Losing 28-20 to the New York Giants is not the way any of us expected the Dallas Cowboys to kick off the 2026 NFL season, and yet, that’s exactly what happened. The Giants came out and played with a purpose, completely dominating the game from start to finish. And the Cowboys, they looked unprepared and unfocused with the task at hand, which resulted in their first loss on the season.
There’s not much good to reflect upon for the Cowboys after this embarrassing loss to the Giants. This was a game
chock-full of bad and ugly, which hopefully isn’t a sign of things to come. This team has far too much talent to continue to play the way they did Sunday night and should be able to right the ship moving forward. But, they still have a lot to clean up and improve upon to get back on the right track.
THE GOOD – Time to turn things around
We really editing deep to find the silver lining in this Week 1 matchup between the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants. The Cowboys look pretty abysmal in all three phases of the game and were completely dominated from start to finish. But, it’s only one game and they still have the rest of the season to turn things around. Hopefully they will take this punch in the mouth in stride and learned/improve because of it. If not, it’s going to be a long season.
THE BAD – Dak Prescott and Company
The Cowboys may want to rethink their GOTI (greatest offense there is) mantra after the way they played against the Giants in the season opener. From dropped passes, an untimely INT that led to a TD, to boneheaded penalties, this entire offensive unit fell way below expectations and looked nothing like we expected. Fortunately though, we know they have it in them to be one of the best in the league. Hopefully this punch in the mouth will light a fire under them moving forward.
THE UGLY – Christian Parker’s defense
We may have prematurely hyped up Christian Parker and his ability to immediately transform the Cowboys defense. Judging by Sunday night, there is a lot of things that need to be cleaned up and improved upon because they were absolutely embarrassed by Jaxon Dart and Company. The Giants were able to move the ball with ease both on the ground and through the air, controlling the top position. In so doing, they kept the Cowboys offense on the sideline.
