There was no baffling decision that left the Giants short on Thursday night. No big missed pass or ugly turnover to define this game, and certainly no silly uniform combination to mock. The Giants appear to have outgrown – or at least exacerbated – the elements that led to their first two losses of the season.

This also wasn’t an embarrassingly lopsided game like it was the last time these Cowboys came to MetLife Stadium to start the 2023 season.

There was no cheering. There was no early abandonment of seats by the home fans to cede the building for the visiting party. There were even loud cheers when the final score of the Yankee game and a look at their champagne-soaked clubhouse in the Bronx were shown on the scoreboard in the third quarter, perhaps hoping that some of that pinstripe magic would make its way to the other side find. the George Washington Bridge.

That didn’t happen.

The Giants lost to their most furious rival. 20-15, not because of anything dramatic or worth shouting about. They lost because they are not yet good enough to win these games. It really was that simple.

Even with strong play from Daniel Jones at quarterback (29-for-40, 291 yards), a 115-yard receiving effort from rookie sensation Malik Nabers, and a defense that held Dallas to no touchdowns in the second half, the Giants fail to get their long-awaited series victory.

After spending the last few days talking about how this was a “new” team and a “new” phase of this feud, the Giants were saddled with a very old, very tired outcome. They came into this game with a staggering anomaly on their team, as there were no active players who had ever scored a touchdown for them against the Cowboys. They left the same way.

They kept it close and fought, but they are clearly not a team with the talent to compete against opponents like Dallas. The Cowboys may not be a great team this season, but they are still better than the Giants and they showed that on Thursday night.

The Giants have obviously closed the gap a bit – or maybe the Cowboys have fallen back to them, it was hard to tell – but they’re still one of the weaklings in their division. They have been working on that for a long time. They have now lost seven in a row to the Cowboys and lost to Washington in Week 2, leaving them at the bottom of these early standings.

Coming out a short week after their victory in Cleveland on Sunday, they seemed to keep their season afloat. The Giants were limited to five field goals and gave up two big passing plays with a broken secondary. Dak Prescott threw a 15-yard swing pass to running back Rico Dowdle with 2:06 left in the first quarter that looked like it would be negated by the two flags thrown, but the officials waved off any fouls they probably thought they saws. Then, after the Giants closed to 7-6, Prescott launched a deep pass for CeeDee Lamb down the right sideline. Cornerback Deonte Banks was beat for the catch, rookie safety Tyler Nubin took a bad angle to help him, and Lamb eluded both players to complete the 55-yard catch-and-run.

The Giants offense had a few chances to reach the end zone, painfully close on the first possession of the second half as they drove all the way to the 3. From there, however, Brian Daboll decided to kick a field goal rather than risk coming away with nothing. Greg Joseph’s kick cut Dallas’ lead to 14-12. However, Cowboys kicker Brandon Aubrey made a 60-yard field goal on the ensuing possession to split the teams at 17-12.

After Aubrey’s 40-yard field goal made it 20-15 with 6:56 remaining, and with Cowboys star defenders Trevon Diggs and Micah Parsons both dealing with injuries, the Giants embarked on a drive that ultimately decided the game . On fourth-and-1 from their own 39, they converted on a 2-yard run by Devin Singletary, but on fourth-and-6 from their 45, Jones’ pass to Nabers failed. The receiver nearly made a spectacular catch along the sideline as his toes dragged in after Jones scrambled to his left, but the ball was not caught cleanly and was correctly ruled incomplete. Adding to the long-term concerns, Nabers suffered a concussion during the game.

Aubrey missed a 51-yard field goal with 28 seconds left to give the Giants one last chance to prove themselves. From his own 41, Jones threw two incompletions before a desperation pass for Jalin Hyatt was intercepted down the right sideline.

Tom Rock started covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became the NFL columnist in 2022. He previously served as Newsday’s Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.