New York Giants Plan to Ruin Dak Prescott’s NFL Debut
By Nick Ziegler
The New York Giants will be facing the Dallas Cowboys and their rookie quarterback Dak Prescott in Week 1. Will the Giants be able to spoil his debut?
The New York Giants won’t see the usual quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys in Week 1. Quarterback Tony Romo will once again be out for an extended period of time because of an injury to his back which occurred against the Seattle Seahawks in the preseason.
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Coming into the 2016 season, the Cowboys were expected to have a bounce-back season with a healthy Romo. Due to yet another back injury, it will be Prescott who is tasked with helping lead the Cowboys back to the playoffs. Being a rookie quarterback is not an easy thing in the NFL, and the Giants are going to attempt to make his day miserable.
“He’s a rookie so we have to treat him as a rookie,” Robinson said to Dan Duggan of NJ.com. “That means that we have to get him rattled. It’s his first big game. He’s played preseason games, but he hasn’t played on Sunday in the NFL yet. So this will be a test for him.”
The Giants will be looking to confuse Prescott with some complex looks on defense in his NFL deubt. Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo has time to prepare for Prescott, and will surely be devising a good plan to stop the rookie.
“That’s the key,” Robinson said of showing the rookie complex looks. “Obviously Romo is going to be helping him. But it’s different when you’re out there and it’s happening fast. He’s going to see looks he hasn’t seen before. He might see looks that Romo had told him about, but it might not process in his mind that, ‘OK, this is what he was talking about three days ago in the meeting room.’ We have to make sure from our standpoint that we get him off track.”
Unlike Romo, Prescott does bring the ability to run the football from the quarterback position. This can certainly present the Giants’ defense with a challenge, but their new pass-rushers will have to be mindful of staying in their lanes.
“We’ll make sure that we pressure him and if he does scramble, be there to make him pay,” Robinson said. “Obviously in the NFL everybody is fast, so if he thinks he’s going to get away from us, we have to make sure that our presence is felt and he knows that he has to get out of bounds or slide right away if he is going to scramble.”
The mission for the Giants’ defense is pretty simple. Ruin Prescott’s NFL debut. “We basically have to ruin this kid’s debut in the NFL,” Robinson said to Duggan.
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Finally, if the Giants are able to make Prescott struggle in his debut, they should have no problem starting the season 1-0.