Cris Collinsworth Ruthlessly Pointed Out One Thing the Cowboys Kept Doing Wrong in Loss to Giants

The Cowboys entered Sunday night’s season opener against the Giants looking to make a statement against their bitter rivals. Instead, they looked like the same old franchise that can’t get out of its way in big moments and now seem destined to have another disappointing year in which they don’t come close to living up to their own high expectations.

Dallas’s defense was an embarrassment all night long. It allowed Jaxson Dart to throw for three easy touchdowns and 230 yards with zero interceptions. Cam Skattebo ran for 81 yards and a touchdown and New York was able to make a statement of its own with a 28–20 win in John Harbaugh’s debut at MetLife Stadium.

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These stats shared by The Ringer’s Sheil Kapadia show just how bad of a game the Cowboys’ defense had against the Giants.

Based on EPA/drive, the Cowboys had the worst defensive performance by any team in Week 1.

It was worse than all but one of their defensive games last year.

Among 574 games since the start of last season, it ranked 571st.

7 possessions: 4 TDs, 1 punt, 1 fumble, ran clock out.
— Sheil Kapadia (@SheilKapadia) September 14, 2026

Cris Collinsworth was on the call for NBC, and in the fourth quarter he pointed out how the Cowboys kept getting burned by short swing passes that they couldn’t come close to stopping.

“Once again, the Cowboys are rolling a corner over here to Malik Nabers. It would be one thing if they dropped the safety down but they’re not doing that, either,” Collinsworth said. “So they’ve got two guys to that side and this little soft swing pass is just wide open. They can’t defend it the way they’re playing it defensively.”

When Collinsworth was done with that analysis, Dart hit Devin Singletary on a soft swing pass, and the running back took it into the end zone to give the Giants a 28-14 lead with 7:26 left in the fourth quarter.

This was some incredible timing:

Cris Collinsworth: "But Mike, once again... This little soft swing pass is just wide open. They can't defend it the way they're playing it defensively... " https://t.co/svK8G4UhvD pic.twitter.com/EMdg57woCo
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 14, 2026

Collinsworth then followed up with this breakdown of what the Cowboys were doing wrong so often in the game.

“So, once again now, here comes the motion across,” Collinsworth said. “They’re going to run it here, swing it out. And that play, it’s been basically the same play at the end of the first half that got them, and now it’s sort of the same play here in the second half. They’ve just been voiding a certain area of the field. And give credit to these New York Giant coaches. When they find something that’s working, they are just hammering it. They did it in the first half, and they’re doing it again here.”

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Collinsworth then showed multiple examples of how short swing passes were killing the Cowboys’ defense

Collinsworth put a bow on his issues with the Cowboys’ defense by showing a collection of similar plays that burned Dallas throughout the game.

Cris Collinsworth: "It is just the same mistake being repeated time after time in key sequences of the game that really is just killing this (Cowboys) defense." pic.twitter.com/erncLGnCmJ
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 14, 2026

“Remember at the end of the first half they were taking away all those throws underneath and not getting deep? This one is just the opposite,” Collinsworth said while breaking down the replays. “Now they’re double-teaming Nabers down the field and leaving the flat wide open. Same thing, once again, double-team Nabers, nobody in the flat, free offense up and down the field. This time it’s Isaiah Likely—but same deal nobody in the flat and they walk in. So it’s just the same mistake being repeated time after time in key sequences of the game that are really just killing the defense.”

Earlier in the game, Collinsworth couldn’t believe what he saw from the Cowboys’ defense when they left Likely wide open in the end zone for an easy touchdown that gave New York a 14–7 lead right before halftime.

“I thought I saw some bad defense out of the Cowboys last year,” Collinsworth said. “That sequence was as bad as it gets. They’re going to leave this corner completely wide open against Isaiah Likely who has been destroying them the entire half. I don’t know who’s blowing these coverages out here in the defensive left flat but they had two guys chasing the wide receiver that was three yards down the field and nobody on the corner route in behind.”

It was a miserable night for the Cowboys, and now they will try to fix things in a hurry before hosting the Commanders in Week 2.

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