CCBoy
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What's different about Sunday's Cowboys-Giants rematch from their Week 1 meeting? Other than Eli, there's plenty
http://sportsday.***BANNED-URL***/d...g-tells-us-almost-nothing-sundays-key-rematch
Looking back at the first meeting between two NFL division rivals is usually an instructive exercise. The past is, after all, prologue, right?
Looking back at the first game between the Giants and Cowboys -- teams that will clash once again Sunday night at Met Life Stadium -- is like digging into ancient history. The only thing you find there are the bones of Eli.
First of all, the game was a full three months ago. The first debate between Donald and Hillary was two weeks away. Now how long ago does that seem?
But the more significant takeaway from that game is that it has almost nothing to do with what's likely to transpire in Sunday's game, where the Cowboys are hoping to inch closer to securing the No. 1 seed in the NFC and the Giants just want to keep slim hopes alive in the division race.
Yes, New York won that first meeting. And the Giants certainly would like to believe there is relevance in that. But, as we all know, that game marked the NFL debuts for Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott. Dak wasn't bad, but the Cowboys weren't yet ready to hand him the keys to the offense and see what he could do. Zeke was just making up for missing training camp and averaged 2.5 yards per carry.
Can the Giants hold him to anything close to his season-low 51 yards again? The loss of their key pass rusher and general disrupter, Jason Pierre-Paul, won't help the home team any. But this is a Giants team that has grown younger as the season has gone along, which seems impossible until you realize that new coach Ben McAdoo has worked rookies and second-year players into key roles.
That includes safety Andrew Adams, an underrated rookie who was on New York's practice squad in September. That includes Paul Perkins, former Pac-12 rushing champ at UCLA and a fifth-round pick in April, who became featured while veteran Shane Vereen was out. The Cowboys might see both Sunday night.
Even veteran Victor Cruz, who had his only salsa dance of the season in the AT&T Stadium end zone, has lost playing time to rookie Roger Lewis.
So the Giants' rookies aren't as heralded or accomplished as Dak and Zeke, but they have helped keep their club atop the wild-card standings while staying barely alive in the NFC East.
Really, the only constant from the last meeting to this one is Eli Manning. And he has become a constant in the Cowboys-Giants rivalry. This will be his 25th start against Dallas. He has thrown for more than 6,000 yards against the Cowboys while his team has gone 12-12 in the series.
If this is a big game, how does Eli's big-game reputation fit into this story? Yes, the man has two Super Bowl rings, each trip requiring four postseason victories culminating with an upset win over the New England Patriots.
The Cowboys have beaten Manning's team as often as they have lost, but he has been very good late in the season. In fact, the Giants have won the last three and four of the last five December and January meetings between the two. That includes the playoff upset at Texas Stadium after the 2007 season that ignited the Giants' first Super Bowl run with Manning at the helm.
Do the Giants gain from that Manning experience Sunday night? Certainly he has weapons capable of attacking this Dallas defense, led by Odell Beckham Jr. And there's no question that New York needs this victory more than the Cowboys. But does that even matter?
This Cowboys team has run off a franchise-record 11 straight wins not by ignoring the opposition, but by focusing on their own path and their own growth. Prescott shook his head this past week when he described some of the passes he missed in going 25 for 45 against the Giants.
The rookie has endured just one game since (Philadelphia) in which he completed less than 65 percent of his passes after being held to 56 percent against New York.
And no one has come close to containing Elliott to 2.5 yards per carry or to a long run of 8 yards since that opening night.
So the Cowboys have plenty to prove regarding the ancient history of that first meeting. And it's up to Manning to show that the Giants' late-season victory streak over Dallas is as meaningful as the Cowboys' current streak that dates to a long-ago night in Arlington.
http://sportsday.***BANNED-URL***/d...g-tells-us-almost-nothing-sundays-key-rematch
Looking back at the first meeting between two NFL division rivals is usually an instructive exercise. The past is, after all, prologue, right?
Looking back at the first game between the Giants and Cowboys -- teams that will clash once again Sunday night at Met Life Stadium -- is like digging into ancient history. The only thing you find there are the bones of Eli.
First of all, the game was a full three months ago. The first debate between Donald and Hillary was two weeks away. Now how long ago does that seem?
But the more significant takeaway from that game is that it has almost nothing to do with what's likely to transpire in Sunday's game, where the Cowboys are hoping to inch closer to securing the No. 1 seed in the NFC and the Giants just want to keep slim hopes alive in the division race.
Yes, New York won that first meeting. And the Giants certainly would like to believe there is relevance in that. But, as we all know, that game marked the NFL debuts for Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott. Dak wasn't bad, but the Cowboys weren't yet ready to hand him the keys to the offense and see what he could do. Zeke was just making up for missing training camp and averaged 2.5 yards per carry.
Can the Giants hold him to anything close to his season-low 51 yards again? The loss of their key pass rusher and general disrupter, Jason Pierre-Paul, won't help the home team any. But this is a Giants team that has grown younger as the season has gone along, which seems impossible until you realize that new coach Ben McAdoo has worked rookies and second-year players into key roles.
That includes safety Andrew Adams, an underrated rookie who was on New York's practice squad in September. That includes Paul Perkins, former Pac-12 rushing champ at UCLA and a fifth-round pick in April, who became featured while veteran Shane Vereen was out. The Cowboys might see both Sunday night.
Even veteran Victor Cruz, who had his only salsa dance of the season in the AT&T Stadium end zone, has lost playing time to rookie Roger Lewis.
So the Giants' rookies aren't as heralded or accomplished as Dak and Zeke, but they have helped keep their club atop the wild-card standings while staying barely alive in the NFC East.
Really, the only constant from the last meeting to this one is Eli Manning. And he has become a constant in the Cowboys-Giants rivalry. This will be his 25th start against Dallas. He has thrown for more than 6,000 yards against the Cowboys while his team has gone 12-12 in the series.
If this is a big game, how does Eli's big-game reputation fit into this story? Yes, the man has two Super Bowl rings, each trip requiring four postseason victories culminating with an upset win over the New England Patriots.
The Cowboys have beaten Manning's team as often as they have lost, but he has been very good late in the season. In fact, the Giants have won the last three and four of the last five December and January meetings between the two. That includes the playoff upset at Texas Stadium after the 2007 season that ignited the Giants' first Super Bowl run with Manning at the helm.
Do the Giants gain from that Manning experience Sunday night? Certainly he has weapons capable of attacking this Dallas defense, led by Odell Beckham Jr. And there's no question that New York needs this victory more than the Cowboys. But does that even matter?
This Cowboys team has run off a franchise-record 11 straight wins not by ignoring the opposition, but by focusing on their own path and their own growth. Prescott shook his head this past week when he described some of the passes he missed in going 25 for 45 against the Giants.
The rookie has endured just one game since (Philadelphia) in which he completed less than 65 percent of his passes after being held to 56 percent against New York.
And no one has come close to containing Elliott to 2.5 yards per carry or to a long run of 8 yards since that opening night.
So the Cowboys have plenty to prove regarding the ancient history of that first meeting. And it's up to Manning to show that the Giants' late-season victory streak over Dallas is as meaningful as the Cowboys' current streak that dates to a long-ago night in Arlington.
