New Dallas Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett had his team practice in full pads Wednesday as it began getting ready for the New York Giants, something the team never did under former head coach Wade Phillips.
"It'll be how we do things going forward," Garrett told reporters. "I thought we practiced well."
Garrett is trying to change the culture of a 1-7 team that has not been competitive in its last two games, losing by a combined score of 80-24.
"What we're going to do is come in and outline expectations for our football team, players and coaches alike, and then go implement those things," Garrett said. "We have to put what's happened so far this season behind us and get going forward. It's important to have a great Wednesday in the NFL. The Giants will present a great challenge for us on Sunday afternoon. They're an awfully good football team in all three areas. What the players and coaches need to know is that we need to get to work to get ready for this challenge that we have coming ahead."
Justin Tuck said Wednesday that the Cowboys are a "sleeping giant."
"It’s never difficult to get motivated to play the Cowboys," Tuck said in a conference call with the Valley Ranch media. "It’s a great rivalry. If the talent wasn’t there, it’d be a different story, but we understand this team can wake up.
"It’s kind of like a sleeping giant. You definitely don’t want to wake them up."
Now, let's get on to a few notes that are more directly about our Giants.
Here is a quick rundown of the Pro Football Focus numbers from Sunday's 41-7 drubbing of Seattle.
Offense -- Kareem McKenzie (+4.9), Eli Manning (+4.6), Shawn Andrews (+2.9), Ahmad Bradshaw (+2.1).
Defense -- Terrell Thomas (+2.7), Justin Tuck (+1.5), Michael Boley (+1.3).
Really no negative numbers worth talking about.
One more statistical note. Football Outsiders has the Giants ranked No. 1 in the league according to its Defense-adjusted Value Over Average calculation.
SB Nation New York compares the receiving corps of the Giants and the New York Jets.
Giants quarterback Eli Manning is not looking past Dallas because of its 1-7 record.
"We look at it as a big game. It's Dallas, and they have a new coach and a new attitude. Talking to my dad and other players, whenever a new coach comes in, you feel like you have a new season. Everything has been erased, and you can start over," Manning said. "That's the attitude they're going to have. They're going to come in fired up and we know they're talented all over the field. We have to make sure we take care of business.
"I think when you get in the NFL you can't look at records. Records don't mean anything. You have to look at the team that's coming in, look at their players, understand where their strengths are, where we feel we can attack, and try to go with that. It's still comes down to coming out there on Sunday, playing smart football, figuring out what kind of game it's going to be, and go from there."
Former New York Giant Dave Meggett was sentenced Wednesday to 30 years in prison for criminal sexual conduct.