Coach rips Giants for giving Cowboys' Brandon Aubrey chance to become hero

One of the top highlights of the Dallas Cowboys' thrilling 40-37 overtime win over the New York Giants on Sunday afternoon involved Dallas kicker Brandon Aubrey making a game-tying 64-yard field goal at the end of regulation. 

While speaking with Mike Sando of The Athletic, one unnamed coach ripped Giants head coach Brian Daboll and defensive coordinator Shane Bowen for playing a soft zone shortly after quarterback Russell Wilson hit wide receiver Malik Nabers for a go-ahead 48-yard score with 25 seconds remaining in the game's fourth quarter. 

Did New York Giants coaches fail defense in loss to Dallas Cowboys?

"You have to have new lines to defend," the coach told Sando about how the Giants handled their final defensive drive of regulation. "If you are the Giants, you can't play that soft and let the passes get that far. It used to be defending the 37-yard line, which was a [55-yard field goal]. What are you defending now? The 42. That is a 60-yarder. There is a little shift there."

Specifically, the Giants allowed an 18-yard completion before the Cowboys ran the ball for a three-yard gain. Aubrey's kick then had plenty of distance, and he later won the contest with a 46-yard field goal as time expired in overtime.

Shortly after the Giants fell to 0-2 on the season, Dan Schneier of CBS Sports said the team's defensive play call on the 18-yard pass was "terrible." He added that the Giants "have the worst DC in all of football." 

New York Giants WR "sick" over loss to Dallas Cowboys

"I’m sick," Giants wide receiver Darius Slayton said after the defeat, per Darryl Slater of NJ Advance Media for NJ.com. "We played a hell of a game. Fought hard. Came up short. It’s extremely frustrating. We have to find a way to do better and close these games out. We expect to win. We expected to win today. It hurts." 

Slater and Steve Politi of NJ Advance Media for NJ.com were among media members who pointed out the Giants were an "undisciplined mess" that committed 14 penalties for 160 yards at Dallas' AT&T Stadium. Such stats will do little to silence those who are already suggesting it's a matter of when and not if Daboll will be shown the door. 

"There wasn’t any need to have a state of the union," Slayton said about the mood inside the locker room after the Giants' latest loss. "We played a dang good football game and just lost. So it’s not like you need a revolutionary speech for that. You’ve just got to find a way to win the game." 

As of Monday morning, ESPN BET had the Giants as 5.5-point home underdogs for the upcoming "Sunday Night Football" matchup against the 0-2 Kansas City Chiefs. Daboll and Bowen will almost certainly come under more fire if the Giants defense gets torched by a Chiefs offense that didn't look like an elite unit over Kansas City's first two games of the season.