Janoris Jenkins gives a simple reason as to how he shut down the Cowboys' Dez Bryant

Jenkins reveals how he held Bryant to one catch in two games during the 2016 season

The New York Giants were the only team to beat the Dallas Cowboys at full strength during the 2016 regular season, and they did it twice. One of the key factors in that success was shutting down Dez Bryant. In two games against New York, Bryant managed just two catches for 18 yards on 13 targets.

The man primarily tasked with guarding Bryant during those games was Janoris Jenkins. He held Bryant to one catch for 10 yards on seven targets while shadowing him for 58 passing routes across the two games. Those performances marked a stark change from when Bryant lit Jenkins up for five catches for 86 yards and a touchdown on six targets when the two locked horns in 2014.

What changed? Jenkins says he figured Bryant out by studying tape.

"I played better than he played [when we met]," Jenkins told 105.3 The Fan, per The Dallas Morning News. "For real, though, to be honest, when you look at film and break down your opponents and the receivers that you're facing, you notice what they like to do. Take away the slant and the dig, and when they get in 21 personnel and Dez is inside the number, you take away the corner post, he doesn't have nothing else."

He expanded on that by noting that he didn't really look at film at all when he was with the Rams.

"You've got to understand when I was in St. Louis, I was young," Jenkins said. "I'd never saw the plays, I'd never saw the formations. I didn't know who I was going against. I just knew they were good and I was OK. I learned to break down film study. Break down each person you're going against, learn what they do. And it'll show up because you play them twice a year. So you see repeated plays and you're going to see it on film when you watching them play another team. Oh, a slant coming here, dig coming here, fade ball coming here."

It's hard to believe that there's any corner that matches up with Bryant that doesn't know the slant, dig, and fade are his primary routes. If it was as simple as knowing that fact and taking them away, everyone would do it. Jenkins got the better of Bryant this season, but it's not like he hasn't been held down before.

These two will square off a couple times a season for the foreseeable future, and it'll definitely be interesting to watch what Bryant has in store for Jenkins next time around.