Giants DC Dennard Wilson Outlines Plan to Help Giants Defense Cut Down on DPIs

Forty percent of the Giants Week 1 penalties came down to DPIs.

New York Giants defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson | Patricia Traina, New York Giants On SI

The New York Giants turned in a mostly solid Week 1 performance against the Dallas Cowboys, but there were still a few glaring issues from a Big Blue defensive perspective that caught defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson’s attention.

The Giants allowed the Cowboys to convert 72.7% of their third-down attempts — the second-worst conversion rate allowed by a defense in Week 1, behind only the Dallas defense, which allowed an 81.8% conversion rate. 

That obviously has to change moving forward, but fortunately for the Giants, Wilson knows what went wrong and how to approach fixing it.

“First and foremost, leveraging on route concepts,” he said on Thursday. “There were some plays where we were supposed to have outside leverage, and we gave up outside leverage. A couple of those third downs were penalties.”

Speaking of penalties, those were also a big issue for the Giants defense in Week 1, with Dallas having five first downs on offense as a result of Giants penalties.

Of particular concern for the Giants as far as penalties went were the four defensive pass interference calls. New York finished with 69 DPI penalty yards, the second most by a team in that penalty category in Week 1, behind the Arizona Cardinals, who had 72.

“That's the number one thing we need to correct going forward: the penalties,” Wilson said. “When you look at the game, the penalties hurt us. All the penalties led to scoring points, right? So, we got to clean up that part of it.”

What Needs to Change

New York Giants cornerback Dru Phillips (22) reacts as he receives a pass interference penalty during a week one opening game between the New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys at Metlife Stadium on Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026, in East Rutherford, NJ. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Wilson said the key point for players on avoiding an influx of DPI calls boils down to cleaning up their hands.

“You don't need to grab. We are in position at the top of the route,” he said. “It's just cleaning up our hands. We're going to be physical. We're going to challenge people. But at the top of the route, we have to understand how they're going to call it. And it's no excuse.

“When they get to the top of the route, we can't grab. We can be in the pocket, understand where your leverage is, where your help is, and everything else, but we have to clean that up. We cannot hurt our team and hurt our defense by getting penalties. And that's something that we're going to correct.”

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