One drive late in the fourth quarter Monday night against the Dallas Cowboys summed up the state of the Giants perfectly. Trailing by 7 with about seven minutes remaining, Daniel Jones threw two of his best passes of the night, but his receivers, Sterling Shepard and Kenny Golladay, dropped them.

The drive stalled at the Giants’ 22-yard line, and KaVontae Turpin’s punt return put the Cowboys in position for a 44-yard field goal, essentially sealing the contest, which finished as a 23-16 Dallas victory.

“You can’t let these things linger, just like you can’t let a win linger,” the Giants’ first-year coach, Brian Daboll, said in a postgame news conference. “To ride the roller coaster, there’s going to be a lot of ups and downs throughout the year with any team.”
The optimism that had surrounded the Giants’ first 2-0 start since 2016 quickly turned to frustration as the game opened with a sloppy first half. Both teams missed field-goal attempts, and the game went into halftime with the Cowboys ahead, 6-3. Dallas receiver CeeDee Lamb also dropped a potential touchdown pass.