The Giants’ 28-6 defeat to the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday at MetLife Stadium in their regular season opener may not be predictive. But it was ominous and alarming.
Having finished tied with the Tennessee Titans at 6-11 last season for the sixth worst record in the 32-team NFL, the Giants showed no discernible improvement in Week 1 and conversely demonstrated regression.
The eye-test and lopsided score support the latter assertion as the team was simply bad in getting thoroughly outplayed by the visiting Vikings. On a day that the franchise honored some of its all-time great players as one of many scheduled events this season to celebrate the team’s 100th anniversary, their poor performance as many of the legends watched from suites overlooking the field, was an affront to the four-time Super Bowl-winning legacy they were instrumental in establishing.
The Giants cannot lose their grip on this season as they did a year ago, when they began 1-5. Although the Giants mathematically remained in the playoff race until a 35-25 Christmas Day loss to the Philadelphia Eagles that put them at 5-10, for all intents and purposes they were done on November 5 in Week 9. That’s when they fell to 2-7 after a 30-6 spanking by the Las Vegas Raiders on the road in a game starting quarterback Daniel Jones suffered a season ending torn ACL in his right knee.
The 27-year-old Jones, who likely won’t be with the Giants beyond this season, as he has not yet proven to be a viable long-term starter six seasons into his NFL career, is in the second year of a four-year $160 million contract agreed upon in March 2023. The Giants and Jones restructured the deal six months later and the team would incur a $22 million dead money hit (a charge to a team’s salary cap for a player no longer on the roster) if they moved on from him after this season. A number that is not excessively high.
But the visible problems in the opener were more than Jones, who labored from the outset and was only 22-42 for 186 yards and two interceptions — one a pick by Vikings linebacker Andrew Van Ginkle with 4:22 remaining in the third quarter which he returned for a touchdown to cap off the day’s scoring.
“Yeah, I’d just say for all of us, we can all do a better job,” said Giants head coach Brian Daboll on Monday when asked specifically about Jones.
“Based on how the game went, I think we can all do a better job,” he reiterated. “So, we’re all accountable to it. We make no excuses. And we’ll watch this one here in 10 minutes and correct the things we’ve got to get corrected and move on to Washington.”
It’s a collective organizational fix, from team owners John Mara and Steve Tisch, to general manager Joe Schoen and Daboll. Yes, the Giants have put the Vikings loss behind them and intensely locked in to the Commanders, which they face this Sunday on the road. The past is irrevocable. The Giants have 16 more games ahead.
But the next one may tell an even deeper and more troubling story or be a guide map for betterment.