‘We Got Humbled Tonight’: Dallas Cowboys Fall 28-20 To New York Giants In Season Opener

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The Dallas Cowboys held the ball for 2:05 in the fourth quarter. The New York Giants held it for 12:55, ran out the last 5:21 while Dallas spent its final two timeouts, and won 28-20 on Sunday night at MetLife Stadium in front of 83,286.

Jaxson Dart completed 23-of-29 passes for 230 yards, 3 touchdowns, and no interceptions, finishing with a 134.2 passer rating. The second-year quarterback carried 11 times for 54 yards. New York ran 68 plays to Dallas’ 52, converted 9 of 11 third downs, and held the ball for 36:40 to Dallas’ 23:20.

Dak Prescott was 22-of-34 for 175 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 1 interception, with a passer rating of 84.8. He was not sacked. Dallas finished with 244 yards and 21 first downs. New York finished with 394 and 29.

Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said Dallas lost the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball.

“I thought overall we were really, as a football team, we were pretty poor,” Schottenheimer said. “Just give coach Harbaugh and his team a bunch of credit. They were the more physical team tonight. That’s certainly not our standard. That’s certainly not how we see our identity playing. They shoved us around in the running game. We couldn’t get the running game going on offense. Situationally, they were outstanding. Did a really good job of keeping the ball away from us in the second half.”

Prescott said the Cowboys did it to themselves.

“Yeah, some self-inflicted wounds,” Prescott said. “Didn’t get going early, right, three and out to start the game. And as you said, the interception at half, I mean, that was crucial. Trying to throw the ball away. That guy made a hell of a play. I’ve got to make sure it’s out of bounds, though.”

Dallas Cowboys Never Held A Lead

Dallas never led. The score was tied once, at 7-7 in the second quarter, and the Cowboys started 5 possessions while trailing and none while ahead. They were down by 14 twice, at 21-7 in the third quarter and 28-14 in the fourth.

Possession was nearly even through two quarters. Dallas held the ball 14:53 to New York’s 15:07, and the Cowboys won the second quarter 8:05 to 6:55. The second half went 21:33 to 8:27. Dallas ran 21 plays after halftime and had exactly two possessions, scoring touchdowns on both.

New York scored touchdowns on four of its seven drives and on three straight spanning the second half. The Giants punted once all night. Dart completed 12 of 14 passes after halftime for 96 yards and 2 touchdowns. Cam Skattebo carried 12 times for 64 yards over the same stretch after a first half of 6 carries for 17 yards.

Dallas gained 122 yards in the first half and 122 in the second. New York gained 213 and 181. The Cowboys started their average drive at their own 22, the Giants at their own 25. Prescott was 10-of-17 for 72 yards with a touchdown, an interception, and a 63.8 rating before halftime, then 12-of-17 for 103 yards and a touchdown after it.

“I mean, it’s frustrating,” Prescott said. “As I said, they controlled the possessions, definitely there in the second half. I mean, limit us to a possession a quarter, and we scored on our two possessions, but it wasn’t enough.”

CeeDee Lamb learned the second-half possession count during his postgame availability.

“Oh, I ain’t know that,” Lamb said. “That’s crazy. That’s crazy. Good to know.”

Lamb said the Cowboys started slow and never made the chances they got count.

“I just felt like we came out slow originally,” Lamb said. “They came out their hats on fire. I mean, they did a good job of being excited, you know, for the first game of the season, and, I mean, it showed.”

“It’s just more so when we do get our opportunities, we do have to make the most of it,” Lamb continued. “It don’t matter how many ops we get. Say 52 plays, we got like 20 points. It’s not enough.”

“We’ve got to be able to convert a little more on third downs,” Lamb said. “We’ve got to end more drives with seven instead of nothing.”

The Interception That Changed The Game

Dallas took its first takeaway of the season at the two-minute warning of the second quarter. Defensive tackle Quinnen Williams punched the ball loose from running back Tyrone Tracy on an 8-yard run, and cornerback Shavon Revel recovered at the Dallas 19. The Cowboys started at their own 16.

Six plays later, on third-and-5 from the Dallas 36 with 58 seconds left, Prescott rolled right under pressure and threw toward the sideline. Safety Jevón Holland made a diving interception at the New York 45. The Giants scored touchdowns on all three possessions that followed.

“We get a turnover pretty much right there in the red zone. We’re working,” Prescott said. “Yeah, sure, it would’ve been a throwaway and we would’ve punted the ball, but you know, pin them back and then they probably wouldn’t get points that half. They go down, they score, they get the ball to start the half again and score again, and we couldn’t recover.”

“They scored before half. They got the ball right start of half, and they went and scored,” Prescott continued. “Limited our possessions in the second half. Only gave us two possessions, and that was the game right there.”

Schottenheimer described the same sequence.

“He was trying to throw it away and he didn’t get enough on it,” Schottenheimer said. “And that happens, but it was a big momentum swing. They went down, scored, and they got the ball in the second half, and they scored. And that’s unfortunately what we call a double dip, and they double dipped us. And I thought we offensively responded very well. We just didn’t get enough ops there late, but certainly did not come out of the game very fast on either side.”

Isaiah Likely And The Coverage Breakdowns

Tight end Isaiah Likely was targeted 8 times and caught all 8 for 78 yards and 2 touchdowns in his first game with New York. The first covered 15 yards with 20 seconds left in the half, the sixth play of a 55-yard drive that took 29 seconds. The Giants then took the second-half kickoff and drove 74 yards on 12 plays over 8:01, with Likely scoring from 2 yards.

Safety P.J. Locke said Dallas knew what was coming.

“We knew what type of game that was going to be, man. We know Likely, he’s going to get his targets and everything,” Locke said. “We knew they were going to run the ball, try to shorten the game up, nickel and dime us a little bit, try to keep Dart as efficient as possible. They did a great job today, man. At the end of the day, we didn’t execute. They capitalized on the plays we didn’t execute, and that was the game right there.”

Dart ran on three of the first four plays of New York’s next scoring drive, then threw four passes to Devin Singletary in the left flat. Singletary scored from 9 yards with 7:26 left. The drive covered 65 yards on 13 plays and took 8:11. Singletary caught 4 passes for 22 yards and a touchdown.

Schottenheimer blamed the coverage.

“It was a lot of bad eyes,” Schottenheimer said. “When you’re playing some of those match coverage zones, you’ve got to see who number three is. And, again, I think it’s really something that we could have gotten corrected better, should have. That’s our job as coaches, to put those guys in better position. And it goes with us and them, coaches and players.”

He credited the Giants’ staff for the design.

“Likely, I thought he played a great game. I thought they used him really well. We knew that was going to be a weapon for him,” Schottenheimer said. “Give a lot of credit to Coach Nagy and the offensive staff. They had a really good game plan. And, again, we didn’t make enough adjustments. And we’ve got to understand how to play quarter flat when you free release or check swing it back out of the backfield, and we didn’t do that. And so those are things that we have to take a hard look at and figure out why, because it happened multiple times and we will.”

Receiver Malik Nabers caught 6 of 9 targets for 69 yards in his first game since tearing an ACL and meniscus in his right knee. He had been expected to play since Sunday morning.

Quinnen Williams Points To Third Down

Dallas converted 8 of 11 third downs. The defense allowed 9 of 11, gave up 165 rushing yards, and missed 7 tackles, per NextGen Stats. Asked what hurt most, Quinnen Williams, one of the Cowboys’ four captains, named one number.

“It was definitely third down,” Williams said. “I think we had a lot of third downs today and we didn’t get off the field — a bunch of them. I think we definitely gotta be critical [of ourselves] in our approach, when we get to [preparing for Week 2].”

“And it’s a great week to learn, and to get things better,” Williams added.

Williams said the defense made a long list of mental errors.

“The guys we got in our locker room, especially on defense, are unbelievable when it comes down to taking constructive criticism and accountability, first of all, and let’s move,” Williams said. “We had a lot of mental errors, a lot of busts today, and just really need to be critical with that going into this week; and focus on getting better.”

“Definitely taking the responsibility as a defense,” Williams continued. “I know we had a few missed tackles. I know we had a few mental errors, and not getting off on third down. So like I said, we gotta definitely look in the mirror, especially as a defense.”

Williams said the failures were not communication.

“It wasn’t that hard,” Williams said. “We just got to execute. We got to communicate with each other and execute. And that’s all on us as a defense.”

Von Miller said the conversions came on both long and short distances.

“Yeah, it was tough. We had some short third downs in there, too, but they converted some long ones, too,” Miller said. “That’s just a mixture for a loss, not being able to get off the field on third down. We didn’t play the run very well either. To get wins, it’s a unique complementary play from offense and defense, and we weren’t very complementary on either side of the ball.”

Asked whether there were miscommunication issues, Miller was direct.

“No, no communication issues,” Miller said. “We just got beat.”

“They can’t go nine for 11 on third down,” Miller added. “That’s not a good way to win that possession battle first game of the year.”

Asked whether Miller played the number of snaps he wanted, Schottenheimer said he would have to check, and explained why the rush had fewer chances than expected.

“This was a situation where they didn’t really want to get in a situation, and we didn’t force them in any situation where they had to drop back and throw the ball and we could hunt,” Schottenheimer said. “It was more we were having to set edges and try to fill gaps and things like that.”

Prescott reached the same place from the other side of the ball.

“The Giants, they executed a game plan. They ran the ball,” Prescott said. “We couldn’t get off the field on third down.”

Caleb Downs’ Debut And The Fumbles Dallas Did Not Recover

Outside linebacker Donovan Ezeiruaku led Dallas with 10 combined tackles and added a half-sack, 2 passes defensed, and a forced fumble. Safety Caleb Downs, the 11th overall pick, finished his NFL debut with 7 combined tackles, a sack, a tackle for loss, and a forced fumble. He blitzed past the right tackle in the second quarter and dropped Dart for an 8-yard loss, knocking the ball loose on the hit. Giants guard Jon Runyan recovered.

Downs had played six snaps in the preseason, more than most Dallas starters.

“It’s a high-intensity game, and they have elite talent over there,” Downs said. “So do we, so it was intense.”

“I mean, at the end of the day, in football it always just comes down to who does their job better,” Downs continued. “We’ve got to do our jobs better as a defense and as a team. We get that fixed, and we’ll be good.”

“That’s always frustrating as a defense when you don’t get off the field,” Downs said. “I mean, that’s part of the job, and we didn’t do it at a high level today.”

Downs said the turnaround starts with film.

“You watch the film, talk about it, and then you watch the Commanders film, and then it’s over,” Downs said.

“I mean, see what we did wrong, execute what we need to fix, and then go back and do it better during the week next week so that we can perform better on Sunday,” Downs added.

Dallas sacked Dart twice and hit him 6 times. Schottenheimer said that was not enough.

“He’s an athletic guy. We did not get enough pressure on him,” Schottenheimer said. “He looked pretty comfortable back there. And, again, I thought we had some good shots on the ball, but the pass rush does have to be better for sure.”

New York put the ball on the ground four times and lost one. Dallas forced all four. Downs, Ezeiruaku, cornerback Cobie Durant, and Quinnen Williams each forced one, and Revel’s recovery was the only one Dallas came away with.

“One positive thing I think we did, we did take some great shots on the ball, but the ball just didn’t bounce our way,” Schottenheimer said. “Caleb had an awesome strip sack fumble and it goes right to their guy. And we strip a ball from Skattebo, it bounces right back to him. That was one of the few positives that we did.”

Miller said the last drive was where it was decided.

“Really, it just came down to that last drive,” Miller said. “Even being down eight, I still got belief in our offense to go down there and score, make it a tie game, two-point conversion.”

“We had two good opportunities to get off the field,” Miller continued. “They put the ball on the ground a couple times too. The complexion of the game would look a whole lot different.”

Miller said the missing preseason work was not a factor.

“I don’t think that was an issue. Both teams didn’t really play a lot,” Miller said. “Just the complexion of the game would have looked a whole lot different if we were able to make a play here and there. We weren’t able to do it. Lost by eight, and it’s a tight one.”

Miller is in his 16th NFL season and his first with Dallas.

“It’s cool. Sixteen years in, I just got a sense of gratitude and I’m very appreciative of the opportunity,” Miller said. “Sometimes a loss like that is good medicine.”

New York Giants Control The Line Of Scrimmage

Skattebo scored from 3 yards out to cap New York’s opening possession, 10 plays and 83 yards over 6:13. Dart had run 22 yards on a left end four plays earlier, and linebacker DeMarvion Overshown drew an unnecessary roughness flag at the end of the run. Skattebo carried 18 times for 81 yards. The Giants rushed 37 times for 165 yards.

Dallas rushed for 69 yards on 18 attempts and averaged 3.8. Javonte Williams carried 12 times for 41 yards and a touchdown, with a long of 8. He gained 25 of those yards on 9 first-half carries.

“That’s a hell of a football team we played, credit to them,” Prescott said. “They did a good job. They executed their game plan. They stopped our run. They controlled the time and the possessions and limited us in the second half and didn’t give us an opportunity to get back into it.”

Schottenheimer said the Giants got into the backfield early.

“We needed to be better on offense in the first half,” Schottenheimer said. “I thought, again, they pushed us around a little bit up front. Their defensive line, our running game, there was way too much penetration early in the game. Javonte was running into freaking, you know, a wall in the beginning of the game. And we made some good adjustments at halftime. But it’s a team game. I said to the guys, we win together, we lose together.”

Javonte Williams said the same thing from the backfield.

“Yeah, they played a great game. We just got to execute better next time we see them,” Williams said. “I feel like we could have started a little faster. We could have played better on both sides. It ain’t one side’s fault or the other side’s fault.”

“Yeah, they did a good job controlling the clock, milking the clock,” Williams said. “Good job to Skattebo, Dart, the whole offense. They played well. Defense played well also.”

Asked whether the long Giants drives made it hard to find a rhythm, Williams said they did.

“Yeah, kind of. You can say that, because you’re just sitting on the bench for a long time,” Williams said. “But like I said, it’s us versus us.”

Schottenheimer was asked whether giving up contain on Dart was something Dallas has to live with from young players.

“Well, you don’t want to live with that many mistakes. They’re going to make mistakes. We know that,” Schottenheimer said. “But to give up contain on an athletic quarterback like that, like Jaxson, that shouldn’t happen the multiple times that it did. It was not a play style thing. They were playing hard. But there’s a discipline element to what we have to get done starting tomorrow when we watch the film with the coaches. And there’s a way to play, and we did not play to that tonight.”

The Two-Point Try Dallas Never Got To Attempt

Dallas gained 37 yards on its first two possessions and punted both times. The offense reached the end zone on its third series, a 10-play, 85-yard drive carrying 37 penalty yards. Two New York pass interference calls moved it, a 38-yarder on an incompletion intended for George Pickens and a 19-yarder that produced first-and-goal at the 2. Javonte Williams appeared to score from the 1 on second down, and the replay official reversed it. Prescott found Lamb from the 1 on the next play.

The first of Dallas’ two second-half drives went 75 yards on 12 plays and ran 6:22, aided by two more Giants pass interference penalties inside the 30. Javonte Williams scored from 1 yard with 37 seconds left in the third quarter.

The second took 2:05 and covered 74 yards. Holland drew an unnecessary roughness penalty on a 17-yard catch by Ryan Flournoy that put Dallas at the New York 17, and Prescott hit Javonte Williams for a 17-yard touchdown on the next snap with 5:21 left. Williams held the ball out toward a New York defender as he crossed the goal line and was flagged 15 yards for taunting, enforced between downs.

Dallas had been preparing to go for two.

“We talked about discipline. Obviously, we have nine penalties, I think, including one of our most dependable players getting an unsportsmanlike conduct,” Schottenheimer said. “When we’re getting ready to try to go in for two and make it a one-score game, we’re going for the win. That’s not like Javonte.”

Asked directly whether Dallas was going for two, Schottenheimer said yes.

Brandon Aubrey pushed the extra point wide right from 15 yards farther back. Williams took responsibility.

“I’m a pro, I know better than that,” Williams said. “I’m gonna correct it. It is what it is. We just gonna move past it.”

“It’s us versus us,” Williams added. “Self-inflicted wounds, penalties, things like that. That’s what cost us the game.”

Williams is a member of the Cowboys’ 11-person leadership council.

Penalties, Drops, And Self-Inflicted Wounds

Dallas was flagged 9 times for 90 yards. New York was flagged 10 times for 114. Two Dallas penalties came on New York’s opening touchdown drive, a defensive offside on Quinnen Williams and a neutral zone infraction on linebacker Jaishawn Barham.

“Penalties kill your ability to win, especially the self-inflicted wounds,” Schottenheimer said. “We jumped offsides a couple times in short yardage situations, which we gave them free downs, if you will. That led to sustained drives. It led to them controlling the football. But it comes down to discipline, and we’re more disciplined than the way we played tonight.”

Pickens dropped two passes in the first half and finished with 3 catches on 6 targets for 28 yards. Schottenheimer was not concerned.

“Early season football is different. You know, it’s unique,” Schottenheimer said. “I mean, you look at some of the scores around the league. It’s, you know, some sloppy football all over, some sloppy offense, sloppy defense. I don’t make too much of it with George. I mean, you know, he’s going to make those plays more times than not.”

Prescott said the receivers addressed the drops immediately.

“Those guys had some uncharacteristic drops. I know they’re upset about it immediately,” Prescott said. “They came and made a comment about it and then moved on, as they should. We’ll get back to it. A lot of confidence in those two guys. Not going to stop throwing it to them, shy away from them, not going to get down on them. Their resume and who they are speaks enough.”

Asked how quickly Lamb and Pickens can get back to what they showed in camp, Prescott did not hesitate.

“You’ll get back to that,” Prescott said.

“I think it was self-inflicted for the most part, as I said. The interception, some dropped balls,” Prescott said. “They did a good job stopping the run. If there’s one thing that they did, it was stopping the run, and made us kind of one-dimensional in that sense.”

Ezeiruaku said the same word.

“Definitely self-inflicted wounds was kind of the story of the game,” Ezeiruaku said. “Obviously, you got to give credit to the Giants defense and offense. They did a good job running the football and then keeping us off the field on offense.”

“So just hurting ourselves, not necessarily every single time Giants making a play, but when you got some false starts, you got some drops, you got some culmination of things,” Ezeiruaku continued. “So really just our execution is what we gotta focus on.”

Lamb caught 5 of 8 targets for 44 yards and a touchdown. Javonte Williams caught all 5 of his targets for 31 yards and a touchdown. Neither team attempted a field goal. Both were perfect in the red zone, Dallas 3-of-3 and New York 4-of-4.

Christian Parker’s First Game As Coordinator

Sunday was the first live game for defensive coordinator Christian Parker‘s unit, and his first as a play caller. The Dallas starters did not play in the preseason. The Cowboys allowed more points than any team in the NFL last season.

Schottenheimer said the defense he saw Sunday was not the one he saw in August.

“Every day we went against them in practice, the defense that we saw in practice was not what we saw tonight,” Schottenheimer said. “But the offense wasn’t the offense that we saw in practice. We just didn’t perform very well. And that starts with me as the head coach, then it goes to our coaches, but our players.”

Asked what he tells Parker after a debut like this, Schottenheimer kept it short.

“Don’t flinch. I mean, you can’t flinch in this league. You’re going to get humbled at times. It happens. He’ll learn from it. We’ll learn from it. He’s going to be hardest on himself anyways,” Schottenheimer said. “But at the end of the day, when you look at the numbers, I mean, they were 4-for-4 in the red zone. They were 9-for-11 with a kneel down on third down. It’s just not good enough. And so we’ve got to figure out why. And we’ve got to do it in a hurry.”

He said inexperience was a factor without offering it as an excuse.

“One of the things, not an excuse, guys, we did not play well. But you got young players,” Schottenheimer said. “Those are going to happen, and we have to coach the young players better. But when you play young players, it’s part of the deal. And they need to learn quickly.”

Tight end Brevyn Spann-Ford said the missing preseason work was not the problem.

“I wouldn’t say rust. We’ve been going at it since all of August,” Spann-Ford said. “The last thing, you don’t want to come out here and say we weren’t ready to play. I feel like the energy was right. The preparation was right. But clearly there’s things we got to fix. So that’s what we’re going to do.”

Javonte Williams agreed.

“No, I wouldn’t say that, because Schotty was trying to keep us fresh,” Williams said. “But like I said, we needed that loss. It humbled us for sure.”

Malik Hooker And DeMarvion Overshown Left The Game

Safety Malik Hooker and Overshown both went down. Hooker left during the final minute of the third quarter, on a Dart scramble that gained 2 yards, and finished with 1 tackle. Overshown left with 12:04 remaining in the fourth, on a Skattebo run that Durant ended by forcing a fumble, and finished with 7 combined tackles.

“It looks like from the x-rays here that Hook may have fractured his forearm,” Schottenheimer said. “We’ll get more information, more testing tomorrow. DeMo’s got a hamstring. We’re not sure the severity of it yet.”

What Comes Next For The Dallas Cowboys

New York hired coach John Harbaugh on Jan. 20 after 18 seasons in Baltimore. The Giants went 4-13 last season. Dallas went 7-9-1 and has missed the playoffs two years running. Prescott entered the night 14-3 as a starter against the Giants, and Dallas had won 11 of its previous 12 season openers against New York.

Schottenheimer said the Giants earned it.

“Give them credit. There’s no ways about it. They played more physical than we did,” Schottenheimer said. “I told the guys, it was a humbling game for us. But the makeup of this roster, the makeup of these men, they’re going to work, and they’re disappointed. And they’re frustrated in the fact of how they played and how we coached. And like I said, you win together, you lose together. And we lost all together.”

Spann-Ford relayed the locker room message.

“We didn’t play good enough to win,” Spann-Ford said. “And it’s true. It’s all about how you respond. So you gotta pick your head back up and go work tomorrow.”

Prescott said the goals have not changed.

“It sucks to lose. Damn sure it sucks to lose the first one to this team, a division game, but still optimistic,” Prescott said. “That doesn’t change our goals. It doesn’t change how we feel about our team. As I said, credit to those guys. They beat us tonight. This is a marathon, though. It’s a long season. And we’re going to respond.”

“Guys are pissed off. Nobody’s more disappointed than the players in that locker room and the coaches and everybody that put this game plan together and attempted to go out there and execute it and failed to do so,” Prescott continued. “They’ll have to see us again. And we’ve got to turn the page and got another division game next week at home.”

Locke had a message for fans.

“Just hang in there. Just understand that we don’t go out there and try to mess up every play,” Locke said. “This game is a game of inches at the end of the day. You have to be severely detailed.”

“This is a humbling business,” Schottenheimer said. “We got humbled tonight, and that’s what I told the guys. And we lost mile one of a 17-mile marathon, and we have to be better, and we will be better. The only way to do that is get back to work.”

Dallas hosts the Washington Commanders on Sunday at AT&T Stadium. Kickoff is 3:25 p.m. CT on FOX.