For the third straight season, the Dallas Cowboys will play their first home game of the year in the second week of the season.
The previous two years, the Cowboys have been coming off of impressive season-opening wins on the road. In 2023, they pummeled the New York Giants 40-0.
Last year, they rolled over the Cleveland Browns, 33-17.
But the respective second-week games played out far differently.
In 2023, the Cowboys dominated the New York Jets at home, 30-10. But the Jets were without their new starting quarterback, Aaron Rodgers.
Last year, the home opener was a nightmare, as the New Orleans Saints crushed Dallas, 44-19.
In both cases, the second game of the year proved to be a harbinger of the season to come.
Two seasons ago, the Cowboys started 2-0 and won the NFC East with a 12-5 record. Last year, Dallas fell to 1-1 and ended up 7-10.
Some of that record came as a result of losing quarterback Dak Prescott for a little over half the year.
But Dallas was 3-5 with him as a starter, and he lost all three of his starts at home before the season-ending injury against Atlanta.
Clearly, even if the Cowboys open the year with a win over the Eagles in Philadelphia, they must win their season home-opener.
Good Omens Abound
There are plenty of reasons to feel like Dallas will win the second game of the 2025 season.
The first being, they will have 10 days between games to recover. Plenty of time to get recharged, and either build on a strong start, or figure out what went wrong.
The second is who they will be hosting on Sept. 14th.
The New York Giants.
As bad as the Cowboys season went off the rails in 2024, the Giants had it worse. They finished 4-12 last year.
New York has had just one winning season, 9-7-1 in 2022, in the last eight years.
They will be just the balm Dallas needs no matter what the result of the season-opener is.
Historically Speaking
The Cowboys are 77-47-2 all-time against the Giants, having won the last eight meetings overall. At home, they are 42-21-1 and have won the last eight games played at AT&T Stadium.
In Week 2 games, Dallas is 43-22 overall and 23-10 when playing at home.
Before last year’s loss to the Saints, the Cowboys had won six Week 2 games in a row.
Against the Giants in the second week of the season, Dallas is 10-3 overall. They have won four of those six Week 2 meetings at home.
