Well, the Giants finally managed the high-scoring passing attack they were able to pull off against future bouncers & gym teachers back in August. They did it against a Dallas defense with an injury-riddled secondary and still trying adjust to the sudden loss of their best (as in multiple All-Pro, now highest-paid defensive player in history, probable Hall of Fame) pass-rusher right before the actual games began. So I'm still not buying into the hype.

Speaking of pass defenses, I can't help but notice that in four drafts since becoming GM, Joe Shoen's front office spent three of the top picks on pass defenders. All three were active for the game and uninjured. The last two off-seasons also saw significant efforts in that regard. They traded 3 draft picks for pass rusher Brian Burns and signed him for $28 million dollars a year, and their first 3 signings in free agency this offseason, Roy Robertson-Harris, Paulson Adebo and Jevon Holland were all defensive players. Only Robertson-Harris is not specifically a pass rusher or defensive back, but he managed to score two roughing the passer penalties yesterday, to go with his offside, and the pass interference calls Adebo & Holland each drew. All this effort by Schoen to find pass defenders, and yet, whenever it mattered, the Cowboys were able to pass the ball at will, and score faster than a Austin Butler in a woman's prison.

Other great acquisitions have included a high profile tight end, who spent most of one season hurt and then retired, a running back, Devin "Motor" Singletary, whom both Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll were heard panting over so much during the mortifying Hard Knocks series last year, that you might be forgiven for realizing that they had lost the current best player at his position in the game. "Motor" has spent his two seasons with the team being pushed further and further down the depth chart by a pair of successive rookies, each drafted on Day 3, and making a combined $1.8 million to his $4.75 million. And let's not forget James Hudson, the first NFL player in the 21st century to draw four separate penalties on a single possession.

The one first top draft pick who has been performing as advertised, Malik Nabors, continued his well-established tradition of dropping a key 3rd or 4th down pass on a 4th quarter drive against a division rival. This week, he managed to have it eclipsed by a touchdown bomb on the following play, a desperation heave that Nabors' drop made necessary. Had he caught the pass on the prior play, the Giants might just have been able to run more time off the clock and prevent Dallas from tying the game with a 64 yard field goal, as time expired. There is some question as to whether he ran the route wrong on the team's final offensive play, or if it was just a shit throw by elderly trial-size QB Russel Wilson, which resulted in an interception to set up the game-winning kick.

Needless to say, I am a long way from coming around on Daboll, hailed as an offensive genius, who left Hudson in the game to finish the series on which he committed his record array of penalties. His other reputation is as a "quarterback whisperer" but we got to watch starting QB Daniel Jones deteriorate from a playoff winner to a castoff under Daboll's tutelage, and are two years removed from a season where with Jones hurt for several weeks, nonetheless, he failed to prepare the now second string QB, Tommy DeVito, adequately to play in an NFL game, to the point that when he was forced to go in by another QB injury, Daboll refused to let him throw a pass, the offensive production ground down to nothing, and they lost a winnable game against their equally pathetic stadium roommates, the NY Jets.

Neither Jones nor DeVito is with the Giants any longer. Bereft of the counsel of his sensei, Jones has led the Indianapolis Colts to two straight humiliating defeats resounding victories. He has led the Colts on 15 offensive possessions, 14 of which have ended with a touchdown or field goal attempt, and the other with the end of the half. Before Jones, the last QB Daboll guided, Josh Allen, was so pathetic before coming under Daboll's wing that the Buffalo Bills traded up to take him #7 in the NFL draft. After three seasons apart, last year Allen won the NFL MVP award.

The longer Schoen and Daboll have run the Giants, the worse the team has become. They have managed to win three fewer games than the previous season in each of their first three campaigns, and are on pace to do the same this year. Despite widespread calls for their firing last season, to the point of fans paying for an airplane to fly over the stadium during a game begging for it, Mara kept them on, offering them yet another chance, with some hollow words about wanting to see results. They promptly went ahead and started a rebuilding campaign, making a controversial QB selection in the draft, and ensuring that they will have an excuse for failure this season, and making the job of replacing them less appealing to potential coaches & general managers, who will be stuck trying to make the best of the course Schoen and Daboll deliberately set the team on, in defiance of Mara's lukewarm demand for immediate success. The Giants ownership consists of the sons of two men whom I have seen characterized as the nicest in the NFL. What they need is someone who make decisions based on results, rather than the relationship he has with his inept employees.