Cowboys need to play better at AT&T Stadium

A football player in white tackles another player in blue, bringing him to the ground during a football game.

For the third straight season, the Dallas Cowboys will play their first home game of the year in the second week of the season.

The previous two years, the Cowboys have been coming off of impressive season-opening wins on the road. In 2023, they pummeled the New York Giants 40-0.

Last year, they rolled over the Cleveland Browns, 33-17.

But the respective second-week games played out far differently.

In 2023, the Cowboys dominated the New York Jets at home, 30-10. But the Jets were without their new starting quarterback, Aaron Rodgers.

Last year, the home opener was a nightmare, as the New Orleans Saints crushed Dallas, 44-19.

In both cases, the second game of the year proved to be a harbinger of the season to come.

Two seasons ago, the Cowboys started 2-0 and won the NFC East with a 12-5 record. Last year, Dallas fell to 1-1 and ended up 7-10.

ATLANTA, GA - NOVEMBER 12: Dak Prescott #4 of the Dallas Cowboys is hit by Adrian Clayborn #99 of the Atlanta Falcons while throwing during the first half at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on November 12, 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Daniel Shirey/Getty Images)

Some of that record came as a result of losing quarterback Dak Prescott for a little over half the year.

But Dallas was 3-5 with him as a starter, and he lost all three of his starts at home before the season-ending injury against Atlanta.

Clearly, even if the Cowboys open the year with a win over the Eagles in Philadelphia, they must win their season home-opener.

Good Omens Abound

There are plenty of reasons to feel like Dallas will win the second game of the 2025 season.

The first being, they will have 10 days between games to recover. Plenty of time to get recharged, and either build on a strong start, or figure out what went wrong.

The second is who they will be hosting on Sept. 14^th.

The New York Giants.

As bad as the Cowboys season went off the rails in 2024, the Giants had it worse. They finished 4-12 last year.

New York has had just one winning season, 9-7-1 in 2022, in the last eight years.

They will be just the balm Dallas needs no matter what the result of the season-opener is.

Historically Speaking

The Cowboys are 77-47-2 all-time against the Giants, having won the last eight meetings overall. At home, they are 42-21-1 and have won the last eight games played at AT&T Stadium.

Giants vs Cowboys Preview and Predictions

In Week 2 games, Dallas is 43-22 overall and 23-10 when playing at home.

Before last year’s loss to the Saints, the Cowboys had won six Week 2 games in a row.

Against the Giants in the second week of the season, Dallas is 10-3 overall. They have won four of those six Week 2 meetings at home.

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Richard Paolinelli

Richard Paolinelli is an award-winning sports journalist with 34 years of professional newsroom experience. His newspaper career (1991–2011) includes the Gallup Independent, Modesto Bee, Gustine Press-Standard, Turlock Journal, Merced Sun-Star, Tracy Press, Patch, and San Francisco Examiner. He received the 2001 California Newspaper Publishers Association Best Sports Story award. Richard has authored two non-fiction sports books and 11 novels. At InsideTheStar.com, he has published 874 articles reaching over 728,000 readers.