Giants' report card vs. Cowboys in NFL Week 18
Interim head coach Mike Kafka of the New York Giants looks on during the second half against the Dallas Cowboys at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, Jan. 4, 2025 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Credit: Jim McIsaac
OFFENSE: B
Jaxson Dart didn’t have many of his usual pass-catchers — Wan’Dale Robinson and Theo Johnson were out — and was playing without two starting O-linemen but made things work by employing Gunner Olszewski (eight catches, 102 yards), Daniel Bellinger (a 29-yard TD catch and run off a magical “turn-two” flip) and Tyrone Tracy Jr. (eight catches for 56 yards, including a 13-yard score). Tracy also ran for 103 yards. Darius Slayton nearly had a signature moment with a 72-yard touchdown catch but was flagged for offensive pass interference.
DEFENSE: C+
If Dak Prescott and Jaydon Blue had played the whole game, we’d have a better barometer for this effort. But Bobby Okereke did have two takeaways — a fumble recovery and a pick — and a third would-be turnover for the Giants was overturned by review. The Giants held Dallas to a 2-for-8 showing on third downs and limited the Cowboys to 286 yards and two TDs. The Cowboys had only two touchdown drives, and one of them was 11 yards in two plays set up by a long kickoff return.
SPECIAL TEAMS: B
Have the Giants found a kicker? Rookie Ben Sauls gave them four field goals on Sunday and finished the season 8-for-8 in the final three games after stepping into the job vacated by other kickers’ disappointing efforts. The best play of the game, though, was when Art Green downed a first-quarter punt at the Cowboys’ 1. Green made a TD-saving tackle on KaVontae Turpin’s 84-yard return, too, but the Cowboys scored a touchdown two plays later. The unit gets a deduction for allowing the breakaway play to begin with.
COACHING: B
Mike Kafka has shown that he isn’t shy about challenging calls, and early on, he did that as he tried to get an incompletion changed to a fumble. It didn’t work. What did work was the way the Giants used the clock at the end of the first half, getting the ball with 2:49 left, converting on second-and-21 and scoring a TD on third-and-16 with 20 seconds remaining to go ahead 16-10. Kafka might not be the next full-time head coach of the Giants, but he’ll be someone’s head coach someday soon.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
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