The Giants missed a perfect opportunity to topple the vulnerable Cowboys

If it makes you feel better as a fan, then by all means focus on the positives the Giants took out of Thursday night’s 20-15 loss to the Cowboys.

If it helps you as a fan sleep better, sure. Write sonnets about Daniel Jones’ hugely successful 29-for-40 night (which looked much better before he failed on his final five attempts). Sing hymns about the defense keeping Dallas out of the end zone in the second half. Praise an offensive line that played confidently for the third week in a row, a few stories above what we’ve seen from them in recent years.

Get ready.

Or you can do what the Giants should do better this morning and in the coming days before next Sunday’s game in Seattle. Because make no mistake: This was a winnable game. Forget what the oddsmakers said. The Cowboys came to MetLife Stadium wounded and vulnerable.

They had been destroyed by the Saints and outclassed by the Ravens, both games at home in front of fans ready to reach for torches and pitchforks and an owner with an itchy trigger finger, Bill Belichick, on speed dial. They couldn’t stop the run, and in fact for the last two weeks it looked like they were playing flag football while the other side was running the ball.

Or two-handed touch.

So the Giants, whose running game looked so promising last week in Cleveland, wanted to run the ball down the Cowboys’ throats. They wanted to punch them in the face, keep the Dallas defense on the field, bleed out the clock and get to 2-2 on the season.

The Giants ran the ball well. Twenty-four times.

They gained 26 yards.

If you don’t have a calculator handy, let me help: That’s an average of 1.08 yards per carry.

Amazing news: They didn’t score a touchdown. What’s even more amazing is that it’s not 2-2.

They also couldn’t contain the Cowboys’ offense, which looked shaky on five counts against New Orleans and Baltimore. Dak Prescott was great: 22 of 27 for 221 yards and two touchdowns. Brandon Aubrey scored his weekly 60-yard bomb (though he stunned the entire stadium by missing a 51-yard throw late that kept the most loyal fans in their seats for a few minutes longer).

“The result is terrible,” said Giants coach Brian Daboll, “but there has been improvement.” Last week we got the result we wanted (a 21-15 win against the Browns). This week we didn’t. We played the game the way we have to play it.”

He’s not wrong about that. But if the Giants truly want to be judged by their record and not judged by a curve — as they insist every week — then this was the biggest buzzkill anyone could hope for in the fourth week of a football season.

There was momentum behind the Browns’ win last week, and there was widespread belief that they caught the Cowboys at the perfect time to end a six-game losing streak and a streak of 13 losses in 14 games. And look, they held the ball for 35 of the 60 minutes. Jones played so well that his coach raved about his style of play. There was some good stuff on the field Thursday night.

But the scoreboard trumped the field.

The scoreboard read: Cowboys 20, Giants 15.

Do it seven times in a row.

Make it 14 out of 15.

Make it 1-3.

“Give them a lot of credit, that’s a tough one,” Daboll said. “But we have to do a better job.”

Football season is a crazy roller coaster ride. A week ago today, many Giants fans were already looking forward to the draft. Then on Sunday in Cleveland they looked better than they have in years. Suddenly those same fans could talk themselves into a 2-2 draw and what that could mean for the rest of the season.

Now?

Now it’s 1-3. Now they’re looking at a four-week stretch that looks like this: Seattle, Cincinnati and Philadelphia at home in Pittsburgh. If you’re not careful, you can quickly miss out on a season.

The way the Giants played in Cleveland last week put an end to such talk, but it was only a brief reprieve. The Cowboys were begging to be eliminated last night, and the game was designed to be played every 60 minutes. Of all the good things, this is the biggest advantage. As Daboll said, the result is terrible. Even if the team didn’t.

And 1-3 is 1-3.