loss to the Lions getting just 22 yards on 15 rushing attempts. bottom line is that just won’t cut it and with the way the Cowboys defend the passing game, the Giants will need the ground attack to be back where it was in the weeks prior. Dallas has given up an average of 136.1 yards per game. which means that Barkley could explode for another big game on the ground.
With limited targets for Giants quarterback Daniel Jones to go to and the Cowboys’ pass defense, it also puts an extra emphasis on the ground game.
“Really, I think it’s execution,” Daboll said. “If you get into passing situations against this team, I mean put on the tape, there’s a bunch of negative plays. So, if you’re playing the game in third-and-long or second-and-long, or if you get behind and you got to try to make up ground, that’s a bad spot to be in against this team.”
Kenny Golladay
The Giants receiver has remained a point of focus this season and Golladay will need to continue to take steps in the right direction. After making his first catch since Week 1 last weekend, he’ll need to have a more active role with Robinson now done for the season.Golladay has been hampered by injury and play that has not lived up to expectation, but with the receiving group thinned out and help not coming by Thursday, he will need to play an active role if the Giants hope to win.
