Approach to the Game – Dallas Cowboys at New York Giants, October 5, 1997: Make no mistake about — regardless of what the doom-sayers all say, Dallas is still one of the very best teams in the league and a legitimate Super Bowl contender. Right now, they are a much better team than the Giants and the Giants will need some inspirational and intelligent performances from their players, play-calling and game-planning from their coaches, and some luck to win. In particular, the Giants’ defense and special teams need to come up with some big plays.
Giants on Offense: The Giants will have problems moving the ball on Dallas. The strength of the Dallas defense is its secondary. CB’s Deion Sanders and Kevin Smith are as good as it gets and they can easily take Chris Calloway and Kevin Alexander out of the game. Darren Woodson is the best strong safety in the game and a force against both the pass and the run. FS Brock Marion has done a very solid job. Dallas also has two very fast and quick outside linebackers in rookie Dexter Coakley and second-year man Randall Godfrey. These six players make it very tough to pass or run to the outside. Offensively, the Giants simply must run the ball between the tackles. Dallas’ defensive line is not as imposing as it used to be. If the Giants are to put together any sustained scoring drives, Roman Oben, Greg Bishop, Lance Scott, Ron Stone, and Scott Gragg must move the Dallas front seven off the ball and Tyrone Wheatley and Charles Way need to run tough inside. Tyrone needs to keep his pads down and hands on the ball. With the Giants’ problems at center and Wheatley’s speed, Fassel may be tempted to run outside some, but we doubt this will be successful as the Dallas linebackers are just too quick and the Giants’ linemen are still not consistently coordinated enough to run the sweep with any degree of success. Pound the ball inside — just like Parcells and Reeves used to do.
Now to keep Dallas off balance, the Giants can not merely run the ball on every down — especially with Dallas expecting run on first down. Passing to the receivers will be difficult. We’d try to take advantage of the relative lack of experience at outside linebacker and get the backs and tight ends more involved. We’d also run more 3- and 4-WR sets as Dallas does not have much depth in their secondary. For these sets to work, Amani Toomer and David Patten will have to step up big. Don’t even try to run any deep stuff on Dallas — it won’t work. The Giants will have to use execution and well-designed schemes to get open. Flood zones with receivers, drag a receiver across the field to clear out the area for another receiver. Run crossing patterns, slants, and screens. We saw a lot of this at training camp, but not as much during the regular season except for the Philly game. The Giants will have to pass when Dallas expects them to run and visa versa because the Giants simply do not have the talent right now on offense to beat the Cowboys straight-up.
This game will probably come down to how well the Giants’ offensive line plays against the Dallas defensive line. Scott Gragg versus Tony Tolbert will be key. Both the guards must win their battles regularly against the Dallas DT’s (Casillas, Hennings, Anderson, Benson).
The Giants also need a big game from Dave Brown. It would be nice to see the Giants win BECAUSE of Dave Brown, instead of DESPITE of him. Of course Brown needs help from his offensive teammates, but he also needs to make something happen on his own from time to time. Leadership in the huddle will be necessary to make sure everyone keeps their heads about them and their concentration. A timely and well-executed audible may prove decisive.
Giants on Defense: Dallas is a team ready to explode offensively. The key for the Giants is to make sure it doesn’t happen this week. Opposing teams keep hurting Dallas with the blitz and thus far, Dallas has not compensated. It will only be a matter of time since the Cowboys are spending much of their practice time on this. We actually might be more wary of blitzing this week because Dallas has game-planned so much for it and has seen the Giants do so much of it in other games. It’s a tough call because Troy Aikman really doesn’t like to get hit too much (who does?). However, Aikman is still the most accurate quarterback in the league and Michael Irvin is back to his old form. The Giants are paying Phillippi Sparks and Jason Sehorn the big money to take out receivers like this. It’s showtime for them. Anthony Miller can be dangerous deep, but the guy that makes us nervous is Billy Davis who had an impressive preseason. Because Aikman likes to throw short too, the Giants’ underneath coverage (Garnes and the linebackers) need to have a big game against the tight ends (Eric Bjornson and David LaFleur) as well as Daryl Johnston and Emmitt Smith.
The Cowboys most likely will really try to force the issue by getting their running game going. Smith has been largely bottled up this season so far. The Dallas offensive line isn’t as strong as it has been in the past, but the Cowboys do have better blocking from the tight end position now — especially from LaFleur. If Emmitt Smith and/or Sherman Williams get untracked, forget it. For all the attention Aikman and Irvin get, Dallas has always been a run-oriented team. Shut down the run and you force them to pass more than they would like to. The Giant fans, press, and players have been touting the play of the defense this week. Sunday, they get a real test. Any let up by the front seven in run defense will cost the Giants the game.
Giants on Special Teams: The Cowboys have the best-coached special teams in the league. Dallas often wins games because of their special team play — returns, coverage, blocks, field goal kicking, etc. To have a chance in the game, the Giants must at least perform as well as Dallas on Sunday on special teams — no easy feat. Brad Daluiso needs to rebound. Failed field goals not only take points off the board, but they are momentum changers and the youthful Giants still have a vulnerable psyche. Coverage needs to remain strong and blocking on returns needs to continue to improve. Forcing some sort of turnover could prove to be huge.