Dan Graziano, senior NFL national reporter 9y

W2W4: Giants vs. Cowboys

The 3-7 New York Giants host the 7-3 Dallas Cowboys at 8:30 p.m. ET Sunday at MetLife Stadium. A loss would officially eliminate the Giants from the NFC East race, and possibly from the playoffs entirely. Here's what we'll be watching closely as the Giants look to put off that inevitability for another week:

1. Can they stop the run? Dallas has the No. 2 rushing offense in the league at 153.2 yards per game, and Cowboys running back DeMarco Murray leads the NFL with 1,233 rushing yards (123.3 per game). The Giants' run defense is the worst in the league, allowing 145 rush yards per game. You don't have to be Vince Lombardi to spot the potential for a mismatch here. Murray ran for 128 yards in the Cowboys' Week 7 victory over the Giants in Dallas, and the Cowboys as a team had 156. There has been no indication in their three games since that the Giants have tightened up against the run, and unless they play tougher up front, they're going to have a hard time keeping Dallas from controlling the clock and the time of possession with its ground game.

2. Can they stop Dez Bryant? The Cowboys' star wideout had 151 yards on nine catches in the Week 7 matchup in spite of a generally strong coverage performance by cornerback Prince Amukamara, who was on Bryant because Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie was too banged-up. Amukamara has since been placed on injured reserve, and while Rodgers-Cromartie is healthier this week than he was that week, he's still not healthy enough to play a full game at full strength. The Giants believe Rodgers-Cromartie could cover Bryant if he were fully healthy. It's kind of the reason they signed him. But he's not fully healthy, and without Amukamara as a fallback, the Giants will have to get creative in their coverage schemes to try to slow down Bryant, who has eight touchdown catches already this season.

3. Can they stop turning the ball over? Two fumbles cost the Giants a chance to win that Week 7 game in Dallas, and the five interceptions quarterback Eli Manning threw last week cost them a chance to beat the San Francisco 49ers. Manning had just six interceptions all year up until last week, so there's still a chance that game holds up as a fluke when it's all said and done. But if the Giants can't do a better job keeping the defensive pressure off of Manning than they've done the past couple of weeks, he's liable to keep throwing those back-breaking interceptions

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