The New York Giants (7-3) head down to Big D to face the Dallas Cowboys (7-3) in a rare Thanksgiving Day matchup between the two rivals.
Here are five things to know about the Week 12 game.
Giants' Turkey Day history
The Giants and Cowboys have met 121 times since Dallas entered the NFL in 1960, but have played just once on Thanksgiving Day despite being division rivals for most of those 62 seasons.
That came in 1992 at Texas Stadium — a 30-3 pounding at the hands of Jimmy Johnson’s dynastic Cowboys.
The Giants have played a total of 15 times on Thanksgiving since 1926, posting a 7-5-3 record. All 15 games have been on the road. This is only the Giants’ fifth appearance on Thanksgiving since 1938.
Their other three post-1938 games were in 1982 in Detroit (when Lawrence Taylor returned an interception 97 yards for the winning touchdown), followed by two depressing losses: 26-6 at Denver in 2009 and 20-13 at Washington in 2017.
The Giants have traditionally begged out of playing on the holiday because of the travel and the competitive imbalance and wanted the team home with their families for the holiday.
The Odell Bowl
It’s been reported that former Giants All-Pro wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. will make a decision on his 2022 team after Thursday’s game. The Cowboys and Giants are two of the five teams Beckham is reportedly considering signing with along with Kansas City, Buffalo and San Francisco.
Veteran NFL reporter Adam Schefter wrote on Monday that no team has shown a greater interest in Beckham than the Cowboys:
From team owner and general manager Jerry Jones to players such as Micah Parsons, the Cowboys have been almost openly universal in campaigning for Beckham to come to Dallas.
It will take about $5 million to lure Beckham in for the last quarter of the season.
Dallas is expected to roll
The Cowboys are healthy and smashed the Vikings, 40-3, on the road on Sunday and look as if they are finally putting things together.
The Giants, meanwhile, seem to get a new injury every five minutes. They struggled on Sunday against the surging Lions as Saquon Barkley was held to 22 yards rushing on 15 attempts and Daniel Jones threw two picks.
Dallas opened as a 7.5-favorites on Monday morning and that jumped to -8 very quickly.
This is a rivalry game and we know they can be unpredictable, but this one has a one-sided feel.
The pass rush has been quiet
The Giants came into training camp with high hopes for their pass rush. Azeez Ojulari racked up 8.0 sacks as a rookie last year and the team went out and got him a partner in first round pick Kayvon Thibodeaux to get pressure from both edges.
That vision has yet to be realized. Ojulari has played in only two games this season due to a calf injury. Thibodeaux began the year with an MC sprain and has had difficulty asserting the dominance he displayed in college.
The Giants’ sack leader is defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence with 5.0. No one else has more than 2.0.
This week, they face Dak Prescott and the Cowboys’ pass protection, which is tops in the league allowing just 1.4 sacks per game.
Some salient points
The Giants had difficulty springing Barkley on Sunday versus Detroit but they just might be able to get back on track as Dallas is allowing 173.3 yards per game on the ground over their last three games. There’s hope there.
Dallas has been stingy allowing the second fewest passing yards (149.7) over that span, so the Giants are up against it on Thursday.
Daniel Jones, if you want to prove your worth, make it happen in this game.
