The New York Giants open their 2023 regular season schedule by hosting the rival Dallas Cowboys at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey on Sunday Night Football.
Here are the five biggest storylines heading into Sunday night.
The elephant in the room
The Cowboys have beaten the Giants in 11 of their last 12 meetings. Dallas has opened the season against the Giants 11 times and are 10-1.
The Giants are hoping to reverse this awful trend come Sunday night. It would behoove them to do so, especially on national television to put a lot of the negativity behind them.
Since 2007, the two teams have met four times on a Sunday night with Dallas winning three of those games.
Dak attack
Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott has had a pretty good NFL career to date, but there is no team he loves beating more than the New York Giants.
Prescott is 10-2 as a starter against Big Blue, completing 261 of his 407 passes (64.1%) for 3,147 yards, 23 touchdowns and seven interceptions — all career bests.
Since 2016, Prescott is tied for the second-most wins in the NFL against divisional opponents, going 27-7 in games started against the NFC East.
37 percent of his wins as a starter have come against the Giants. Another trend the Giants hope to break.
McCarthy will call the plays for Dallas
Head coach Mike McCarthy will be calling his own plays this year for the Cowboys, a responsibility that belonged to offensive coordinator Kellen Moore, who left after last season.
McCarthy has not called plays since he was in Green Bay and Aaron Rodgers was his quarterback. Moore had been calling the plays for four seasons in Dallas going back to when Jason Garrett was the head coach.
No Dallas head coach has called his own players in nearly 10 years.
Big test for the Giants' new run defense
The New York Giants were next to last in the NFL last season against the run and the Cowboys were the ninth-best rushing team in the league.
In the two meetings last year, Dallas racked up 176 and 169 yards against the Giants. This year, they won’t have Ezekiel Elliott but they still have Tony Pollard and group of up-and-comers.
McCarthy has vowed to run the ball more this year. The Giants will counter with a beefed-up defensive front that is geared to stop the rush with additions such as lineman A’Shawn Robinson, Rakeem Nunez-Roches and Jordon Riley.
Daniel Jones
Pick your topic when it comes to Daniel Jones — his new contract, his lousy record against Dallas, his overall ability to be an elite NFL quarterback, yada, yada, yada.
Jones can shut a lot of detractors up with a solid game on Sunday night in front of the whole world.
A lot has to come together for him, though. The offensive line has to be better, his new receivers have to be on point and in synch, Saquon Barkley has to chip in heavily and Jones himself must eliminate those frustrating unforced errors.
