Jerry Jones made a big promise before the team’s visit to MetLife. “I can assure you, we’re going to have a better defense than we had last year.”  

But by the time the Cowboys left Jersey, they hadn’t just lost the game by 8 points; their defensive record was worse than last season. And when Jerry Jones had to face the consequences, he admitted it was a problem the Cowboys caused for themselves. 

During an appearance on 105.3 The Fan on September 15, Jones explained his side of the Week 1 loss. 

“We’re all very disappointed. Having said that, though, the question is, ‘OK, what are we going to do about it?’” 

In the weeks building up to the game, Jones had hyped their massive defensive rebuild as the answer, then Week 1 exposed the whole thing. The 28-20 loss to the Giants made the unit look unfinished, not improved. The team conceded nearly 400 scrimmage yards in a single game. 

And Jones admitted it himself. The same problems Dallas spent all offseason trying to fix showed up again.

“The very things that, frankly, caused us to not win that ballgame are the things we should be working on and were working on going into the game,” Jones said. “Communication. The communication aspects of it. Just being out of position.”

Objectively, Dallas created its own mess. They changed so much on defense that the unit looked like it was still figuring itself out in real time. Eight new starters, a new coordinator in Christian Parker, a formation they had never played under, different coverage rules, and unfamiliar teammates all hit at once.

The offense managed just 41 yards on its first two possessions, and the defense gave New York an opening almost immediately. Jaxson Dart broke loose for 22 yards, then DeMarvion Overshown added 15 more with an unnecessary roughness penalty after hitting him out of bounds. 

Four plays later, Cam Skattebo scored untouched to finish a 10-play, 83-yard drive. The Giants led 7-0, and Dallas already looked undisciplined. Even though they would go on to tie the game and cause a turnover, Prescott threw an interception; Dallas’ defense completely lost its assignments on the very next Giants possession.

“Definitely the turning point in the game,” Jones said of the interception.

Jaxson Dart completed three straight passes to uncovered targets, with the last one going to Isaiah Likely, who was standing alone in the back of the end zone for a 15-yard touchdown. Dallas had gone from having a takeaway and a chance to grab the lead to trailing 14-7 because the defense could not get lined up or communicate its coverage properly.

Then the Giants came out of halftime and went straight for Dallas’ weak spots. New York marched 74 yards in 12 plays, never even faced a third down, and Dart completed all five of his passes for 49 yards. Then he found Isaiah Likely again for a 2-yard touchdown to make it 21-7.

By then, Dallas was not just getting beaten. The Giants had found the weak spots, and by the fourth quarter, they were attacking them at will.

Dart ran on four straight plays, then New York kept feeding Devin Singletary in the left flat because the Cowboys still could not adjust. Singletary finished the drive with a 9-yard touchdown to make it 28-14. Dallas answered to cut it to 28-20 with 5:21 left, but a taunting penalty and missed extra point made the comeback even harder. Then came the final embarrassment: Prescott never touched the ball again.

New York owned more than 21 minutes of the second half, finished with 36:40 of possession overall, and burned the final 5:16 to end it. Dallas needed one last stop and could not even get that.

But how did the same team that had positive outings against the Los Angeles Rams and the Seahawks in the preseason go to a lackluster showing against the Giants? Well, Jones has an explanation. 

“We frankly, as you well know, in training camp, and in the preseason games, we really didn’t test out in a game-type situation,” Jones said. “This game was very much in the air as to what we would have.”

“The facts are, we got a lot of new people on defense doing different things than they’ve been doing. So, that’s got to come together,” he added.

And Jones was not alone in thinking Dallas had enough to make this work. Four of NFL.com’s five analysts picked the Cowboys to win, largely buying into the same confidence surrounding the rebuild. Only one went the other way, picking the Giants 24-23 and warning that Dallas’ overhauled defense was still a major question mark.

The One Analyst Who Saw Dallas’ Defensive Problems Coming

Brooke Cersosimo was the only one on NFL.com’s five-person panel who picked the Giants, going 24-23. While the other four backed Dallas, she looked past the offseason hype and focused on the bigger problem: this was still a defense that had finished 2025 dead last in scoring and 30th in yards allowed.

Instead of assuming a new coordinator and fresh talent had fixed everything, Cersosimo questioned whether the unit was actually ready, especially against a Giants team that simply looked better. 

Cam Skattebo was healthy, Malik Nabers was nearing a return, and Odell Beckham was back. Four analysts trusted Dallas’ rebuild. Cersosimo questioned whether it had actually come together yet. Week 1 gave her plenty of evidence. And the Giants did not waste much time proving her point.

Both teams entered Week 1 after making major changes, but only one looked ready to handle them. New York’s new pieces produced immediately. Dallas was still trying to figure out where they were supposed to be.