Cowboys: Five keys to beating the Giants in Week 1

The Dallas Cowboys kick off their season in familiar fashion – playing the Giants. Here are the five keys to the game…

Every week we’ll run through the Dallas Cowboys strengths and weakness and see how they compare to their opponent’s strengths and weakness. From there we will build the Five Keys to the Game.

This week the Cowboys take on the Giants. The strengths and weakness of both clubs are well known. Can the Cowboys do what they failed to do last season and beat the Giants? If they can succeed in these five keys, the answer will be “yes”.

Win First Down

The Dallas Cowboys are a different team when they win first down. Last season they dominated on first down averaging 6.17 yards per attempt. From there they were able to work with manageable second and third downs. And since converting those is key to sustaining drives and scoring points, first downs are the first key to this week one game.

Rushing yards won’t be easy to come by since the Giants have one of the very best run-stopping lines in the NFL (No 2 in 2016), so the Cowboys will need to mix in more first down passes than they traditionally play.

Limit Big Plays

Defensively, the Cowboys main task will be to limit the big play. It’s still unknown if Odell Beckham Jr will play or not. His status will have a huge impact on the game – primarily the big play element. But whether he plays or not, the Cowboys secondary has to show better discipline than they did in the preseason when their starting safeties missed their assignments on multiple occasions.

Push Up the Middle

The entire Giants attack is built around their passing game. When healthy, they boast arguably the best receiving corps in the NFL. The key to stopping them is to get to Eli Manning – the only problem is Eli has one of the quickest releases in the league and the Giants run a ton of 3-step drops. Those two things make it very difficult for edge rushers and outside blitzers to make it to the pocket. Therefore, the best way to rush the pass is to do it in the middle with the defensive tackles. The Cowboys need a big day from Maliek Collins.

Cole Beasley

Lately I’ve been talking incessantly about Cole Beasley. While it may be 10 percent man-crush, it’s 90 percent football based. Cole Beasley is impossible to cover and now that he’s developed a trusting relationship with Dak Prescott, he’s going to show the NFL he’s impossible to stop.

The Giants are stacked in the secondary with top-flight outside corners and an All-Pro safety. Their only weakness is in the slot, and as we all know, the slot is where Bease resides.

Tackle

This one seems obvious but it’s something the Dallas Cowboys struggled with in the preseason: sound tackling. The Cowboys must find a way to get back to their gang-tackling roots and not allow the Giants to collect those painful yards after contact.

Next: Why Cole Beasley will lead the team in receptions again in 2017

The initial hitter needn’t knock his target on his butt every hit, but he must find a way to wrap up and stop his progress. If the rest of the team swarms to the ball like they’re supposed to, broken tackles can be avoided. Again, this was an issue that hurt the Cowboys in the preseason and was supposed to be vanquished with the loss of hit-or-miss tackler, J.J. Wilcox.

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