The New York Giants outplayed the Dallas Cowboys but settled for five field goals in a 20-15 defeat Thursday night against its division rival.
"You can't be settling by kicking five field goals and hope to win in the NFL," guard Jon Runyan said, . "You get down to the red zone, you gotta put touchdowns on the board."
Big Blue generated more yards (303 to 293), more first downs (16 to 14), more passing yards (277 to 213), fewer accepted penalties (4 to 11), and earned a better time of possession (35:37 to 24:23). Against a Cowboys team that crushed them in the recent past, the Giants allowed just one sack and didn't give up a second-half touchdown.
Yet, New York continually settled for field goals.
On its first four non-kneel possessions, the Giants called veteran Greg Joseph to put three points on the board. New York went 0-for-2 in the red zone and 0-for-1 in goal-to-go situations.
"Very frustrating," quarterback Daniel Jones said. "Very frustrating. We're expected to score touchdowns and put points on the board. And in a game that I felt like we were able to do a lot and move the ball well and execute a lot of stuff well, we didn't execute the red zone stuff and didn't punch it in so that's frustrating."
Coach Brian Daboll went for it on fourth down several times Thursday night, going 3-of-4, but eschewed several opportunities to take a shot at the end zone early. The most questionable was booting a fourth field goal despite driving down to the 3-yard-line early in the third quarter. Had Big Blue punched that in, the game might have unfolded differently.
The Giants have yet to score a touchdown in two home games this season -- five field goals Thursday night and two FGs in Week 1 versus Minnesota.
Facing a team that put up 40 burgers in two blowouts last season, Daboll's team showed improvement, particularly along the revamped offensive line. However, the results remained unchanged, as Big Blue lost its seventh straight to Dallas.
"Again, the result stinks," he said. "But I thought there was improvement. I think there's been continual improvement of the results. Last week we got the result we wanted (a victory in Cleveland), this week we didn't. Which is hurtful. It hurts, it's painful, you work your butt off."
