ARLINGTON — Daniel Jones has by no means performed a soccer sport on Thanksgiving.
“Watched a lot of Thanksgiving games,” Jones stated Tuesday. “But first time playing. I’m excited.”
This will probably be Brian Daboll’s sixth sport on the hearty vacation in yr one of many NFL’s John Madden Thanksgiving Celebration to honor the late legend.
“You remember when you’re a kid, sitting down and watching television and the games and Madden and turducken and all those things,” the Giants’ head coach stated Tuesday.
Has Daboll ever eaten turducken?
“I have not,” he stated with a smirk. “Might look like I did, but I didn’t.”
That’s about the place the Giants’ heat and fuzzy emotions for Thursday afternoon’s NFC East conflict finish, nonetheless. They should scale a mountain of adversity in the event that they hope to shock the nation and reassert themselves within the Odell Beckham Jr. sweepstakes.
For whereas the Giants (7-3) and Cowboys (7-3) have the identical file, Daboll’s staff is decimated by accidents on the offensive line, within the secondary and at extensive receiver. They should play with out three of their 5 beginning O-linemen and three of their 4 starters within the secondary.
And the Giants are limping out of a brutal house loss to the Detroit Lions, whereas the Cowboys are driving excessive off a street blowout of the Minnesota Vikings.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for us to show who we are, show what we can do, our toughness,” Jones stated.
The Cowboys have gained 10 of their final 11 conferences with the Giants and 15 of the final 20 relationship again to Oct. 2012. They have been 9.5-point favorites in a number of sportsbooks on Wednesday morning, and the road may climb into double digits by gametime.
Jones stated the Giants aren’t involved with being steep underdogs.
“That’s not something we’re focused on as a team,” he stated. “We’re confident in our ability to win games, to compete and find a way to make the play down the stretch to win the game. That’s what we’re focused on.”
It’s greatest the Giants don’t concern themselves with this collection’ statistics and out of doors noise, although, as a result of virtually none of it tilts of their favor.
The Giants misplaced their first assembly with the Boys, 23-16, on Monday Night Football in Week 3 at MetLife Stadium. Jones was sacked 5 instances. Dallas backup QB Cooper Rush threw for 215 passing yards, a landing and no turnovers. Tony Pollard rushed for 105 yards.
Now Dak Prescott is again underneath heart on Thanksgiving, and that’s unhealthy information for Big Blue.
Prescott has a 9-2 file towards the Giants in 11 profession conferences. He is 240 for 377 passing (63.66%) for two,886 yards, 21 touchdowns and 5 interceptions in these video games.
He has extra TD passes towards the Giants than every other staff in his profession. He has rushed 36 instances for 131 yards towards his division rival, as effectively.
Prescott additionally has a solution to the Giants protection’s greatest weapon: the blitz.
Wink Martindale’s Giants protection blitzes on an NFL-high 42.5% of opposing QB dropbacks, per ESPN Stats & Information. But Prescott’s 67.5% completion share towards the blitz ranks sixth within the league.
The Giants’ move rush was principally non-existent in Sunday’s loss to the Lions, as effectively. No. 5 general decide Kayvon Thibodeaux hasn’t made an impression not too long ago.
The Cowboys are 72-47-2 all time within the collection — although the Giants gained their solely playoff assembly in 2007.
And Daboll’s response as to whether he thinks his banged-up staff can reply on this quick week didn’t precisely encourage confidence.
“I’ve liked everything about the guys since I got here,” the coach stated. “They work hard, they’re humble guys, they do everything we ask them to do. They go out there, they play as hard as they can play. Again, we don’t always like the results, but these guys are putting everything they’ve got into it.”
Honestly, as Beckham chooses between the Cowboys, Giants and different suitors for his free company signing, all of this info would appear to make the choice for him.
Truly, the Giants’ greatest likelihood of profitable this sport is to run the ball usually with Jones and Saquon Barkley, and to hope that the Cowboys strut in as overconfident frontrunners — which they’re identified to do.
Strangely, Barkley was not out there to talk to the New York media on Tuesday, the Giants’ solely day of open locker room this week — in comparison with three for the Cowboys. So there have been no Thanksgiving ideas from the Giants’ face of the franchise and greatest participant coming into what guarantees to be their most considered sport in a very long time.
Odd, certainly.
The Giants are 7-5-3 all-time on Thanksgiving. Their 16 video games on the vacation are the sixth most within the NFL. They’ve by no means hosted. They misplaced their final Thanksgiving sport, 20-10, at Washington in 2017.
They misplaced their solely Thanksgiving sport towards the Cowboys, 30-3, in 1992. Madden and Pat Summerall have been within the Texas Stadium sales space for that CBS broadcast. FOX will carry this yr’s sport.
The Giants have been common Thanksgiving sport members within the Nineteen Twenties and Nineteen Thirties. But after a 7-7 tie with the Brooklyn Dodgers in entrance of 17,400 followers at Ebbetts Field on Nov. 24, 1938, they didn’t play on Thanksgiving once more till 1982.
Ed Danowski’s 12-yard TD move to Dale Burnett within the fourth quarter of that sport, 84 years in the past to the day on Thursday, is the Giants’ most up-to-date Thanksgiving Day offensive landing.
They are 1-3 on Thanksgiving within the Super Bowl period. Their solely touchdowns in these 4 video games have been on a pair of interception returns. They’ve misplaced their final three Turkey Day video games in 1992, 2009 and 2017.
Their final Thanksgiving win was in 1982 at Detroit, 13-6, when Hall of Fame linebacker Lawrence Taylor picked off a Gary Danielson move within the fourth quarter and returned it 97 yards for the one landing.
The Cowboys have hosted their annual Thanksgiving Day sport for 54 of the final 56 years, together with each season from 1978 on. They are 31-22-1 within the vacation basic.
However, they’ve misplaced three straight Thanksgiving Day video games to Buffalo (2019), Washington (2020) and Las Vegas (2021). They are 2-6 of their final eight on Turkey Day. And they haven’t crushed a Thanksgiving opponent that wasn’t Washington for the reason that Oakland Raiders in 2013.
Dallas volunteered in 1966 to host a Thanksgiving sport and performed its first in entrance of a file crowd of 80,259 on the Cotton Bowl, a 26-14 win over the Cleveland Browns.
The NFL allowed the St. Louis Cardinals to host the Cowboys in 1975 and 1977, however Dallas has hosted it yearly since. Washington (10) has been their most frequent opponent, adopted by the Miami Dolphins (5).
The yr’s Giants impressed pleasure early within the season, clearly, and it’s refreshing they’re related and within the playoff hunt this deep into the season.
The NFC East’s mixed file of 29-11 quantities to a .707 profitable share, the best for any division by 11 weeks for the reason that 1970 NFL merger. Each staff is above .500 for the primary time since 2008. And the Giants have full management of their very own future.
They at the moment are the lowest-scoring staff within the division (205 factors), surpassed by Washington. They’re creeping in direction of the worst scoring protection, too, their 204 factors allowed second-worst to the Commanders’ 223.
And they’re injured on the worst time, with 4 straight NFC East video games right here towards the Cowboys, Commanders, Eagles and Commanders — a run that probably will resolve the Giants’ destiny.
“You put yourself in a position at this time of year,” Daboll stated. “Every game matters. As it gets closer to the end, you got to treat it the same as you treat every other game.”
This isn’t simply every other sport, although. If the Giants aren’t cautious, they might lose a sport, Beckham and any confidence in a surefire playoff berth multi function shot, in entrance of the entire nation.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com