Giants at Cowboys 2015, Week 1: Giants heavy underdogs in season opener

There are few believers in the 2015 New York Giants, and that fact is reflected in the line for Sunday night's season-opening game in Arlington, TX. against the Dallas Cowboys. The Giants were 5-point underdogs in the opening line, and that has surged to six or seven points depending on what bookmaking service you look at.

That should come as no surprise. Who can blame anyone for not believing in the Giants right now? The Coughlin Gang hasn't made the playoffs in three seasons, with each succeeding year having been worse than the last. The signs that a turnaround is coming are, well, faint. Five days before they open the season the Giants look like a hot mess.

• Victor Cruz (calf) and Jason Pierre-Paul (hand/lack of contract) almost certainly won't play.
• The Giants are still shuffling safeties, with a new showing up seemingly every week. The current Flavor of the Week is Craig Dahl, brought in because last week's FOTW, Stevie Brown, was found wanting and shown the door.
• Speaking of the door, it just keeps on spinning. You will definitely need a program -- or at least an online roster -- to figure out who is playing for the Giants this Sunday. The Giants were awarded two players on waivers, cornerback Asa Jackson and defensive tackle Louis Nix III, last Sunday. By Tuesday, both were ex-Giants.
• The Giants come off a sloppy, unimpressive preseason during which they went 2-2. The offense didn't show the explosiveness it is expected to have, while the defense looked like a work in progress

Oh, and we haven't even talked about who the Giants are playing on Sunday. That would be the defending NFC East champion Cowboys, a team that went 12-4 last year.

The Giants haven't beaten the Cowboys in their last four tries. They haven't won a season opener since 2010. On paper, you wouldn't expect them to win this one, either.

So, plenty of reasons for the Giants to be considered a fairly substantial underdog vs. the Cowboys. Still, this is sports and teams beat the odds all the time. The Giants, as you know, have done some of their best work during the Coughlin era when no one gave them much of a chance. Can that happen this Sunday? Tune in and find out. And stay with Big Blue View all week as we get you ready for Sunday night.

Coughlin meets the press Wednesday at 11 a.m. ET to preview Sunday's game. That should be streamed on Giants.com.

Game Details

Date: Sunday, Sept. 13

Game time: 8:30 p.m. ET

Where: AT&T Stadium, Arlington, TX.

TV: NBC

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