Better ‘D’ needed in division clash in Big D
ARLINGTON, Texas — Winning once a month or so is going to get the Giants to the four-, fiveor six-win total many doomsayers predicted for them. Signs are pointing up that Daniel Jones and the offensive playmakers are getting it together. This is big news, but not season-altering, in terms of the overall well-being of the team, as long as the defense lags behind.
The Giants, at 1-3, are not going to accomplish anything substantial in 2021 unless the unit that was supposed to be a top-10 NFL group makes dramatic improvements and leads the way. Finally getting off the schneid by rallying for an overtime victory in New Orleans in Week 4 will prove to merely be a temporary respite from losing unless Week 5 is a turning point for the defense.
There is no better time for the Giants’ defense to begin to make its mark than Sunday inside AT&T Stadium. Unfortunately for the Giants, there is also no more difficult time for this to happen.
“I’m looking at Dallas right now, one of the best offenses obviously in the league right now,’’ defensive coordinator Patrick Graham said.
There is nothing special thus far coming out of the side of the ball Graham orchestrated so effectively last season. The Giants are 16th in the league in points per game allowed (23.8). They are 20th in passing yards allowed (259.3) and 21st in rushing yards allowed (122.8). They are 28th in sacks with just six.
Making these milquetoast numbers more foreboding is that the Giants have not faced offensive juggernauts in the first four games. The Broncos are 21st in points scored, Washington is 10th, the Falcons are 25th and the Saints 18th. The Giants could not put the clamps on these attacks, and the wheels could come off entirely with what awaits them this weekend.
“You try to figure out, who are you going to try to take away and how are you going to try to take away or limit what they do,’’ Graham said.
“They’’ are the Cowboys, and they are doing it at an elite level, showing that the decline in 2020 was primarily based on one factor — the season-ending injury to quarterback Dak Prescott. Now fully healed, Prescott has taken his place among the best at his position. The Cowboys are fourth in the league in scoring at 31.5 points a game, third in yards per game (420.8) and second in rushing (165.8).
This is an offense that does everything well against a defense that has not done anything exceptionally well.
The Giants lost a shootout in this venue last season, 37-34, and may have to pile on points again to hang with the Cowboys this time around as well.
“I’m not gonna sit here and say, ‘No, we can’t,’ ’’ Evan Engram told The Post. “We’re gonna go out and compete and fight, whatever the game may be . ... If it’s a shootout and we got to drive fast and make big plays, we got to go do that. We got to go win.’’