Over a span of five days, the Giants dramatically altered the trajectory of their season—at least for now.
After an 0-2 start, they defeated the Houston Texans at home Sept. 21 at MetLife Stadium and four days later dismantled NFC East division rival Washington on the road 45-14 to climb to 2-2.
NFL head coaches dissect their 16-game schedule into fourths. For the Giants’ Tom Coughlin, the back-to-back wins placed his team on solid footing as they prepare to enter the second fourth of their schedule, hosting the 2-2 Atlanta Falcons this Sunday at 1 p.m.
But the stable foundation could abruptly crack. On paper, the Giants will be navigating a gauntlet for the next seven weeks. In addition to the Falcons, the Giants will face the Eagles in Philadelphia, the Dallas Cowboys twice, the Indianapolis Colts, the defending Super Bowl champion Seahawks in Seattle and the San Francisco 49ers.
But the Giants aren’t looking that far ahead. In professional football, the adage “one game at a time” is more truth than cliche.
“We’re trying like heck to be the best we can be,” said Coughlin earlier this week. “We’re trying to do the things we didn’t do in the beginning [of the season] … Each team is a new team, so everything you do is adjusted for the new team.”
An evident factor in the Giants’ two-game turnaround has been the emergence of second-year tight end Larry Donnell from Grambling. He has filled a crucial void for the Giants at a positon in which they have received minimal production over the past several seasons. The surprising Donnell, signed by the Giants in 2013 as an undrafted free agent after being overlooked coming out of college, leads the team in receptions (23) and touchdowns (4).
“All my life, it has been like that for me,” reflected Donnell Monday. “I had to go through the back door to see out the front door. Coming up, nothing was ever a straight path for me. That was never anything that disturbed me. I just kept going and staying the course and now it has panned out.”