Giants, Daniel Jones get off to awful start in opening loss to Vikings

An important season of Giants football began Sunday on shaky ground and included plenty of boos at MetLife Stadium.

As the Giants celebrate their 100th season, which means a lot to this organization, the product on the field did not rise to the occasion.

Not even close.

The Giants lost to the Vikings, 28-6, and played poorly in nearly every facet of the game.

Only 23- and 50-yard field goals by Graham Gano prevented them from being shut out.

Daniel Jones struggled throughout, completing 22 of 42 passes for 186 yards with two interceptions. One was returned 10 yards for a pick-6 by Vikings outside linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel, who made a one-handed grab in the third quarter and closed out the scoring.

Giants coach Brian Daboll said Van Ginkel made a good play, adding: “He jumped up, and we were throwing a look pass out to Wan’Dale [Robinson] and he came off the edge, jumped up and made a nice play.”

Let the record reflect that one minute and 51 seconds into the Giants’ centennial season, boos rolled through the stadium.

“I can’t talk for anybody else,” Daboll said after his first game as his team’s offensive play-caller. “I know what we’re going to do. We’re going to come back in [Monday] morning, go to work, learn, have a good week of practice and do everything we can do to get ready for Week 2 [at Washington].”

Pinned at their 1-yard line with 13:39 left in the second quarter, the Vikings changed the game. They went 99 yards on an 11-play drive that culminated in Justin Jefferson’s 3-yard touchdown reception for a 14-3 lead.

On one big play on the drive, Sam Darnold found Jefferson deep on the left side for 44 yards with Deonte Banks in coverage. Then Darnold hooked up with Jordan Addison for 16 yards against cornerback Nick McCloud.

It is worth noting that Giants owner John Mara in August told reporters that he expected to see “significant improvement” this season. By that measure, this game would not have engendered confidence.

And the spectacle of seeing Giants royalty on the field, as the 100 greatest players in the history of the organization were honored, drew an uncomfortable comparison to the current Giants’ play.

They were outplayed in every sense of the word on Sunday.

“Obviously not the way we wanted to start,” Daboll said. “Disappointing game. A lot to clean up, and that’s what we will do.”

Darnold played well, throwing two touchdown passes in the former Jet’s return to MetLife Stadium. He merely had to be efficient, and he was that, for sure. His coach was pleased.

“There’s a lot of positives that will show up on the tape, but there’s no doubt momentum is a real thing in this league and confidence, there’s nothing like going out on a Sunday in an NFL stadium winning a game by a significant margin,” Kevin O’Connell said.

“I just think our guys, there’s nobody in that locker room surprised, shocked, that we went out there and executed. I think it’s just a confirmation of a lot of work that’s been put in.”

For the Giants, there’s a lot of work to do.

“We’ll go back, watch the tape and see what we can do better,” Daboll said. “Obviously, there’s a lot. So that’s what we’ll do. It starts with me.”

Top draft pick Malik Nabers’ day was mostly quiet, though he did lead the Giants in receiving with five catches for 66 yards on seven targets. Daboll likely will determine that Nabers will have to be featured more in the game plan.

Nabers said, “I feel like I did pretty well for my first game. The tempo slowed down since I first got out there but still a lot of stuff to learn, still a lot of stuff to learn from and fix.”

Asked what he saw in the Vikings’ defense, the rookie said, “Nothing different than I saw on film.”

He added, “[I just need to] look over the film, see what ways we can give me the ball in space. Daniel said he was trying to give me the ball. He saw a lot of people in his face. I mean, I cannot control that. They were trying to give me the ball but stuff was not working right, so we just have to fix that up.”

By Kimberly Jones

kimberly.jones@newsday.comkimjonessports

Kimberly Jones covers the Giants for Newsday, a beat she first worked in the early 2000s before joining the YES Network to cover the Yankees. She worked for the NFL Network for more than a decade and has been heard semi-regularly on WFAN.