The Dallas Cowboys’ chances of winning Sunday night against the Giants felt gone in a New York minute. Dallas’ opening drive ended with the offense looking out of rhythm, while the New York offense, led by Jaxson Dart, couldn’t be stopped.
Jerry Jones and the front office invested a ton of resources into the defense to overhaul a unit that was at the bottom of the league a season ago. All that personnel change couldn’t change the fact that the defense picked up right where it left off at the end of 2025.
There is plenty of blame to go around for what went wrong for the Dallas Cowboys. There won’t be any grading on a curve here as we hand out the report card for Week 1.
A grades: Zero
No one will get an ‘A’ for their performance this week, as it took a total team effort to look as out of sorts as Dallas did. ‘A’ efforts usually help a team win ball games, and that didn’t happen on Sunday night.
B grades:
Tyler Guyton (B+):
The Cowboys’ left tackle fared pretty well against the 14th-ranked player in the NFL, Brian Burns. The Giants edge rusher had a career year in 2025 with 16.5 sacks, so Guyton didn’t have an easy matchup with a player who usually beats tackles with his speed. Guyton stood his ground and did not allow a pressure across his 20 pass-blocking matchups against Burns. It wasn’t perfect, but fans should feel good about left tackle coming away from Sunday night
Cobie Durant (B):
Durant looked like the best corner for the Cowboys on Sunday night. Dart didn’t attack Dallas’ defense through the air as much, but Durant stuck close to his man, played physical, and even broke up a pass that should have been an interception.
Caleb Downs (B):
Downs’ first regular-season game had a splash play where he sprinted untouched on a blitz and hammered Dart for a sack, causing a fumble. Unfortunately for Dallas, they couldn’t recover the ball and give it back to their offense. It wasn’t a bad performance by Downs, but looking back at his rookie season, it won’t be a memorable game.
Donovan Ezeiruaku (B):
The Cowboys’ second-year outside linebacker may not have gotten to the quarterback, but he was certainly one of the most active defenders in the game. He led the team with ten tackles and had two pressures. His biggest play came with a forced fumble, but like the Downs play, the ball bounced in the Giants’ direction, and Dallas couldn’t recover it. He had the one really bad read on the Dart roll out to the left where he bit inside on the play fake, but overall he was one of the better defenders on a bad night for the Dallas defense.
Dak Prescott (B-):
The Cowboys’ starting quarterback wasn’t the reason why they lost on Sunday. However, his one interception before halftime set the team back in a big way: the Giants scored a touchdown before halftime, then came back to start the third quarter and scored again. The big plays in the passing game just weren’t there, and George Pickens’ deep-ball drop wasn’t great either. The INT brings his grade from a B+ to a B-.
Javonte Williams (B-)
Williams would have been the only player in the A category, since he scored twice for Dallas and ran hard all night. It just shows how much a poorly timed penalty can bring down your grade. Williams’ second touchdown was capped by an unsportsmanlike penalty that put Brandon Aubrey in a bad spot to kick a long extra point instead of going for two, as Brian Schottenheimer wanted. Can’t happen for a veteran player.
C grades:
Terence Steele (C+):
Even with someone gunning for his job before the season started, Steele played pretty well given the circumstances. The Giants pass rush may be among the best group of players the offensive line sees all season. He won a couple matchups vs. the edges, but Abdul Carter was making life difficult for Steele. He didn’t allow a sack, but pressure from the right side got to Prescott for most of the night.
Jaishawn Barham (C):
This one hurts to hand out. Unlike Downs, Barham looked like he had a few learning moments in his NFL debut. His first play on the field was a stop in the backfield, but it almost turned into a WWE suplex, which would have caused a penalty.
After that, his angles in run defense weren’t always 100 percent, and then on the Devin Singletary touchdown, it looked like he stopped running before the back crossed the goal line. Hope hasn’t been lost for a player with his skill set and tenacity because he may have to be the next man up with DeMarvion Overshown expected to miss time with his hamstring injury.
D grades:
Rest of Cowboys pass rush (D):
When a “D” grade is handed out in this exercise, it means a player didn’t impact the game the way they were supposed to, or their performance or moment outright cost them the game. It could also be a collection of players, like it is here with Dallas’ pass rush.
Yes, the Giants put resources into overhauling their offensive line, but the Cowboys couldn’t get close enough to Dart consistently to make a difference. Rashan Gary, Quinnen Williams, Malachi Lawrence, and Kenny Clark need to take pressure off the secondary. The lack of pass rush allowed the Giants offense to operate with a clean pocket all game
The communication on defense (D):
It’s not great to hear Schottenheimer come out of his Monday review thinking the defense needs to communicate better. The Cowboys spent the entire offseason saying communication was their No. 1 priority, and that’s what plagued them last year. Well, players not being in the right position or not being told the right call is what inevitably broke the camel’s back on Sunday night and led to Dallas walking out of MetLife Stadium with their first loss of the season. Christian Parker has a lot of work to do this week.
