The New York Giants became the first defending Super Bowl champion to lose the season opener in the last nine years falling to the Dallas Cowboys 24-17.
The Giants secondary, already thin with injury and suspension, was exposed by Tony Romo and Kevin Ogletree. Ogletree had 8 catches for 114 yards and 2 TDs against a Giants secondary that looked confused and overmatched. Michael Coe and Justin Tryon could not stop Tony Romo and the Cowboy passing attack.
The Giants also had several mental mistakes. Wide receiver Victor Cruz had 11 passes thrown his way and only made 6 catches. He had a couple of drops that were inexcusable that helped kill drives. There is no excuse for that.
The Giants offensive line looked terrible, never getting a lane clear for Ahmad Bradshaw until the fourth quarter when the Cowboys defense was focused on trying to prevent Eli Manning from beating them and not Ahmad Bradshaw. The line also allowed 3 sacks of Manning, 2 of which went to DeMarcus Ware.
The Giants, to put it simply, did not look like a Super Bowl caliber team. They played the run well in the first half and then seemed to just stop being able to stop DeMarco Murray who finished with 131 yards on 20 carries, a 6.6 yard average.
Nothing the Giants seemed to do worked tonight. Coverage was just not there. The running game was on the late bus. The offensive line looked tired from the first snap. It was just not a very good game of football played by the Giants.
There were a couple of bright spots in the game. Michael Boley picked off a Romo pass and brought it 51 yards back to the Cowboys two yard-line. The Giants could only manage a field goal there which was a killer for the Giants. Keith Rivers also played well, having a few nice plays. Rivers finished with 7 tackles.
Domenick Hixon also looked good in his first full game since Week 1 of last season. He finished with 3 catches for 55 yards, including a 39-yard gain, and also returned 1 punt for 5 yards.
If this game showed New York Giants fans anything it was that there is still a lot of work to do. The Giants will have 11 days to figure out what went wrong and fix it before they take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
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