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THE GAME

The Giants (0-1) at the Dallas Cowboys (0-1) at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Tex., on Sunday, Sept. 16 at 8:20 p.m. ET.

THE WEATHER

A warm day with temperatures near 90 should cool off into the upper 70s by kickoff. Whether that matters or not depends on whether Jerry Jones has the roof open or closed.

WHAT IT MEANS

Did somebody say "Must win"? OK, I did. Since 1990, there have been 231 teams that have started the season 0-2 and only 28 of them (12 percent) made the playoffs. Those are not good odds for the loser of this game. And yes, yes, the Giants did it in 2007. We all remember that. But that's the exception, not the rule. The reality is that whoever loses this game will be in a suddenly quick hole after opening the season with dreams of competing for the NFC East title. If either the Redskins or Eagles win (they're both 1-0) that hole is going to feel very deep, too.

PLAYER TO WATCH: Saquon Barkley

His 68-yard touchdown run in the opener made his NFL debut a success, but without that big run it certainly wouldn't have been viewed the same way. No, you can't take that away from him. But the point is you also can't count on runs like that being there every game. It will be fascinating to see if he can be more consistent on his other runs and -- more importantly -- if his offensive line can actually open some holes. Making it more fascinating is the presence of Ezekiel Elliott on the other team, behind an offensive line that is a bit suspect, too. Barkley is very often compared to Elliott. The comparisons in this game will be really hard to escape.

THE PICK

No doubt there were a lot of warning signs for the Giants in the opener. The offensive line was terrible. The receivers dropped too many passes. The pass rush without Olivier Vernon wasn't great -- and they'll be without Vernon again. But it's important to remember the Jaguars have a terrific defense from front to back and they were good enough to go to the AFC championship game last year. So maybe that was a tough first matchup for a Giants team trying to find itself.

This matchup should be a little easier, especially since they usually play pretty well in Dallas. And besides, there were some good signs for them. The Eli Manning-Odell Beckham Jr. combo was particularly good -- and that can be enough to win a game on its own. And the defense was pretty strong, even without the pass rush. The Cowboys offense was pretty terrible in their opener, so that should help keep the score down and give the Giants a shot. The Giants still have the weapons to be explosive. All they need is a little time to run their offense from their line. They're not likely to get much more of it, but I wouldn't rule out a couple of big plays. They were close to some last Sunday. They'll hit them in this game. … Giants 27, Cowboys 20.

MY RECORD: 1-0

MY RECORD WHEN PICKING GIANTS TO WIN: 0-0

MY RECORD WHEN PICKING GIANTS TO LOSE: 1-0.

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