Cowboys Film Room: How can Dak Prescott beat New York Giants

Last year, the Dallas Cowboys went 13-3 but lost both contests against the New York Giants. How can Dak Prescott get that trend switched around?

Dak Prescott had one of the best rookie years by a quarterback that the NFL has ever seen. He led the Dallas Cowboys to a 13-3 record (with one of their losses coming in a meaningless Week 17 game) and to the No.1 seed in the NFC. The entire league struggled to stop him on offense as he finished the year with a passer rating of 104.5. Only Matt Ryan and Tom Brady were better. Dallas eventually lost to the Packers in the divisional round of the playoffs, but Prescott went toe-to-toe with one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history in Aaron Rodgers (Prescott threw for 302 yards and three touchdowns in the 34-31 loss).

However, there was one team that seemed to figure Prescott out in his rookie season; the New York Giants. In his two games against the Giants, Prescott was 42-of-82 (51.2%) for 392 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. Against the Giants, his combined passer rating was 58.6. Against the rest of the NFL, it was 113.6 (including the playoff game). He suddenly went from one of the best quarterbacks in the league to a well-below average one when playing the Giants.

So what exactly did the Giants do to slow down the Cowboys’ offense and make Prescott look so terrible? How can Prescott beat the Giants this time around in his second season? Let’s head into the film room to find the answers.

First and foremost, the Cowboys hurt themselves (and Prescott) more than the Giants actually stopped them. Over and over again, Dallas made mental errors and silly mistakes it doesn’t typically make. A perfect example of this came on the first drive of the first game.

Dallas was moving the ball extremely well until they stalled out near the end zone. The Cowboys call the perfect play and Cole Beasley opens up in the middle of the field. If Beasley catches this ball, in all likelihood, he scores. At the very worst, the Cowboys have the ball on their own one or two-yard line where they can run the ball or throw a fade to Bryant. Instead, it’s a drop on a crucial drive that ends up resulting in just three points.

On another drive, the Cowboys were forced to settle for a field goal once again after Dez Bryant looked to have scored a spectacular touchdown in the back of the end zone. This is a play that Bryant usually makes, but in this game, anything that could go wrong did. Bryant wasn’t able to secure the ball as he went to the ground, resulting in an incomplete pass. It was a perfect throw that just resulted in a failed reception. These are the type of plays that decide critical divisional matchups.

Unfortunately, it carried over to the team’s second contest as well. On a critical third down, Bryant ran a slant and just slipped on the grass. That allowed for Janoris Jenkins to intercept a ball as the Cowboys were driving down the field. Not anyone’s fault, but just bad luck.