YANKEE DOLDRUMS, KYRIE HEADACHES & TED LASSO WITHDRAWAL...

● If Brian Cashman stays then Aaron Boone stays.

It is as simple as that.

Or they both go.

The idea that Boone should be the one to take the fall for this flawed blueprint, one that the trade deadline didn’t repair nearly enough, remains disingenuous at best.

Or just plain ridiculous.

Even for Absentee Hal Steinbrenner.

Boone did say something ridiculous himself the other night in Boston, of course, when he said, “The league has closed the gap on us.”

Wait ... what?

And what gap is he talking about?

The gap closers need to be the Yankees who, right now, this minute, are the fourth best team in their own division.

Michael Kay, who has spent the past few days being a truth teller about the Yankees, is right when he asks how come the Yankees spend $200 million on baseball players every year and have only Judge and Stanton as stars in their batting order.

Steinbrenner allows Cashman to spend $324 million on Gerrit Cole because he has been convinced that Cole is the missing piece to the Yankees being on their way back to the Canyon of Heroes.

You saw how that worked out.

And have a right to wonder how much of Cole’s brilliance before the past few years had something to do with him being Spidey-Tack Man.

Say it again:

The Yankees have won two division titles in 10 years.

You want to know the real gap around the Yankees?

The one between the way things really are and the way they kid themselves into believing they still are on 161st Street.

That’s it, and that’s all.

● Nothing changes with Kyrie Irving.

He doesn’t want to get the shot, he isn’t a Net, whether they’ve changed the rules about practice or not.

Unless he’s looking to be captain of the Crazytown All-Stars.

● This is what Jon Gruden wrote about NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith, who is Black, 10 years ago:

“Dumboriss Smith has lips the size of michellin tires.”

So Gruden thinks Smith is the dumb one?

You know what’s going to be exceptionally dumb?

Roger Goodell letting the coach of the Raiders get away with something like that, whenever Gruden said that.

● I know Dodgers vs. Cardinals went past four hours the other night.

It was still a night to remember why baseball is great.

● Jose Altuve is still going to the Hall of Fame, even if Yankee fans try to block the roads going into Cooperstown.

● Stanton posing on two balls that banged off the Green Monster has to be some kind of record, even for him.

● Joey Gallo played 58 regular season games for the New York Yankees.

He had 30 hits.

He batted .160.

And was the Yankees’ cleanup hitter on Tuesday night at Fenway Park.

● Is the sky still falling on Aaron Rodgers and the Packers because they got blown out by the Saints in Week 1? Just checking.

● The Jaguars should get rid of Urban Meyer now, and save themselves the trouble later.

This is not working now, because it will never work with Meyer in Jacksonville.

● Two more weeks until Peyton and Eli come back.

● Okay, what do I do now that Season 2 of “Ted Lasso” is over, that’s what I’d like to know?

Giants defensive coordinator Pat Graham will never forget his first Giants-Cowboys game in 2016. Jason Pierre-Paul turned to Graham, a former Patriots assistant, after the national anthem at AT&T Stadium and said, “This ain’t the Jets.”

No it’s not. Giants-Cowboys is different. “I’d be lying to say these division games don’t have a little bit of a different element,” Joe Judge said this week. “That would be just a flat-out lie.”

The stakes are high for the Giants (1-3) on Sunday in Arlington, Tex. The Cowboys (3-1) would create significant distance in the NFC East with a head-to-head win.

Conversely, a Giants upset could turn Big Blue’s entire season on its head for the better.

It won’t be good enough for Jason Garrett’s offense to only erupt in the fourth quarter and overtime, however, as they did in last Sunday’s overtime upset of the Saints.

The challenge will be to score with Garrett’s former Cowboys team for four quarters, to go toe-to-toe with Dak Prescott and a Dallas organization that Garrett spearheaded as head coach for nine-plus years.

“It was a great opportunity to come here with the Giants and work in this organization with the coaches that we have here and also with the players,” said Garrett, whose Dallas firing was dragged out by owner Jerry Jones, preventing a head coaching interview with the Giants.

“[I’m] excited about this opportunity and what we’re trying to do with this team,” Garrett added on Thursday. “We’re trying to rebuild this team. We’re trying to get better every day, so that’s really where my attention is.”

There were encouraging signs in New Orleans that Daniel Jones and Garrett’s offense may soar to new heights. For one, the players took ownership of the offense.

Jones trusted Saquon Barkley when he told Jones to run a play back and throw over lurking Saints corner Marshon Lattimore. It went for a game-breaking 54-yard fourth quarter TD.

“I think even [Jones] was a little surprised,” quarterbacks coach Jerry Schuplinski said Thursday. “On the sideline he was like, ‘[Barkley] was right.’ You know, every player’s always like, ‘I’m open! I’m open on this!’ Those guys did a really good job.”

Running backs coach Burton Burns said Barkley is clearly healthier and it’s showing, thanks to Judge’s careful build-up of his running back’s workload.

“I think what’s happening with him now is the plan is working,” Burns said. “He’s getting better and better each week. With those trainers and doctors, what they prescribed. I think you’re seeing as long as he feels good … It turns out to be a really good decision in the beginning to take it step by step, day by day.”

Burns also thought a switch flipped for Barkley late in the first half on a 17-yard downhill run behind blocks from fullback Eli Penny and guard Will Hernandez.

Barkley’s game-winning 6-yard TD run in overtime, with a jump cut and a forceful upfield push to the goal line, might have been most significant. He went northsouth, not east-west, to win the game.

“Oh heck yeah,” Burns said. “Early in the game he made a play like that that was really good, in the second quarter. That’s something he wanted to accomplish in the beginning of the year. Everybody knows he’s pretty good out in space, but he wanted to improve his game between the tackles. And that kind of started a little bit when he made that run in the second quarter.”

Senior offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens, meanwhile, said the Giants’ emphasis on yards after catch — using weapons like elusive receiver Kadarius Toney and Barkley in space — helps create explosive plays and makes it easier on a quarterback.

“Ultimately this game is about being explosive and taking care of the football and finishing,” Kitchens said Thursday. “[Yards after catch opportunities] impact all of those things. Of course it makes it easier when you throw a two-yard route and gain 20. You have to create explosive plays anywhere you can.”

Cowboy great Troy Aikman — who delivered this week’s bulletin board material that the Giants “are not in Dallas’ class” — said Prescott’s explosive offense separates the Cowboys.

“They are so explosive,” Aikman said on 96.7 The Ticket, “that there is a lot of pressure for an opposing offense to feel they’ve got to go do something every time they have the ball. And if they don’t, then they’re gonna be down two scores. And that’s going to be the challenge for the Giants.”

Jones might have to overcome the absence of left tackle Andrew Thomas (left foot), in addition to receivers Sterling Shepard (hamstring) and Darius Slayton (hamstring) sitting out a second straight game. Nate Solder and Matt Peart could be the Giants’ tackles.

On top of all that, Sunday is almost exactly a year to the day of Prescott’s gruesome, season-ending broken ankle in Week 5 of last season against the Giants.

Giants safety Logan Ryan, who made the fateful tackle, will be on the field with the Giants’ defense once again. Garrett will be glad to see his former quarterback on the field with Dallas while continuing to try and shepherd Jones to victory.

“It was a really tough moment for me and really for anybody who’s been around him,” Garrett said of Prescott’s injury last season. “Dak’s a special guy. I have a great relationship with him, a great friendship with him and he’s someone who’s made my life significantly better. He doesn’t surprise me one bit in how he responded to it.”

So no, this isn’t a normal game. This isn’t the Jets. This is the Cowboys. This is Giants-Cowboys.

And this is a game Judge’s Giants can win — as long as Garrett and Jones carry the offense past Prescott’s high-powered Cowboys side.