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any things contributed to the New York Giants losing 20-15 to the Dallas Cowboys on Thursday Night Football, but Pro Bowl edge-rusher Brian Burns failing to get to quarterback Dak Prescott was an obvious flaw.
The Giants traded for Burns in the offseason to give them a consistent game-wrecker rushing the passer. Burns hasn’t exactly delivered so far, and his struggles continued in Week 4, when the 26-year-old “did not generate a single pressure on 25 pass rushes against the Dallas Cowboys. It was Burns’ first career game without a pressure in which he had at least 10+ rushes,” per RJ Ochoa of SB Nation’s Blogging The Boys, citing Next Gen Stats.
“This can’t happen,” according to Dan Duggan of The Athletic.
Games against the Cowboys, a perennial thorn in the side of the Giants, are when Burns is expected to dominate. He’s also required to be a key cog in defensive coordinator Shane Bowen’s schemes, a system based primarily on winning with a four-man rush.
Brian Burns Not Living Up to the Billing
The Giants paid a premium for Burns when they sent second- and fifth-round picks in the 2024 NFL draft to the Carolina Panthers. A contract with $87.5 million of guaranteed money numerated what the Giants thought they were getting.
Burns looks like a shell of the pass-rusher who went to back-to-back Pro Bowls after logging 21.5 sacks during the 2021 and ’22 campaigns. Instead, Burns has registered just a single sack, two hurries and a mere four pressures during four games, according to Pro Football Reference.
The player nicknamed ‘Spider’ isn’t playing like a pressure specialist opponents need special plans to stop. Even so, Burns retains the confidence of teammates.
They include middle linebacker Micah McFadden, who told reporters, “Spider is an amazing athlete…he’s been doing it at a high level for many years. He might not be playing to the standard that he holds to himself, but we all believe in him,” per Giants Videos.
Belief is one thing, but Bowen needs his primary pass-rushers putting more in the stats column. Doing so will require getting quicker off the edge and countering the hurry-up game Prescott and the Cowboys used so effectively at MetLife Stadium.
Cowboys Exposed Giants Issues on the Edge
Burns not winning against right tackle Terence Steele was disappointing, but the Cowboys did have a smart gameplan to nullify Big Blue’s bookend edge defenders. The strategy involved using the quick game.
Prescott “was at his best in the quick game against the Giants, completing 13 of 14 passes under 2.5 seconds for 143 yards and 2 TDs. Prescott’s +21.2% CPOE on quick passes is his highest mark in a game since Week 12, 2022 against the Giants (+36.5%),” per Nex Gen Stats.
The Cowboys gave Burns and fellow outside linebacker Kayvon Thibodeaux less time to influence in the pocket. It worked, but Burns gets paid the big bucks to still win when opponents are making his job difficult.
That’s what separates elite pass-rushers from the ordinary. It’s also the only way Bowen can rely on a four-man rush and not lean on the blitz-heavy gameplan he called against the Cleveland Browns in Week 3.
Sending extra rushers worked against Deshaun Watson, but the Cowboys had answers for the Giants’ blitz. Like when Prescott found CeeDee Lamb behind pressure from the slot for a 55-yard touchdown pass.
Bowen would prefer to rush four and play zone behind it, but that won’t work until Burns starts to produce on a consistent basis.
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