The New York Giants can talk all they want about how tight t

[liny195]

is , how much they love Pat Shurmur's new offense and the new 3-4 defense installed coordinator James Bettcher.It's all talk.That loving feeling does nothing for the Giants (0-1) heading into Dallas this weekend for a Sunday night game at the Cowboys (0-1).With apologizes to the Righteous Brothers of the 1960s and '70s, what the Giants need is that winning feeling.New York won three times last season in a campaign that led to the firing of coach Ben McAdoo and general manager Jerry Reese. The Giants are trying to bounce back under Shurmur and new general manager Dave Gettleman with a roster that includes more than 30 new players.After a long offseason and training camp, this team needs the validation winning brings."Yeah, I think it's important to get that win and feel good about the work and the preparation," two-time Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning said Wednesday. "I don't think it's because of last year. You got a lot of new players, different guys. You put last year behind us. It's about us as this group. Knowing that we can find ways to win football games."The Giants came close in Week 1, losing 20-15 to the defending AFC South champion Jacksonville Jaguars, a team that was within a quarter of going to the Super Bowl before losing to the New England Patriots.Safety Landon Collins said getting the feeling of winning is important, just as critical as not falling in a quick hole in both the division and conference."We're stacking each and every day," the safety and defensive captain said. "We're working each and every day to become better as a team, as a whole, and making sure we get that win."Second-year tight end Evan Engram found wins few and far between last season."It's definitely important to us this week," Engram said. "It's a big division opponent on the road and we are preparing to go in and win. We're not worried about what can happen, or what if? What we are worried about is making sure we are taking care of things this week and we go out and play a complete game. It's important we get that winning feeling and have a good plane ride back home. That's the feeling we are chasing."Shurmur is well aware that teams that fail to win in their first two games have a tough time making the playoffs. In the last decade, the odds of making the postseason after an 0-2 record is a little less than 11 percent."Every game is important ," he said. "It's not one more important than the other. Every game is important and makes a difference," the coach said. "Our mindset is just having a great week of preparation, everybody being on the same page, understanding their schemes, know our assignments, go out there and play smart football, make plays, and put ourselves in a positon to win the game."NOTES: LB Olivier Vernon did not practice. He sprained an ankle before the final preseason game against New England. It is uncertain whether he will play Sunday. ... LB Tae Davis (hamstring) returned to the field after missing the opener and was limited, as were WR Sterling Shepard (back) and RB Wayne Gallman (knee).Pat Shurmur: Giants need to stop Zeke, and Demarcus Lawrence With the New York Giants prepping for a critical NFC East game on Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys coach Pat Shurmur on Wednesday offered some thoughts on this weekend’s game. Here are takeaways from his remarks.“It starts with the run”Landon Collins had this to say on Wednesday about controlling the Dallas offense:Shurmur basically agreed during his Wednesday press conference:“It starts with the run for them. Certainly they’ve got an outstanding running back. I don’t know about the narrative about their O Line, but they look pretty good blocking to me, especially in the first week. They’ve got an outstanding run game,” Shurmur said. “When you have the threat of the quarterback as a runner, that adds another element to it because the so-called zone read game shows up and they don’t worry about him running with the football.”“Let’s kill the sack narrative”Shurmur was asked if he was concerned that the Giants only had one sack against Jacksonville. He issued a strong answer:“First, let’s kill the sack narrative. Sacks are certainly very important , but the rush needs to disrupt the quarterback and his timing when he makes throws, so I’m going to dispel that, whatever that is,” Shurmur said. “To your point, it’s important that we put pressure on Dak and make him move his feet. More than half the time, he’s got to have to move when he tends to just drop back and throw. I think that’s what the rush is designed to do, so we’ve got to continue working on that.”On the Giants-Cowboys rivalry“When you get a team ready to play and you look at the tactics, and you look at the players and all that, I guess you would have to ask the fans who they want to beat most. That’s more of that type of deal. I remember when I was in Philly, I was putting my trash out one morning early my first year, and we weren’t very good. It was early in the morning, and I was surprised by this person. They said to me, ‘Listen, you can go 2-14 if you beat Dallas twice’. So, that was Philly’s take on it. I don’t have the full feel here , I understand it’s important to beat everyone and, certainly, Dallas is our next one.”On the difficulty of reaching the playoffs if you start 0-2We wrote about the difficulty of that earlier Wednesday at Big Blue View. Shurmur isn’t worrying about that kind of historical data.“We don’t worry about that. That’s fun for everybody to talk about outside the building,” Shurmur said. “We didn’t do enough in the first game to win the game, and we’re working to do what we can to win this next one. Period. End of story. All that stuff is fun for everybody to talk about, but we don’t worry about that.”On blocking Dallas DE Demarcus LawrenceLawrence had 14.5 sacks last season, and will likely spend most of the game lined up across from Ereck Flowers. “The guy assigned to block him has to block him. He’s certainly been very disruptive. The thing about him is, he’s long, he’s got a twitch and he can get going quickly. He’s relentless, he plays hard throughout the game, so you’ve got a full day with him. You’ve got to block him 65 or 70 times, or he’ll disrupt the game. You’re asking me about a really good player, and we have our challenge to block him.”