Giants running backs struggled to get going in the season opener. Tyrone Tracy Jr., Devin Singletary and Cam Skattebo combined for just 30 yards on 15 carries, with Tracy accounting for 24 of those yards. The second-year running back also caught two passes for 11 yards while seeing five targets in the passing game, the third-most on the team. Russell Wilson ended up leading the team with 44 yards on eight carries in Washington.
“I’d say it was a collective effort,” Daboll said Monday about the struggles in the run game. “Again, we just we never got into a rhythm in the early part of the downs, which affected it. The line of scrimmage, there was a play here, a play there, a block here, a read there, that we just kept getting behind the sticks and could never get into a good enough rhythm.”
“We missed on a few things, whether it was a block here or a read key here,” assistant head coach/offensive coordinator Mike Kafka added on Thursday. “Certain times of calling it. So really everybody just kind of getting back on the same page. And that’s what we focused on this week in our run game meetings, our game pods, just working through those details and making sure we’re all straight on the execution.”
Dallas had mixed results with the run defense in Week 1. The Eagles finished with 158 rushing yards on 38 attempts, good for an average of 4.2 yards per carry, with three touchdowns. However, quarterback Jalen Hurts finished with 62 yards and two of the touchdowns. Saquon Barkley, Will Shipley and AJ Dillon combined for 96 yards and one touchdown on 24 carries.
In his one start against the Cowboys last year, Tracy ran the ball nine times for 32 yards and a touchdown while adding two receptions for an additional 33 yards.
In the debut of the Giants’ new-look pass rush, Brian Burns put together his first multi-sack game as a member of the Giants. Burns took down Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels twice, which is no easy feat, and finished with six total tackles (two solo). The Giants finished with three sacks as a team, with the final one being split between Kayvon Thibodeaux and Abdul Carter. The three edge rushers were rotated onto the field throughout the game, which led to a combined nine quarterback pressures to go with the three sacks.
“We want to keep those guys as fresh as we can,” Daboll told reporters Monday. “I think they did a pretty good job relative to the roles. A couple things we can improve on in that area, but those three guys are going to play a lot. Try to balance out the numbers the best job you can so they can be as fresh as they can be.”
The pass rush is faced with another tough test this week. Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott does a great job of processing and getting the ball out of his hands quicky. The Eagles were unable to register a sack of Prescott last week, and for his career, the veteran quarterback has been sacked just 15 times in 15 games against the Giants.
“He’s an elite quarterback,” defensive coordinator Shane Bowen said about Prescott. “When he’s in rhythm and he can get the ball out of his hands in a hurry, he’s accurate. So we’re going to have to do a good job trying to affect him as best we can. But again, he’s got a ton of weapons. You talk about obviously CeeDee (Lamb), you’ve got (George) Pickens, you’ve got (Jake) Ferguson. (KaVontae) Turpin’s getting a little bit more tick for him now. It’s going to be a big challenge for us. Hopefully we do a really good job finding ways to affect them.”