It can take a football team too long to forge and find its identity, and a season can be left in ruins until it does.
The Giants needed to make a statement on Monday night about who they are and what they can be, before the What-Have-You-Done-For-Us-Lately? police arrested them for impersonating a playoff team.
Here was their statement:
We are no playoff team.
Not today.
Maybe not tomorrow either.
We are sad sacks.
The Giants, abominable 24-3 losers to the Seahawks, are already knocking on death’s door.
What looks like the proverbial nail in the Blue Blue coffin, with road games against the Dolphins and Bills and a 1-5 start looking inevitable, was Daniel Jones, under siege or running for his life all night and lucky his head wasn’t detached from his body, delivering not a $40 million throw, but a 40-cent throw intended for Parris Campbell that resulted in a 97-yard pick-six for rookie cornerback Devon Witherspoon. Seahawks 21, Giants 3.
Brian Daboll had eschewed a chippie Graham Gano field goal fourth-and-1 at the Seattle 16, and Jones’ 10-yard run around right end positioned him second-and-goal at the 5. Campbell went inside and Jones’ 40-cent throw went outside and it was game over.
And if you are a Giants fan, you are hard-pressed today not to think it is season over. Because, let’s face it, the Giants aren’t winning the NFC East, and the Seahawks own any farfetched wild-card berth head-to-head matchup.
A second interception came later.
Jones was sacked 10 (!) times, Campbell once.
The offense is broken. And if this continues, the $40M quarterback will be broken.
Brian Daboll has a crisis on his hands.
Something is missing.
A swagger is missing. An offense is missing. TE Darren Waller is missing. A No. 1 receiver is still missing. But more than anything, an offensive line is missing, and because an offensive line is missing, a $40M quarterback is missing.
Neither Jones nor Daboll nor offensive coordinator Mike Kafka have shown that they can overcome this ruptured Achilles’ heel.
The play-calling looked prehistoric: a dink here, a dink there, everywhere a dink dink. A 3-yard pass on second-and-18 to Jalin Hyatt instead of a single deep shot to the blazing rookie or to anyone else for that matter.
The boo birds deserve better than a handoff to Matt Breida on third-and-11 from the NYG 24 towards the end of the first half. At which time it was Seahawks 14, Giants 3, meaning that the faithful had witnessed Opponents 54, Giants 3 in the first six quarters this season at MetLife Stadium.
The offense resembles a tractor in mud, or a snail attempting to climb Mount Everest, its $40M quarterback held hostage to the dysfunction all around him.
Jones would probably give his $40M to find offensive linemen that would enable him to function the way he is expected to function.
It was a victory of sorts that he did not throw an interception in a 14-for-17 first half for 126 yards, and without Saquon Barkley, Jones finished with a club-high 63 rushing yards.
LT Andrew Thomas is indispensable, but this is ridiculous. And inexcusable.
The Giants brought in Mark Glowinski and Shane Lemieux for an early fourth-and-1 tush push from Jones from the Seattle 27 but would have been better off renting the Eagles’ offensive line. No gain.
Rookie C John Michael Schmitz (shoulder) had to be replaced by Ben Bredeson, but we aren’t talking about Jason Kelce here (or Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift, OK)?
It is painful to watch.
It was still only Seahawks 7, Giants 3 and Geno Smith (knee) had been replaced by Drew Lock. The Giants’ defense had been ornery. Kayvon Thibodeaux recorded the first of his two sacks and nearly intercepted a horizontal Smith pass attempt for rookie Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
But here Lock found TE Noah Fant by the right sideline, and Fant shed Bobby Okereke and Adoree’ Jackson and stayed inbounds before Isaiah Simmons tackled him at the 1 prior to a Kenneth Walker III TD plunge. Those tackling drills in practice apparently didn’t help much.
You start over every year, with new players and a new team. Bill Parcells found himself in a dark place immediately after losing the 1998 AFC Championship game in Denver because he knew that the Jets would be starting over in 1999.
And just as there were no guarantees that those Parcells Jets would get over the hump — hell, their 1999 season ended when Vinny Testaverde tore his Achilles on opening day and Parcells moved into the front office expecting Bill Belichick to replace him — Daboll has been around long enough to know that just because he led the 2022 Giants to their first playoff win in 11 seasons and won Coach of the Year as a grizzled rookie didn’t mean that any inexorable march back to the Super Bowl should have been expected in 2023.
Adversity smacked the 2022 Brian Daboll Giants in the mouth but it only interrupted their sweet, innocent climb back from Rock Bottom to the playoffs.
“Crash landing here,” Daboll said after the Eagles playoff humiliation. His 2023 Giants are burning.