Yes, Week 1 was bad. But, it's too early to make assumptions about the Giants
Giants quarterback Daniel Jones and coach Brian Daboll look on during the first half against the Cowboys on Sunday at MetLife Stadium. Credit: Lee S. Weissman
It’s too early to draw conclusions about the Giants.
Yes, in their home opener, they were awful against the Cowboys, and the final score Sunday night, 40-0, was what the Giants earned in prime time.
There was nothing fluky about what the Cowboys did. They manhandled the Giants in every way.
But the Giants can’t do anything about that now. (If you’re wondering, the Giants play at Dallas on Nov. 12.)
The more pressing task is for the Giants to play better (particularly on both lines of scrimmage), to physically affect the opponent, and to find a path to win games.
In the meantime, we have some questions about all of that.
Why were the first eight minutes of the Giants season such a mess? (And the rest of the game was no masterpiece, either.)
The Giants looked oddly unprepared as the game unfolded. The question now is, will coach Brian Daboll make changes?
He wasn’t shy about shaking things up a year ago, his first as a head coach. Notably, Daboll sent receiver Kenny Golladay to the bench, where he remained for most of his remaining tenure with the team.
But displacing a rookie center who was bound to have some growing pains wouldn’t seem to make sense, especially since the long-term goal is for John Michael Schmitz to occupy the center position for a decade. (Otherwise, why was he drafted in the second round?)
There may be tweaks — both the offensive and defensive lines have to be more assertive — but Daboll seems more inclined in his second season to stay the course, for now. Especially with the two-game western trip on the horizon, where the Giants will play at Arizona on Sunday then travel to San Francisco for Thursday Night Football, before returning home.
Did Daboll signify patience?
It would seem so. At least for now. Even if Daboll would probably quibble with the word.
An NFL season goes by quickly, generally speaking. There are a lot of moving parts. Patience, in this case, has an expiration date shorter than whole milk.
But the fact is, the Giants are counting on rookies at center, at both outside cornerback spots and at receiver, where it seems likely Jalin Hyatt will find his footing soon.
“It’s a humbling league and one week doesn’t have much effect on the next week,” Daboll said. “Your preparation, your performance ultimately on Sunday, or whenever that day is, does. That’s what we will focus on, a lot to learn.”
The Giants have a lot of work to do.
The offense netted 63 yards passing and Daniel Jones was sacked seven times.
The offense committed three turnovers, including two Jones interceptions.
Defensively, the Giants registered neither a sack nor a takeaway.
Very few on the roster — if anyone —- can make a case that he played well in Week 1.
Can the Giants contend in the NFC East?
This sounds like an incredibly tone-deaf question at the moment, doesn’t it?
But at their newsconference on Aug. 31, Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen addressed the topic. Schoen essentially said, “We’ll see.”
The earliest returns aren’t promising.
How will the Giants win the division if they can’t win at the line of scrimmage?
The Giants don’t face another division opponent until Oct. 22, at home against the Commanders.
The Giants play the Eagles on Christmas Day and then again on Jan. 7.
Strange scheduling? You could make that case.
The NFL seemingly was banking on the Giants and the Eagles being in contention down the stretch.
We’ll see.
There’s a lot of work to do between now and then. It may sound silly, but the least of the Giants' worries these days is the Eagles. Or the Cowboys. Or even the Commanders.
Their attention, surely, is on themselves. And figuring out how to win a game, beginning Sunday at Arizona.
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.
