Giants Remain Undefeated, Move to 2–0
We’re playing with house money, folks. Enjoy it.
Well, well, well, if you had the Giants starting their season off 2–0 this year, you’re either crazy, a psychic, or a liar.
Regardless, Brian Daboll’s Giants are marching on with a second straight victory to kick off his tenure as head coach in East Rutherford. Similar to the game against the Titans, this was not a pretty football game. Nobody is crowning the Giants as NFC East favorites now. But honestly, that’s irrelevant for a team at the beginning of a rebuild.
Before the season, I wrote that I wanted the Giants to be competitive and entertaining. Two games in, they’ve certainly done just that. Sure, yesterday’s performance lacked the game-breaking plays from Saquon Barkley, but overall the Giants were either winning or within a score the entire length of the game.
Did they win in style? Not at all. Does that matter? Not in the slightest. It’d matter for the Giants if they were a team primed to contend, one upon which heavy expectations were placed. But this is a team with a mess of a cap space situation, a brand new HC and GM, and a QB that may have one foot out the door at the end of the season. Given all this, it’s impossible to complain if you’re a Giants fan after these first two weeks.
Think about all the close games the Giants have either found ways to lose or been outright unlucky with kickers booming 60+ yard winners over the years. I consider these two games to be the pendulum swinging back towards positive regression for our Giants. Of course, positive regression doesn’t necessarily happen on its own. You need to make some luck for yourselves every so often.
Two games in, the Giants have made their own luck — at least in part — by out-coaching the opposition both games. New DC Wink Martindale has a vastly under-manned defense performing at an extremely high level so far. Currently, the Giants defense is top of the league in completion percentage against and opponent third down conversion rate. This is a minor miracle given their lack of depth at CB and LB, and the fact that they’re missing their top two pass rushers — Kayvon Thibodeaux and Azeez Ojulari — through two weeks.
Truly wild — regardless of opponent — that the Giants have managed to pull off numbers like those. It speaks to how well-coached the unit is, that’s how they manage to overcome deficiencies in pure talent. Furthermore, not only does it take a good gameplan, but it takes the players actually executing it to succeed. Tough to be upset with the defense so far, and they should get their top pass rushers and CB2 back soon enough.
The hope is, as the season goes on, the Giants’ pass rush will become more of a threat, forcing opposing offenses to adjust. When that happens, we can expect Wink and Co. to dial up the pressure in unique and exotic ways, causing the kind of confusion that can lead to turnovers.
As for the offense, enough plays have been made so far to keep the team in it until the end. Has it always been pretty? Not in the slightest. Nobody’s crowning this current iteration of the Giants offense — one featuring David Sills and Richie James as prominent WRs — but as long as they make enough plays to remain competitive, that’s all that matters.
What’s important is seeing OC Mike Kafka scheming players open for QB Daniel Jones, and Jones taking what the defense will give him. Nobody — at least nobody with a pair of working eyes — is going to sit here and say Daniel Jones has wowed us through two weeks under Daboll/Kafka. But he’s converted some key third downs with his arm and his legs, and he’s limited the back-breaking mistakes.
Jones is most likely not the long-term solution at QB for the Giants. He still misses big plays (like the one to Sterling Shepard yesterday) and doesn’t seem super comfortable navigating the pocket. His first half performance yesterday had me contemplating a nap. Unless Jones’ play drastically changes and he starts carrying the Giants to victory, I expect them to be in the market for a new QB in 2023. Which is totally fine! This season is about figuring out who’s going to be part of the full Daboll/Schoen rebuild.
Speaking of which, Andrew Thomas has certainly settled into things as a wall at LT. Currently, PFF has him rated as the top tackle in all of football so far this season. Not too shabby for the former fourth overall pick! Go watch him on the TD clip right above, you’ll see he blocks not one, but two separate defenders, giving Jones a chance to let the play develop into the easy score.
On the other side of the line, rookie RT Evan Neal had a bit of a rough day yesterday against a top-end Panthers pass rush. Rookie bumps are to be expected, though, and it’s not like we Giants fans didn’t just go through the same with Thomas on the left. Why don’t we give the rookie time to settle into things at the pro level? I have faith.
When it comes to skill position players, Saquon is Saquon, the WR room is…something, and the TEs are the TEs. The two leading WRs snap-wise for the Giants yesterday? David Sills (!) and Sterling Shepard, who’s coming off an Achilles injury. Richie James featured prominently yet again, and, most surprisingly, the $21 million man Kenny Golladay played a total of two snaps. Two.
Clearly, Brian Daboll is not messing around and forcing Golladay into the lineup solely because of the price tag associated with the struggling WR, a move I can respect. If Daboll/Kafka determine that Golladay isn’t showing enough in practice to get out there, so be it. WR will be a clear position of need in next year’s draft, but depth at the position only seems to be growing, something that bodes well for our Giants.
The Giants are 2–0 for the first time since 2016, Ben McAdoo’s first year in charge. The difference between this year and then is that in 2016, the Giants had actual playoff aspirations and played a flawed style of football. They relied on an otherworldly defensive season and Odell Beckham Jr. breaking off enough long TD plays.
Meanwhile, the 2022 Giants have no illusions about who they are. They’re a team at the beginning of a rebuild, one that will require an entire reshaping of the roster — between cap work and personnel — and an entirely new approach to roster building overall. Yes, this will take more time than many care to admit, but that’s why it’s called a rebuild.
Let’s enjoy this win, Giants fans, but also keep things in perspective. In the words of Brian Daboll during his postgame comments to the team yesterday, “…the result is great, I love it. But remember […] if we would’ve lost this game, it’s still about our preparation and our process.”
Here’s to starting 3–0 after the Giants take on the Cowboys next Monday night.
