Cowboys vs Giants: Key matchups and X-factors to watch
3 key Cowboys defensive matchups
Micah Parsons vs. Evan Neal
The worst offensive lineman on the Giants roster this season has been Evan Neal giving up just 2 sacks but an ungodly 22 pressures on the season. You already know that defensive coordinator Dan Quinn is going to line Micah Parsons on Neal's side to give him the best matchup. That could force Neal who has 2 offensive holding calls and 2 false start penalties this season to get a bit grabbier and more nervous at the line of scrimmage against Parsons.
Great news for Parsons who is most definitely going to get home in this game but if he can start drawing penalties on Neal it will keep this already depleted offense from gaining any type of momentum as they try to rally around their new starting quarterback.
Stephon Gilmore vs. Jalin Hyatt
There's one area that cornerback Stephon Gilmore has struggles this season and that's dealing with faster wide receivers. The crafty veteran has done a good job on a lot of the more intermiedate routes but if he is tasked with covering those faster receivers on fades, deep slants, or go routes the Cowboys could be in trouble. The Giants speedster Jalin Hyatt has started to be more involved in thier offense and if they have a chance to match him up against Gilmore they are going to take a shot down field on him.
The best case for Gilmore as the veteran will be to get his hands on Hyatt at the line of scrimmage to break up the timing between him and the quarterback. He isn't going to win a foot race against Hyatt and he knows it so he'll need to rely on his football IQ to try and slow down the young speedster. You may also get more deep safety help over the top just in case.
Damone Clark vs. Saquon Barkley
Clark has been playing well the last few weeks and if will really need to give the Cowboys another great game against these Giants. With Daniel Jones out the offense is going to literally run through Barkley, in both the running game and passing game. They aren't going to put this game in the hands of a rookie quarterback against this Cowboys defensive front, which means Clark is going to be seeing a lot of Barley in this game.
If Clark is able to fill lanes and slow this Giants running game forcing the ball into the hands of quarterback Tommy DeVito then he can consider his job done. If he can't and Barkley is able to keep the chains moving and give Devito third and short situations you can consider this a failure on Clark's part.