Three takeaways from the Giants' loss to the Commanders

1. Third-down defense wasn’t good enough

Dexter Lawrence was succinct when asked about the defense’s play. “Seven-of-14 on third down, that’s not good enough. Not good enough,’’ he said. “We have to make them beat us.”

Then Lawrence said something the gist of which usually is uttered near the end of a losing season.

“The biggest thing right now is to keep believing,” he said. “We’re 0-2. Last week we got beat by multiple scores and this week we got beat by a field goal. For me, I want to win, for sure. We got to watch this game and see what’s beating us. [Today] I feel like we couldn’t get off the field on third down.”

And on the last drive of the game, the Giants’ defense did not come through.

“You know, it’s on us,” inside linebacker Bobby Okereke said. “I feel like the offense did a great job and played a great game. We had faith and confidence in the offense. We just have to do our job, and we didn’t get it done. It starts with me.”

2. Daniel Jones got  Malik Nabers involved

Jones (16-for-28, 178 yards, two TDs) clearly took coach Brian Daboll’s advice from a week ago when he said of Nabers: Throw him the ball! The comment was fairly pointed, and Jones got the message. Nabers was targeted 18 times and had 10 receptions for 127 yards and a score.

Until a defense devotes enough resources to shut down the connection with Nabers, Jones and the Giants likely will stay on that path.

“We did some good things and we did some bad,” Jones said. “It was a ball-control game, and we needed to find a way to make some big plays. We all know that, but we didn’t get the job done. We have to hold ourselves to a higher standard and get the job done.”  

3. Looking ahead, it gets tougher from here

The home opener and Sunday’s game at Washington presented an opportunity to win one if not both games.

Instead, the Giants find themselves 0-2, and the schedule seemingly only gets tougher.

The Giants will play at Cleveland on Sunday. Then they will host Dallas on a Thursday night before flying across the country to Seattle. They then will host Cincinnati before Saquon Barkley returns with the Eagles in Week 7.

There don’t appear to be many, if any, easy games that will allow the Giants a chance to get things right.

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.