The media is criticizing the New York Giants for losing another winnable game against a divisional opponent after Thursday night’s 20-15 loss to the Dallas Cowboys.
Sure, they had to settle for five field goals in this game and only entered the red zone twice, but if you look closely, the referees in that game did them no favors. You can see that I didn’t have any.
Back to Q1. The Giants stole the ball at their own 15 and drove Dallas to 37 points in four plays. On the fifth play, second-and-7 quarterback Daniel Jones ran to the 33 for a 4-yard gain.
Officials, led by Clay Martin, imposed a facemask penalty on Giants tight end Daniel Bellinger, who negated the play. Replays revealed that Bellinger did not commit any penalties. In fact, a face mask should have been required of Dallas linebacker Demarion Overshawn.
Who do you think received the face mask penalty on this play?
Spoiler: They’re wearing Giants jerseys. pic.twitter.com/EaSg2i21VM
— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) September 27, 2024
Officials made a mistake on the phone and did not take up the flag after a short meeting. Instead of completing a third-and-3 at the Dallas 33, the Giants were forced back 15 yards to the Dallas 48.
In the end, the Giants scored a field goal on that drive. In any case, who’s to say they didn’t, we’ll never know. In a game decided by less than one point, the little things matter. They add up.
However, that’s not the only important point here. NFL analyst Warren Sharp posted the following facts on his X Media account:
The referee for this match is Clay Martin.
This will be the Cowboys’ fifth road game since 2018.
Dallas is 4-0 in other games.
Opponents were called for 298 yards (64 more than DAL) and 34 penalties (7 more than DAL)
The timing of these penalties gave Dallas an EPA advantage of +11.8. https://t.co/khPrD8qFPF
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) September 27, 2024
We’re not big into conspiracy theories, but we can’t do our due diligence without sharing these facts.
In fact, let me debunk any conspiracy right now by pointing out that Dallas had 11 penalties for 89 yards in this game, while the Giants had 4 penalties for 35 yards.
However, this shot by Bellinger was painful. They should have picked up the flag.
