THE STORYLINE:
I’ve written these game previews for 30 years. That includes terrible seasons in 1995, 2003, 2017, etc. Today, I’m here to tell you that I’ve got nothing. I wish I could provide you with some glimmer of hope, some reason to get excited, some reason to watch. But I’ve got nothing.
It’s not that the Giants have a bad team. They don’t. But they have a bad quarterback who is pulling the rest of the team down with him. Because he can’t score enough points, his team can’t win. His teammates know it. And that despair and frustration have seeped into the rest of the roster. We all saw it first hand in the second-half of the Giants-Eagles game. Expect more of the same moving forward.
So in the third year of the Schoen-Daboll regime, the team finds its season over before Halloween. Last place in the NFC East, at 2-5 overall and 0-3 in the division. The Giants can’t recover from that. And yet there are still 10 games left to play. In other words, the weekly humiliation ritual will continue for two and a half more months.
John Mara says Schoen and Daboll are safe. That’s easy to say now. It will be more difficult if the Giants end up being 4-13 and 0-6 in the division. Many fans have already tuned the team out. More will quickly follow. Any relevant attention is now focused on when and if Jones will be benched, and if the team will be moving on to yet another general manager and head coach. Meanwhile, the Giants play the model of stability on Monday night, a PIttsburgh Steelers team that has had the same head coach for almost two decades.
Schoen and Daboll could have thrown themselves a bit of a lifeline with a viable alternative to Jones either in the draft or free agency. They could also have turned to hometown kid Tommy DeVito just to give fans something more interesting to watch. But they’ve quadrupled down on Daniel Jones.
It’s a bold strategy Cotton.
THE INJURY REPORT:
- WR Jalin Hyatt (rib – probable)
- WR Bryce Ford-Wheaton (Achilles – probable)
- RT Jermaine Eluemunor (hip – questionable)
- OL Jake Kubas (abdomen – probable)
- DL Dexter Lawrence (hip – probable)
- OLB Brian Burns (groin/Achilles – probable)
- ILB Ty Summers (ankle – out)
- CB Cor’Dale Flott (groin – doubtful)
- CB Adoree’ Jackson (neck – out)
- CB Tre Hawkins (ankle – questionable)
- DB Dane Belton (calf – probable)
- P Jamie Gillan (left hamstring – out)
GIANTS ON OFFENSE:
The Daniel Jones-quarterbacked and Brian Daboll-coached offense could not score against a bad defense (Bengals) and a mediocre one (Eagles). They now face the 8th-ranked Steelers defense on Monday (and 2nd in run defense). Game, set, match. When you can’t score, you can’t win. Despite the offseason additions to help Jones, point production is actually getting worse, not better.
For six games, the Giants’ offensive line remained intact and relatively effective. Now Andrew Thomas is done for the season. The coaches are struggling to decide whehter Josh Ezeudu (who played poorly last week) and Chris Hubbard (just signed) are going to play at the position against a very touch Pittsburgh defensive front. Making matters worse is that Jermaine Eluemunor (hip) is now not practicing and is “questionable” for the game. So either a gimpy Eluemunor or Evan Neal will face All-Pro T.J. Watt. Yikes.
Long story short, this has disaster written all over it. Does Jones even finish the game healthy?
GIANTS ON DEFENSE:
You can sense the frustration building. And now three of their most important front seven players are injured. Kayvon Thibodeaux is on IR and he was missed in run defense last week. Dexter Lawrence is being managed with a hip injury. And Brian Burns can barely walk at the end of each game. Cor’Dale Flott (doubtful), who had been playing well, is hurt yet again. The guy can’t stay healthy. Neither can Adoree’ Jackson (out), who probably should not have been re-signed. The soft Tre Hawkins (questionable) has not developed and is also hurt. The Giants are down two, maybe three, cornerbacks heading into this game.
Moving forward, I suspect we’ll see the defense play well in spurts, but then wear down physically and emotionally like it did against the Eagles.
GIANTS ON SPECIAL TEAMS:
I’m still shaking my head at the Giants losing both of their kickers.
THE FINAL WORD:
I applaud anyone willing and able to stay up late and finish the game on Monday.