Cowboys meltdown shows why NFC East is there for taking
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Bombshell anonymous quotes from Dallas Cowboys players reinforced on Tuesday why the NFC East remains wide open for the Giants’ taking.
Cowboys players told NFL Network after Monday’s 38-10 loss to the Arizona Cardinals that Dallas coach Mike McCarthy and his staff are “totally unprepared. They don’t teach. They don’t have any sense of adjusting on the fly,” per insider Jane Slater.
“They just aren’t good at their jobs,” another player said.
So the first-place Cowboys (2-4) are at each other’s throats with franchise QB Dak Prescott out for the season. The injury-riddled Eagles (1-4-1) are limping from game to game. Washington (1-50) already has given up on quarterback Dwayne Haskins.
And then there are the Giants (1-5) and first-year coach Joe Judge, coming off their first win of the season and still playing together, even if they’re not playing well enough yet.
Does it matter why the Giants are still a factor in their division race despite an 0-5 start? No, it does not. All that matters now is beating the Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field on Thursday night and asserting themselves as an unlikely contender.
“Our division is winnable,” safety Logan Ryan said Tuesday. “We have to win some games to put ourselves in position at the end of the year to strike.”
If the NFC East’s futility is shocking, that’s because this year’s division is historically bad.
The 2020 NFC East is the second-worst division ever
through six weeks since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger, per the Elias Sports Bureau. And the Philadelphia Eagles’ Week 3 tie with the Cincinnati Bengals is all the only reason it isn’t tied for being the worst ever.
Only the 1984 AFC Central (5-19-0, .208) had a worse winning percentage through six weeks than this year’s NFC East (5-18-1, .229), according to Elias.
The division’s losing is nothing new.
Last season’s NFC East (24-40, .375) finished in a four-way tie for the fourth-worst winning percentage by a division since 1970. Only the 2008 NFC West (22-42-0, .344), 2014 NFC South (22-41-1, .352) and 2008 AFC West (23-410, .359) were worse, per Elias.
Butitisliningupincrediblywellfor theGiantsiftheycankeepimproving and also not let Thursday’s moment get too big, which Judge certainly is
notdoingasacoach.
“I don’t think anyone in the division needs any motivation to play anyone else in the division,” Judge said. “I’ve told the players from the very beginning of the season, it’s a long year. If you get too focused on looking down at the end stretch at this point right here, you don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. No matter what happened last Sunday, we need to come in with the same mindset to improve, which will lead to our collective rise.”
The Giants’ first NFC East title since 2011 is still a long way from happening considering the Giants’ recent history in division: They have lost seven straight to the Eagles and seven straight to the Cowboys dating back to 2016.
But Ryan contended those statistics are “clickbait,” and strong safety Jabrill Peppers said he’s entering his first ever Giants-Eagles game (due to injuries last season) with urgency to dial the Giants up a notch.
Shepard sighting: Wide receiver Sterling Shepard participated in practice and might return to play in Thursday night’s game against the Philadelphia Eagles.
Shepard has missed the last four games with a turf toe injury he suffered late in the first half at Chicago in Week 2. He stayed on injured reserve for four weeks, one game longer than the three required by the NFL for a player placed on I.R.
Giants notes: The team held a brief walkthrough practice on Tuesday, but their projected injury report continued to list Board (concussion), free safety Adrian Colbert (shoulder), inside linebacker Tae Crowder (hamstring) as “did not practice.”
Board will not play. The good news is he was discharged from the hospital late Sunday night with the concussion but no further damage after initially being diagnosed with a sprained neck.
Slot corner Darnay Holmes (neck) was upgraded to limited. Slayton remained limited. And running back Dion Lewis (hand) was full. Shepard wasn’t listed on the injury report because he isn’t technically on the active roster yet. ... The Carolina Panthers signed third-year safety Sean Chandler off the Giants’ practice squad on Tuesday. Chandler, 24, played college ball for Panthers coach Matt Rhule at Temple University.
The Giants signed veteran defensive end Jabaal Sheard off the Jaguars’ practice squad on Tuesday. Sheard, 31, played 15 snaps and deflected a pass in the Jaguars’ loss Sunday to the Detroit Lions, his only appearance of the season.