2026 Season | Week 1 | Gameday Chatter Thread | Cowboys @ Giants | 09/13/2026

[Simpleton]

The good news is I don't think Parker is an idiot. I think he will figure some shit out. And I do think he has some players to work with.

The talent level is definitely higher this year, and I'm sure they'll get better, but the issue is that getting better from possibly the worst defense in the league currently might just mean you're the 25th best in the league.

That's nowhere near good enough to even sniff the playoffs, so they're going to need to make basically a quantum leap just to be average.

 

[Stars]

I dont want to be too harsh on the defense because I understand it’s week one, but in this day and age? It’s literally better to gamble and give up a big play than get smashed in the mouth with runs and throws to the flat until your offense never gets the ball. That’s just bad. (And I don’t mean last year when teams could go long on us or run us over by choice)

Oh well, stupid penalties, caused I think 3 fumbles and recovered none of them. Miss a somewhat easy int. Dropped passes.

Bad luck, bad coaching, bad playing. Hoping this is the low point of the season.

 

[Simpleton]

I dont want to be too harsh on the defense because I understand it’s week one, but in this day an age? It’s literally better to gamble and give up a big play than get smashed in the mouth with runs and throws to the flat until your offense never gets the ball. That’s just bad. (And I don’t mean last year when teams could go long on us or run us over by choice)

Oh well, stupid penalties, caused I think 3 fumbles and recovered none of them Miss a somewhat easy int. Dropped passes.

Bad luck, bad coaching, bad playing. Hoping this is the low point of the season.

They deserve all the blame, when it's 2nd and 15 with 3 minutes left and you let a simple RB draw that any HS team could anticipate pop for 12, that's just being a bad defense.

Not sure who or what to blame, but there's no way around it. No measure of schematic decisions would help when the players don't know what they're doing.

 

[Stars]

Also Simpleton, you may be right. I’ve kinda liked Schott but he may not be it. We definitely do a lot of stupid things still.

 

[NoDak]

If we lose next week it's time to start hoping for a top 10 pick and a new QB, one way or the other.

You’d better hope the packers shit the bed too then.

 

[Simpleton]

This is literally a carbon copy of last year's defense at its lowest:

1st drive - TD
2nd drive - Punt
3rd drive - Fumble recovered inside the red zone, would've been at least a FG if not for an amazing but flukey play from Quinnen
4th drive - TD
5th drive - TD
6th drive - TD
7th drive - end of game after 12 plays and multiple 1st downs

Last year I remember being amazed at how the defense would consistently go entire games getting maybe 1-2 stops and giving up points on every other drive, and this shit is exactly the same.

 

[Simpleton]

You’d better hope the packers shit the bed too then.

Yes, of course I am and they seem well on their way at the moment.

 

[data]

Mingo had a catch tonight

 

[SaveAHorseRideACowboy]

they did what they wanted… plain and simple. What pisses me off the most is not getting beat by their best player in Nabers.. we got beat my Isiah Likely…really? … this was a lazy , gutless performance to start a season …

Offense ( C ) : offense had some bright spots. We didn’t run the ball very well. Dak didn’t look comfortable. A couple of drops by Pickens and 2 bonehead plays on the Dak pick and the Javonte unsportsmanlike cost us 8 points .

Defense ( F ) : no answer against the run or pass…got beat by a second string TE all night long . People wide open running free. Making the same mistakes over and over.

Special teams ( F ) : Turpin was nonexistent…and Aubrey misses a extra point ( I know it was further out than usual but he bangs that all day )

Coaching ( F ) : this team was not physically or mentally prepared for this game . Stupid mistakes, poor play calling …a completely listless effort

 

[NoDak]

Well, the good news is we finally got our preseason work out of the way.

The bad news is it cost us a loss to get it. To a division rival we should have handled easily, no less.

 

[Stars]

they did what they wanted… plain and simple. What pisses me off the most is not getting beat by their best player in Nabers.. we got beat my Isiah Likely…really? … this was a lazy , gutless performance to start a season …

Offense ( C ) : offense had some bright spots. We didn’t run the ball very well. Dak didn’t look comfortable. A couple of drops by Pickens and 2 bonehead plays on the Dak pick and the Javonte unsportsmanlike cost us 8 points .

Defense ( F ) : no answer against the run or pass…got beat by a second string TE all night long . People wide open running free. Making the same mistakes over and over.

Special teams ( F ) : Turpin was nonexistent…and Aubrey misses a extra point ( I know it was further out than usual but he bangs that all day )

Coaching ( F ) : this team was not physically or mentally prepared for this game . Stupid mistakes, poor play calling …a completely listless effort

Yep. Spot on

 

[data]

105.3 Interview with Brad Sham:

Broaddus: What happened, Brad
Brad Sham: Giants played better in every facet. They pushed the Cowboys around. We'll be surprised if that happens again, though. Cowboys made uncharacteristic penalties, like Javonte Williams one.

The defensive mistakes strike me as miscommunication. Four straight left flat passes to Singletary, for instance. That will not be a thing going forward. It's not the players. The players are better than last year, but they need to communicate better. Wasn't a single facet Cowboys were better. Got slapped in the face. We'll see what happens next week.

Broaddus: Why did Cowboys defense have miscommunication
Brad Sham: C'mon, Broaddus
Broaddus: I'm just asking the question.
Brad Sham: C'mon, Broaddus
Broaddus: I'm conducting an interview. Can you just answer the question?
Brad Sham: Answer is simple. They've never played a game together. You can work on things in practice until they're blue in the face
Broaddus: And the Giants have?
Brad Sham: Giants were better. But Cowboys looked like they've never played together. Overshown was overrunning plays. I didn't think it'd be that bad, but I'd be shocked if they didn't have lots of mistakes, lots of uncertainty. When we you don't play together at all, 8 of the 12 players (Caleb played 90% and I consider him a 12th starter), they've never played together. If they play like that again, then it's a coaching problem. Tonight was worse than I expected, though.

Sham: There was one series with Singletary getting four plays in a row in the flat -- that's a mental thing, not physical. How many times did Jaxson Dart get out scrambling -- also a miscommunication problem. Coaches must've considered his scrambling ability
Broaddus: When you look at the tape tomorrow, you're going to see a physical problem. Getting off blocks, filling holes and none of that happened.
Sham: No doubt, that was the first half. Cowboys got bullied. I think Cowboys didn't think they could get bullied. I'll be shocked if we see that happen again.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

I'm surprised Brad thinks one game is the maximum time it will take to figure everything out.

I mean, you'll be shocked if the team gets bullied again? All year? The Giants aren't even a particularly good team.

 

[GShock]

You’d better hope the packers shit the bed too then.

Always.

 

[Simpleton]

I'm surprised Brad thinks one game is the maximum time it will take to figure everything out.

I mean, you'll be shocked if the team gets bullied again? All year? The Giants aren't even a particularly good team.

I agree in that I don't think they got bullied, they just didn't know what they were doing defensively, which is arguably worse.

Dart was running wild on broken plays and basic RPO's, that's not getting bullied, it's just blowing assignments and not knowing what the fuck you're doing.

The secondary clearly had no idea where they were supposed to be half the time.

 

[Smitty]

Can’t believe I fell for it again even with reduced expectations of this team merely being a double digit game winner.

This isn’t a playoff team.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

But whether it qualifies as being bullied or not, plenty of those Skattebo runs weren't anything fancy, they were just straight plays where they were more physical.

Doesn't mean that'll happen all year, but for tonight it was pretty ugly. I'm sure as usual, this team will respond better when people aren't blowing smoke up their asses all week and they realize they better step it up or else get embarrassed again.

 

[Simpleton]

And if we're being honest, the root of all this shit as always is Jerry.

Two years ago, after 2024, they were fine bringing back McCarthy but seemingly only at a certain price, so they just went ahead and made Schottenheimer the HC. No real HC search, no real consideration given to a top candidate like Ben Johnson (i.e. one of the best HC's in the NFC right now), just a haphazard sham of a "HC search" that would only happen in the most dysfunctional of professional sports organizations.

And I honestly believe that once Jerry is gone you won't get shit like that anymore. Stephen might be cheap, and he might not be willing to pay top dollar for a HC, but I don't think you'll see these situations where the organization stays in limbo for a week or two to see whether McCarthy will take a pay cut, and if not they'll just go with his OC.

I think at the very least you'll see the organization conduct itself normally like others do, even if they aren't willing to sell the farm for an "elite" HC.

 

[Simpleton]

But whether it qualifies as being bullied or not, plenty of those Skattebo runs weren't anything fancy, they were just straight plays where they were more physical.

Doesn't mean that'll happen all year, but for tonight it was pretty ugly. I'm sure as usual, this team will respond better when people aren't blowing smoke up their asses all week and they realize they better step it up or else get embarrassed again.

On a few plays, sure, but at one point he had like 12 carries for 40 yards, he got the majority of his yards late when the defense had completely folded.

Getting caught for 12 yards on a draw on 2nd and 15 with 3 minutes left isn't physical, it's just not having any awareness of the game/clock, not knowing what your job is, and basically just being a bunch of dogs chasing cars.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

And if we're being honest, the root of all this shit as always is Jerry.

Always. Does any other team not play starters at all in the preseason? The Rams, and they looked like shit their first game also. That's not the HC, that's Jerry.

Last thing, I was no Parcells mega fan, but I really miss him saying things like when asked about another team's issues, "I'm just trying to keep my own house from burning down." Or, "I'm embarrassed to put a team out there that plays like that. I just hope we win another game." All this Super Bowl talk needs to go away for good.