It’s early September, the New York Giants are 0-3, and I would once again much rather face the prospect of getting kicked in the head at a Bayway show than watch this wretched team. For the third straight season, the Giants’ offense is reminiscent of a horror movie that never seemingly ends.
At the hands of principal owner John Mara, I feel like Alex from the 1971 movie A Clockwork Orange, having my eyelids forced open to watch this garbage.
The Giants were soundly defeated on Sunday Night Football against the Kansas City Chiefs, 22-9. Under Head Coach Brian Daboll, the team is 2-9 in primetime games and 4-25 since 2017. Sitting in the shadows of the glitz and glamor of New York City, nestled in the home of Jack Nicholson, the Giants are a disappointing blockbuster.
The matchup was yet another highlight (or lowlight) of the franchise’s ineptitude and lack of a well-structured organization built for winning.
Fans, including myself, think the special teams part of the game should really be an afterthought. Kicking field goals should be at the bottom of the list of my worries, because if a team is good, it shouldn’t be worrisome. It should not have a dramatic effect on the game.
For the second year in a row, however, the Giants’ five-million-dollar 38-year-old kicker Graham Gano missed a game due to injury. Just like last year, General Manager Joe Schoen did not have a backup kicker in place for the aging Gano.
When Big Blue lost last year, they lost by a field goal. Having a kicker on that sideline would have made the difference in that Week 2 loss to the Washington Commanders. It’s not that having Gano would have made a difference this year in their Week 3 loss, but having deja vu is not ideal for an easy-to-avoid situation. In my eyes, it is a fireable offense.
What was also a bizarre situation was putting a snap limit on left tackle Andrew Thomas, who saw his first action this year in the loss. It can be understandable if a team wants to limit the time a player returning from injury is on the field. What doesn’t make sense, though, is having a hard cap on the snaps (25) and using them all in the first half.
Thomas did not play during the offense’s final drive of the first half.
Rookie Marcus Mbow replaced the $13 million walking penalty James Hudson III in Week 2 and played the rest of the game after Daboll and staff yanked Thomas from the game. Mbow did a decent job, but the offense struggled to get into any sort of rhythm in the second half.
The blame doesn’t fall on the rookie, though, because it falls on Daboll and the New York’s $10 million man, Russell Wilson.
Let me start here: I think Wilson is one of the nicest guys in the NFL, even if he tries too hard and comes across as corny. In his prime, he was not just a winner, but an all-around elite QB. He is in the conversation as one of the best quarterbacks drafted in the first half of the 2010s. He is a borderline Hall of Famer.
Russell Wilson has not been that player in his last four seasons, including this one in New York. Prior to signing him, the franchise signed Jameis Winston, who is currently the third-string QB. To many fans, Winston was actually the perfect bridge QB to whoever they took in the draft, because expectations on winning were low. Wilson has a Super Bowl ring and, at one time, was a perennial playoff contender. Expectations arose.
There is something to be said, however, about Head Coach Sean Payton cutting him from the Denver Broncos, and the Pittsburgh Steelers deciding not to re-sign him. Two Hall of Fame coaches, Payton and the Steelers’ Mike Tomlin, said, “We don’t want him,” and yet Schoen and Daboll signed Russ.
On September 23rd, Coach Daboll said that first-round draft pick Jaxson Dart will be the starter for Week 4’s matchup against the Los Angeles Chargers. Of course, I hope the Giants win or are competitive with Dart behind center. To the surprise of no one who’s paid attention to his career, Jim Harbaugh has the Chargers looking like the iconoclast of the AFC this year, with the Buffalo Bills.
Bills QB Josh Allen, who was allegedly developed by Daboll, has played like the best QB in the NFL the last two years. His former coach will be looking for a new franchise or school by Thanksgiving.
The Indianapolis Colts look great so far, too. Their QB? Daniel Jones. He played like a civ for New York and had “BUST” written all over him.
The Giants’ Head Coach, a so-called “QB whisperer,” could not even make Jones look like a mediocre QB like an Aaron Brooks or Jeff Garcia. Now? Jones looks like prime Peyton Manning.
The sad state of affairs in the Meadowlands will, unfortunately, still continue. The Giants, formed 100 years ago in 1925, were a gold standard in the NFL with people like Lawrence Taylor, Michael Strahan, and Eli Manning. They had coaches and coordinators like Vince Lombardi, Bill Parcells, and Bill Belichick.
New York now has frauds occupying offices and collecting paychecks. If someone like Bob Papa, the radio play-by-play announcer, is mad at fans for calling out the abysmal state of affairs, he should call Nicholson for anger management courses.
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