Can they be this bad?
A year after being the feel-best of all NFL feel-good stories, are the Giants really as — pick your word — awful, horrible, deplorable, unwatchable — as they looked during this hard-to-fathom 24-3 detonation at the hands of the Seahawks on Monday night, as they’ve looked for all but 30 minutes of the 240 that they’ve played this year?
Is that possible? It is real?
It’s possible. It’s real. It’s out there, on the record — and for three of these first four Giants games they’ve been on in prime time, out there for the whole world to see. And it doesn’t matter where you’ve caught them — NBC, Amazon, ABC, ESPN2 — they’ve been a hundred different shades of terrible from coast to coast in crafting a 1-3 start.
“Every year is different, we’re not playing well right now, not coaching well right now,” Giants head coach Brian Daboll said when the merciless beating was mercifully complete. “We’re not getting results. That starts with me.”
Are the Giants banged up? Of course they are. All of the guys breaking this one down Monday night — Troy Aikman, Joe Buck, Peyton and Eli, Will Ferrell — were quick to remind you and the nation that Saquon Barkley and Andrew Thomas didn’t dress, that center John Michael Schmitz banged up his shoulder, that the Giants’ offensive line was in disarray.
All well. All good. All fair.
You know who was every bit as banged up? The Seahawks. They were missing both of their tackles. Their offensive line is even more of a triage unit than the Giants’. They lost their quarterback, Geno Smith, for the last half of the second quarter and all Drew Lock did was come in and drive Seattle right down the field, helped along by an inexcusable blown coverage as Noah Fant tiptoed down the sideline on a 51-yard play.
In truth, the only reason why the final spread was 21 points is because the Seahawks were every bit as bloodied and bruised as the Giants were. Any reasonably competent and healthy opponent … man, it’s hard to calculate.
And it was hard to listen to the restlessness among the 78,507 folks sitting through this slog turn to downright contempt, the boos raining down with a ferocity that hearkens to some bad old days of recent vintage.
“I’d be upset, too, if I were a fan,” Daboll said.
The numbers? Goodness, the numbers. They’ve been outscored 77-9 in the first half this year. They’ve been outscored 64-3 in their two home games so far — and have a two-game tour through Miami and Buffalo awaiting them the next two weeks, two teams who aren’t exactly afraid to treat the scoreboard like a pinball machine.
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Scream all you want about Daniel Jones, who threw two interceptions (including a pick-six) and surrendered a fumble deep in his own territory that set up another Seattle TD, but Jones was actually the one Giant who could walk (or limp) out of MetLife Stadium with his head high and his pride intact, having absorbed a relentless beating across 60 minutes, taking 10 of the 11 Seahawks sacks.
“I’ve got to do a better job,” said Jones, a stand-up guy even on a night when it had to be hard for him to remain upright.
The defense exhibited what has become a troubling habit: a chronic inability to tackle, something that’s kind of a requirement when you play tackle football for a living (the fact that the unit allowed only 281 yards is the most misleading stat you’ll see all month). The special teams were an utter fiasco.
If you’re going to try to be competitive in a game when your offense is shorthanded, it helps to play well in the other two phases. Instead the Giants were dreadful in the other two phases. Dreadful top to bottom, both sides of the ball, opening kickoff to final gun.
“No excuses,” Daboll said. “Got to do a better job. Everyone.”
And have we mentioned that all of this was on 11 days’ rest!
Look: Daboll and his staff didn’t just suddenly forget all they know about football, and didn’t turn collectively stupid overnight. But fair is fair. It was the Giants’ coaching that in all 19 games last year gave them — using Charlie Weis’ old standby — a decided schematic advantage every time they lined up. And they were duly and daily praised for that.
What can you say about what we’ve seen so far?
Can they be this bad?
Well you can answer the question the easy way and say with great certainty: yes, indeed, absolutely, they have been this bad. The harder question will be even harder to answer, especially after the Dolphins and Bills get their cracks and their whacks at them:
Just how bad can it get?
