The Cowboys Are Already Paying the Price for a Preseason Decision After Losing to the Giants

D Dallas lost 28-20 to the Giants in the season opener and gave up 394 yards. Christian Parker's new unit went into the first game without having played a single preseason game with its starters on the field.

América's team wrapped up its preseason by rebuilding a defense that desperately needed a fresh start, and expectations were high.

The Giants found too many open spaces

This Sunday night, the Cowboys finally showed the results of their strategy.

The Cowboys were unable to start the season with a win. The 28-20 loss to the Giants also exposed several defensive issues that Dallas will need to address quickly: New York gained 394 yards, dominated possession, and found ways to score both on the ground and through the air.

A decision made during the offseason now seems more interesting. The Cowboys did not play their projected defensive starters together during the preseason. Christian Parker took over as coordinator, and Dallas added several new players. However, the starters barely played any minutes together during the preseason—a decision intended to protect them from potential injuries.

The reason was understandable. Dallas wanted to avoid unnecessary injuries and believed that joint practices and training camp provided sufficient preparation.

That lack of experience in actual games seemed to be a factor against New York. The Giants rushed for 165 yards, quarterback Jaxson Dart completed 23 of 29 passes for 230 yards and three touchdowns, and Dallas struggled to get off the field. New York converted an extraordinary 9 of 10 third downs.

That dominance was reflected in their possession of the ball. The Giants had the ball for more than 36 minutes and forced Dallas to defend for long drives . On third downs, New York also converted nine of its ten attempts.

For a defense that is still learning a new system, the lack of collective playing time can become a problem. The Cowboys held practices over the summer, but the demands of an official game are different, and the first test revealed several visible issues that the coaching staff and players need to address.

Brian Schottenheimer acknowledged that his team was outmatched physically by the Giants . The coach will also need to analyze why a defense that had undergone so many changes was unable to contain New York's offense during the early stages of the game.

It is still too early to determine whether the decision to rest the starters during the preseason had any real negative impact. The season has just begun, and the defense will have time to improve its coordination.

But the first game revealed a statistic that’s hard to ignore: 394 yards allowed. Against Washington, Dallas will have its first chance to prove that the problems in its season opener were just a one-time occurrence and not a sign of a deeper weakness.