All night, you knew it was going to come back to haunt the Giants, and it did.
Failed opportunities on offense. Time after time after time after time … then some more.
The Giants offense was in a good flow.
Quarterback Daniel Jones was passing with precision touch.
His receivers were getting open and making big plays.
But alas, the Giants kept failing to cross the Dallas goal line, ending long offensive possessions settling for field goals.
The end result — Cowboys 20, Giants 15 in Thursday night’s NFC East showdown at MetLife Stadium — reflected the Giants’ missed opportunities.
The good news was the Giants making all five of their field goal attempts by fill-in kicker Greg Joseph, replacing the injured Graham Gano.
The bad news was Joseph’s field goals weren’t enough, not when the Cowboys were countering with touchdowns.
“We were able to throw the ball, but at the end of the day we’ve got to score points and score touchdowns,’’ receiver Wan’Dale Robinson said.
“We moved the ball well and drove it, but we didn’t finish,’’ Jones said. “[It’s] very frustrating. We’re expected to score touchdowns and put points on the board. We didn’t execute the red-zone stuff and didn’t punch it in. So that’s frustrating.’’
The first missed chance came when the Giants failed to convert after a 39-yard Jones third-down pass to dynamic rookie receiver Malik Nabers on their first possession and settled for the first of five Greg Joseph field goals, this one from 53 yards to take a 3-0 lead.
After the Cowboys took a 7-3 lead, the Giants ran 11 plays for 55 yards and stalled at the Dallas 22 before settling for a 41-yard Joseph field goal to make it 7-6.
Dallas responded by taking a 14-6 lead on a 55-yard Dak Prescott scoring pass to CeeDee Lamb, and this time the Giants offense traveled 52 yards on 15 plays in 8:10 and still couldn’t break the plane of the goal line.
This time, wasting a clutch fourth-down conversion from midfield, they settled for a 38-yard Joseph field goal to cut it to 14-9 Dallas.
The big squandered play on that possession was a dropped pass in the flat by Robinson, who had acres of green grass in front of him.
He might even have scored had he caught the pass.
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The Giants continued the disturbing trend of the night on the opening possession of the third quarter, driving the ball 77 yards on 11 plays in 6:18 before again stalling, this time in the red zone.
Faced with a fourth-and-goal from the Dallas 3-yard line, they settled for a 22-yard Joseph field goal — his fourth of the game. Jones was 6-for-6 for 75 yards on the drive that included five first downs.
The Giants offense was at it again in the fourth quarter, this time wasting a gutsy fourth-down call by head coach Brian Daboll and conversion by a Jones pass to Nabers on fourth-and-three from the Dallas 47.
Five plays after the fourth-down conversion, the Giants settled for a 42-yard Joseph field goal to cut the Dallas lead to 17-15 with 11:11 remaining in the game.
After the Cowboys took a 20-15 lead on a field goal with 6:54 remaining, Jones and the Giants had one more chance and failed.
There were many tantalizingly good things from the Giants offense, and yet not enough.
The only result that matters is that the loss dropped the Giants to 1-3 and they reside in last place in the NFC East.
“We just missed on a couple things,’’ Daboll said. “The result stinks, but I thought there was improvement. Last week we got the result we wanted [a win in Cleveland], this week we didn’t, which is hurtful. It hurts. It’s painful.’’
