Here are our grades for the New York Giants 20:15 loss to the Dallas Cowboys.

attack

We forgive tight end Daniel Bellinger, who fell victim to a phantom face mask that forced the Giants to settle for the first of five field goals on the night. But what the hell happened to the running game? Against the 32nd-ranked rushing defense, the Giants ran the ball 24 times and managed just 26 yards, 24 of which came from Devin Singletary. That equates to an average of 1.1 yards per carry, which is, to put it bluntly, pathetic.

Daniel Jones finished 29 of 40 (72.5%) for 281 yards and an 81.4 passer rating. Most of the time he played well enough to win, although most of his deeper throws missed the target. Wan'Dale Robinson couldn't come up with a big third-down play on the Giants' final drive that could have allowed them to increase their point total, and Darius Slayton, who had a bad thumb, also had a loss. The Giants outscored the Cowboys (just), but it didn't do them any good during the season

Degree: C-

defense

Aside from Deonte Banks' gaffe against CeeDee Lamb that led to a 55-yard touchdown, the defense played well enough to keep the Giants in the game. Outside linebacker Kayvon Thibodeaux had the Giants' first sack of Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott since 2021, and both safety Tyler Nubin and linebacker Micah McFadden finished the game with eight sacks for the team lead.

The run defense held a struggling Dallas running game to just 80 yards early in this week's game. In the end, Prescott had completed 81.5% of his pass attempts while the defense only managed three hits against him all game.

Degree: C

Special teams

Greg Joseph was perfect that night, but the Giants had better come up with a solution on the kickoff returner because at the moment neither Eric Gray nor Tyrone Tracy had the latter, the latter had a fumble on a kickoff returner that was luckily by tight end Chris was fixed Manhertz, we can do it.

Punt returner Ihmir Smith-Marsette looked promising on his lone punt return of 22 yards, and Jamie Gillan's lone punt was placed inside the 20-yard line.

Degree: b

Coaching

The Giants will never admit who was at fault, but it's annoying that they didn't make any shots into the end zone in the red zone. This conservatism only destroys this team's scoring ability, as they average 15 points per game – 0.6 points less than last year. New York now has two games under its belt, Minnesota and this one in which they failed to get into the end zone, both losses.

After Wan'Dale Robinson caught a pass that brought the ball to the 3-yard line in the third quarter, Daboll decided not to try because the game was so close at the time that he wanted the points. The field goal made it a two-point game, but the Giants could never quite catch the Cowboys in the points column.

Degree: D