Giants drop heartbreaker to Cowboys after wild Week 2 thriller

ARLINGTON, Texas — After all the miserable defeats that the Giants have suffered to the Cowboys over the past nine years of a lopsided rivalry, there couldn’t be a new way to lose, right?

Never say never. Not with the Giants.

The Giants coughed up two separate 3-point leads in the final 52 seconds of regulation and wasted a vintage Russell Wilson 450-yard passing performance Sunday when Brandon Aubrey kicked a pair of long field goals, including a walk-off in overtime, to lift the Cowboys to a stunning 40-37 victory at AT&T Stadium.

“If my man [Aubrey] for the Cowboys didn’t have a bionic leg,” receiver Darius Slayton said, “we probably do win.”

But the Giants don’t beat the Cowboys.

The Giants have lost nine straight and 16 of the past 17 in the rivalry, nine straight in Dallas, 14 straight against Dak Prescott and eight straight in the NFC East.

“That one was tough,” head coach Brian Daboll said. “Not going to sugarcoat it.”

All the twists and turns of a fourth quarter that featured 41 combined points — 17 in the last 52 seconds alone — gave way to the NFL’s first game under new overtime rules, in which both teams possess the ball as long as the 10-minute clock permits.

Wilson was completing improbable Moon Balls all over the field for the second-highest yardage game of his 14-year career but went to the well one too many times. He threw a forced deep shot to Malik Nabers on second-and-14 that was intercepted by Donovan Wilson to end the Giants’ second possession of overtime.

“Just believing in my guy,” Wilson said. “[Malik] had an unbelievable game. There is nobody I trust more. Just a little miscommunication, but we’re all on the same page.”

The teams traded scores on the final nine second-half possessions — five for the Cowboys and four for the Giants — and when all was said and done, the Giants’ 13-10 lead had become a 37-37 tie.

Any of those series would’ve been a good time for the vaunted Giants defense — built on four high-investment pass rushers and two premium free agent additions in the secondary — to step up and make a stop.

Instead, the Giants could not overcome an embarrassing 14 accepted penalties resulting in a franchise record 160 yards as a slew of personal fouls, pass interferences and multiple-foul plays added up. Not to mention another seven flags that were either offset or declined.

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The two punts forced in overtime weren’t enough when a third stop was needed to eek out a tie.

“I think we beat ourselves — too many penalties and too many mental errors today and that’s kind of what dictated the game,” Dexter Lawrence II said. “We gave them too many second chances. We had 200 yards in penalties or something like that. You can’t win like that. That’s two touchdowns, at the end of the day.”

Except that the Giants had an 87.4 percent chance to win, according to ESPN analytics, after Nabers used his straight-line speed to split two defenders and haul in a 48-yard touchdown pass to give the Giants a 37-34 lead with 25 seconds remaining and ran off the field doing the put-to-sleep celebration.

“We did a lot of stupid sh–,” Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer said.

It was the second touchdown of the game for Nabers, who finished with nine catches for 167 yards.

“When Leek scored, I was like, ‘We’ve got to be able to get this one,’ ” Wan’Dale Robinson said. “But, obviously, football is crazy.”

Robinson (eight catches for 142 yards) was a big part of the craziness.

When it looked like the Giants might be finished — trailing 27-23 and facing fourth-and-4 with less than three minutes remaining — he burned his coverage for a sliding 32-yard touchdown catch.

The Cowboys responded with a George Pickens touchdown with 52 seconds left, Nabers caught his bomb with 25 seconds left and Aubrey forced overtime with a 64-yard field goal that was just 2 yards shy of the NFL regular-season record.

“It’s just throwing punches the whole second half,” said cornerback Dru Phillips, who battled with CeeDee Lamb and had an interception but a penalty for slamming him to the ground. “That was probably the most up-and-down game I’ve been a part of. There’s times we’re like, ‘Yeah!’ There’s times like, ‘Oh!’ ”

The Giants failed to capitalize on Phillips’ interception, turning it over on downs in the red zone for the last defensive stop by either team in regulation (with 10:20 remaining in the third quarter).

The next time the Giants were in scoring territory, rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart made his NFL debut. He handed off for a 24-yard gain on an RPO on the first of his three snaps.

Prescott always seemed to have an answer for Wilson, Dart or Daboll, as he threw for 361 yards and had the 28-yard scramble that set up the winning kick in the battle of teams that started 0-1 with division losses. He absorbed three sacks and eight hits.

“It was a must-win,” Prescott said. “Not to be 0-2 in the division.”

Now the Giants are 0-2 for the 10th time in the past 13 seasons — none of which have resulted in a playoff berth.

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