Cowboys vs Giants Week 15: history, weather, key players, and projection

Cowboys vs Giants: “Under the Radar” Players

Dallas Cowboys: Anthony Brown, CB

New York Giants: Saquon Barkley, RB (I know, not very sneaky, but they have no one else healthy)

Anthony Brown was around the ball all day last Sunday against Washington and had two interceptions hit him right in the hands. I think he capitalizes this week and gets himself a takeaway.

With Trevon Diggs on the opposite side and a ball-hawking group all around, teams have targeted Brown a lot this year. He’s shown us the good and the bad. I know Cowboys fans love to bash Brown, but he has already put up career highs for tackles, pass deflections, and interceptions. Playing cornerback in the NFL may be the hardest position in all of sports, with the rules geared toward the offense. Brown has continued to deal with the criticism, handle the ups and downs, and still shows up.

With Kadarius Toney out, the Giants are without their burner. Brown should see a lot of Sterling Shepard and Kenny Golladay, two receivers I think he matches up with nicely. Neither are overly big or fast and Brown should be able to stick with them in man as long as he doesn’t get caught with his eyes in the backfield, as he has previously.

Give me a Brown interception and a couple of pass deflections this week as Glennon steers clear of Diggs and gives Brown ample opportunities to be a gamechanger for the Cowboys in Week 15.

The Giants are getting thin on offense. Toney and fellow receiver John Ross are out due to COVID-19 and they are starting a backup quarterback. Offensively, they are going to have to manufacture something from nothing and get creative.

While it isn’t really “under the radar” or surprising, Barkley is really the only chance the Giants have to hurt the Cowboys. I suspect we see an attempt to get him going early and shorten the game to limit the Cowboys scoring chances along with a heavy dose of Barkley in the passing game. Parsons and Barkley, two Penn State Nittany Lions going at it? Sign me up!

In all honesty, Barkley has struggled this year. He has 100 carries for just 379 yards.  His last five games have seen rushing totals of 9-25-40-55-64.

Just as we saw last week, I would love to see the Cowboys load the box with 7-8 defenders each down and go man coverage outside daring Glennon to beat them. I would expect Dan Quinn to shut down Barkley by loading the box and trusting the secondary on the back end in an effort to take away the Giants largest offensive threat.