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Storylines to follow on Thursday Night Football

DEXTER-PARSONS-STORYLINES

The Giants will look to win their second consecutive game when they welcome the Dallas Cowboys to MetLife Stadium for a battle on Thursday Night Football.

After starting the season with two losses, the Giants were able to get into the win column this past Sunday in Cleveland when they defeated the Browns, 21-15. On the other sideline, the Cowboys dropped their second straight game at home, this time falling to the Baltimore Ravens, 28-25.

"It's a division game, so there's more emotions to it," left tackle Andrew Thomas told reporters Monday. "To play meaningful football in December, you have to win the division games. So, it's definitely going to be a top-notch matchup, and we're excited about it."

Following Thursday's game, the NFC East rivals will meet for the second time two months later when the Giants travel to Dallas for a Thanksgiving Day matchup.

Here are five storylines to follow in the Week 4 matchup on Thursday Night Football.

Quick turnaround

The Giants did not have a lot of time to enjoy Sunday's win in Cleveland. As soon as the team landed back in New Jersey Sunday night, the coaches immediately went to work to start preparations for Thursday night's game against the Cowboys. Despite the familiarity between the division rivals, head coach Brian Daboll admitted it's a race to get fully up to speed on such a quick turnaround.

"As play callers, you're pretty honed in on who you're playing that week. So, there's a lot of catching up to do," Daboll told the media Monday. "We met after we got off the plane yesterday and did some things last night, we were here early. A lot of catching up to do. New defensive coordinator, same offensive coordinator, (Cowboys Head) Coach (Mike) McCarthy, but new defensive coordinator, Coach (Mike) Zimmer. Some of the guys stayed here last night. Other guys got in pretty early, so we're catching up. We'll be caught up, but with these short weeks, there's not much time. You need a lot of it. You need all the time you can."

This week's game marks the second consecutive year the Giants and Cowboys will meet at MetLife Stadium for a matchup in primetime. Of course, the two teams faced off in last year's season opener, a game that saw the Giants fall 40-0 and lose Andrew Thomas for the entire first half of the season. While last year's game might be in the back of some players' minds, Daboll reminded everyone that last year's outcome has no bearing on this week's game.

"I think each individual person is motivated by different things," the head coach said. "And my main focus is getting ready to play this team, 2024, the team that's just played these first three games. Different players, different schemes, making sure that we're prepared. Doing a good job in our walkthroughs, in our meetings, in our communication. But our focus is on task at hand."

"For me, personally, I don't hold it too much," safety Jason Pinnock added. "I'm a person every game I act like it's the Super Bowl for me, for myself. It's the Super Bowl. But, of course, you do remember. I think everybody will remember home opener being beat like that on primetime TV. But, again, as far as our defense, I think it was 17-0 before we hit the field. Never get too high, don't get too low about the situation. Just ready to go."

View rare photos from the historic rivalry between the New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys.

Nabers, Lamb in WR battle

Malik Nabers has now put together back-to-back dominant outings after his breakout game in Cleveland. The rookie pulled in eight of 12 targets for 78 yards and two touchdowns, and as impressive as his box score looked, it doesn't do his performance justice. Nabers made several athletic catches, including his incredible grab over Browns cornerback Martin Emerson for a 28-yard gain late in the second quarter. His statistics through his first three games has landed him in the NFL record books, and has also led to him being nominated for Rookie of the Week three times already.

Nabers will have a tough matchup this week as he goes up against Cowboys two-time Pro Bowl corner Trevon Diggs. The 26-year-old corner, who has racked up 19 interceptions in 50 career games, has already registered one interception this season as he moves further away from the torn ACL that cut his 2023 campaign short. While it is only three games into the season, it has become clear that the Giants have full confidence in their rookie wideout, no matter who is lined up to cover him.

"You have to be aware of the people that you're playing," said Daboll. "We certainly have a good one this week that I think will be matched up quite a bit in Diggs, so you definitely have to be aware. But when you have confidence in your skill player offensively, you go ahead and give them opportunities. So, it just means you have to be that much cleaner, crisper on things when you're going against a very good player. There's a lot of teams that do that with their guys, I would say. I don't want to speak for them in their game plan meetings. But like I said before many times, I'm glad we have him."

Across the field, the Cowboys' offense features one of the most talented wide receivers in the NFL. CeeDee Lamb led the NFL with 135 receptions last season, which he took for 1,749 yards and 12 touchdowns on his way to being named first-team All-Pro. While limited to just four receptions for 77 yards in last year's season opener, Lamb exploded for 11 receptions for 151 yards and a score in the second meeting between the two teams. Lamb's 52 receptions for 722 yards in eight career games against the Giants are his highest totals against any opponent.

"Tough opponent, really good player," Daboll said Tuesday about the three-time Pro Bowl receiver.

Establishing the run

In last week's win, running back Devin Singletary carried the ball 16 times for 65 yards (4.1 avg.) and a touchdown, which marked the second consecutive week he averaged over four yards per carry. In the Week 2 loss to the Commanders, the veteran back averaged nearly 6.0 yards per carry after he took 16 carries for 95 yards and a touchdown. The 27-year-old also had his best day as a receiver against the Browns as he caught four passes for 43 yards.

It wasn't all good, though. Singletary lost a fumble against the Browns, which was the second consecutive week in which he had a turnover. But Daboll isn't letting those two negative plays completely overshadow all of the good Singletary has done so far this season. The back has forced 17 missed tackles on the year, is averaging 3.93 yards after contact per attempt, and has six runs of 10+ yards already. All of this has led to him averaging 4.7 yards per attempt on the season.

"He's a pro," Daboll said about the veteran back's fumbles. "Yeah. He'll work on that. I've been around him a bunch. So, again, you can't let one bad or two bad plays define a lot of the good things. So, you keep working on your ball security, and he'll do that."

"He's a pro, played a lot of football," quarterback Daniel Jones added. "We have a lot of confidence in him and that's not changing any of our confidence. He's played well, come back and been big time for us. No one's losing confidence in that."

Singletary is faced with a positive matchup this week, as the Cowboys enter Thursday Night Football with the league's No. 32 rush defense in yards, yards per attempt, and touchdowns. In fact, during their two-game losing streak, Dallas has surrendered an average of 232 yards per game against the Saints and Ravens. However, Daboll reminded the media Tuesday that while the numbers might put Dallas' struggles against the run into the spotlight, it's important to keep in mind how the game script each week played a factor in opponents running the ball so much.

"The Cleveland game was kind of touch and go there for a while until the end of the second quarter, the early part of the third quarter," Daboll said. "Then they get up. So, you call games differently based on how things are going in the game. New Orleans got off to a fast start. They were up 35-13 or whatever it was at the half. And the same thing with Baltimore. The unique thing is in the fourth quarter, they scored a bunch of points there to make it a game, 28-25. Baltimore hit a couple third-down conversions, a big one. (Ravens wide receiver Zay) Flowers over there.

"So, each of them are a little bit different. When you're up that much or down that much, you look at tendencies and things like that. But as the game goes, play callers call things differently based on situations you're in, down and distances, score. So those numbers are those numbers. But I think the games are all different, and you evaluate how they call it."

Getting pressure on Dak

The Giants are coming off their best pass rushing game in nearly a decade and will look to keep the momentum going into Thursday. The defense's eight sacks of Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson was the franchise's highest sack total in nearly 10 years and tied for the most in the NFL in Week 3. Their 36 total quarterback pressures also led the league last week, according to Pro Football Focus, as nine different players were credited with at least a half-sack. According to Next Gen Stats, nine different defenders recorded multiple pressures, as well. Outside linebacker Brian Burns led the way with seven, a new career-high, while defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence was right behind him with six.

Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott had mixed results in Sunday's loss to the Ravens. While he threw for a season-high 379 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions, he completed just 54.9 percent of his passes, his lowest completion percentage of the season. He also added a touchdown on the ground, although he did fumble for the third consecutive game. Regardless of how the last three games have gone, the Giants defense knows just how talented the Dallas signal-caller is.

"He's a special quarterback," Lawrence said about Prescott. "We got to do a good job rattling him and getting to him. He has a quick trigger, so we got to do well in the back end covering, making him look at his second option, third option. We got to do well up front getting to him."

Lawrence added, "He's a big dude. He can run. He likes to sit in the pocket, but when he evades, he's also dynamic throwing the ball down the field. We just got to make sure we keep him in the pocket and bring him down."

It will be important for the Giants to get pressure on Prescott this week. The Dallas quarterback has completed just 13 of 29 passes (44.8 percent) against the blitz this season, the fifth-lowest mark in the NFL. However, those 13 completions have gone for 229 yards and three touchdowns.

While the Giants have been unable to sack Prescott in any of the last three meetings between the two teams, Lawrence is confident the pass rush can buck that trend on Thursday.

"That's going to change," Lawrence told reporters. "I feel like we can get after him pretty good. We just got to hone in on the plan and execute it well."

Slowing down Parsons, Lawrence

The Giants went up against one of the top defenses in the league last week in their win in Cleveland, a unit that features the reigning Defensive Player of the Year, Myles Garrett. While Garrett was able to generate some pressure throughout the game, the offensive line was able to keep him from registering a sack of Daniel Jones. After they picked up seven sacks across their first two games, the Browns were only able to sack Jones twice on Sunday. It wasn't necessarily a perfect performance by the offensive line last week, but the protection held up enough to let Jones operate in the pocket, which led to plenty of success in the passing game.

"I think they've played well," Jones said about the offensive line. "We've run the ball well, protected well, it's a good front we played last week in Cleveland and Myles Garrett, one of the best rushers in the league. I thought we did a good job for the most part against him. A lot of confidence in those guys and I think they played well."

Jones added, "It gives you a lot of confidence to be able to see the field and find the open guy, get the ball out of my hands, all those things. Like I said, I have a lot of confidence in those guys."

Things won't get much easier for the O-line this week. One week after facing Garrett, the line will now try to slow down Micah Parsons and the Dallas pass rush. Parsons is off to a relatively slow start with just one sack in three games, although he has racked up six quarterback hits, including five in the season opener. The 25-year-old finished with at least 13 sacks in each of his first three seasons, and has nine quarterback hits six career games against the Giants, the most he's had against any opponent (tied with Washington).

"Dynamic player," Daboll said about Parsons. "He's lined up in a variety of spots. He has the ability to play really any position. Explosive, athletic, tough. He's a hell of a football player. One of the better players in the league. A challenge to block him."

Parsons is not the only talented edge rusher the O-line must keep an eye on. DeMarcus Lawrence comes into this game tied for the team-lead with two sacks on the season. The veteran seems to save his best for the Giants, as the 32-year-old has 12.0 sacks in his 17 games against the division rival. He does not have double-digit sacks against any other team.

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