Whats keeping the Giants from making any real progress

The Giants played a game against the Cowboys that went down to the wire. Consider this a sign of progress — last season they were blown out twice in this matchup — or yet another indication that they do not have what it takes to close things out. It felt a whole lot more like the latter in the locker room after the Giants absorbed a 20-15 loss at MetLife Stadium, their seventh consecutive loss to the Cowboys and their 14th loss in the past 15 games against an NFC East rival that has their number, big time.Here’s a look at how and why it happened this time:• The Giants are going to win nothing — zero, nada, zilch — if they cannot run the ball in any meaningful way. It made sense that they wanted to establish their ground game right away, as the Cowboys came in with the worst run defense in the league after three games.They committed an extra player to stop the run and the Giants never had a counter for what they were seeing. Devin Singletary on the Giants’ first play from scrimmage ran for five yards. As it turned out, that was his longest gain of the night. The Giants in 24 attempts only got 26 rushing yards.

It was their lowest rushing total in nearly five years — they ran for only 23 yards in a 34-17 loss to the Jets on Nov.10, 2019. It sure looks as if the offensive line is a stronger group as pass protectors — when was the last time we could say that? — and not the sort of blow-you-off-the-ball line that can power for yards.• The good news about Daniel Jones is after his horrid season opener he looks more like the steady quarterback who helped the Giants win nine games, plus one more in the playoffs, in 2022. He is not as effective as a runner, though, coming off ACL surgery. The bad news is, similar to 2022, there is simply not enough playmaking from Jones to get his team in the end zone often enough. The inability to hit the big play — underthrowing Darius Slayton deep on a free play or not hitting a target in stride to allo...