Beaten Giants Not Looking to Quit
The New York Giants fell to the Miai Dolphins 31-16 in South Florida, their third straight loss and fourth loss in a season quickly slipping away from them.
But despite the woes that have included consistent mistakes that just don't seem to be going away and injuries, the beaten-down Giants, who gave up 524 yards of offense to the Dolphins and who have now lost all four of their games by 15+ points, vowed to keep on fighting.
"Look, you don't want to lose,” head coach Brian Daboll said about his locker room amid the rough start. “You work extremely hard to put yourself in a good position, so after games, it's certainly disappointing with all the effort you put into it.
“So 24-hour rule – you get back in, learn from the stuff, and then you have to move on.”
The problem is that Daboll and the players have been saying the same thing after each loss this season, only to seemingly outdo themselves with how they lose the next game.
One area that continues to define Daboll’s group is the lack of an efficient start to their ball games. For another week, the Giants quickly fell behind 14-0 as the Dolphins capitalized off a missed field goal by Graham Gano and breakaway plays by their skilled players.
Miami got their day going by gaining 73 yards of offense in their first four plays and followed it up with a 76-yard rushing score by De’Von Achane on their third possession to further distance the affair with their disadvantaged opponent.
The slow effort by the Giants extended their hideous scoring deficit in the first half of games to a staggering 94-19 in favor of the opponent. It’s a trend that’s become delirious to a franchise that ranked 15th in total offense last season and has completely stifled their ability to be dynamic with the football in their hands.
“It can be tough,” said tight end Darren Waller after the game. “It’s tough to have that balanced rhythm. Sometimes, you may feel like you have to hurry up or get down the field as quickly as possible by throwing it. You can’t have the run-pass balance you may want because we’ve got to climb or do something different. It affects your rhythm and your pace as an offense.”
Not only has their pace affected their success on the gridiron, but their ability to attack the field with their receiving arsenal as well. The Giants spent a chunk of their offseason change looking to upgrade the pass-catching weapons at quarterback Daniel Jones’s disposal. The search brought accomplished players like Waller, Parris Campbell, and rookie Jaylin Hyatt, only to see their intangibles go missing thus far in the Big Apple.
Along with averaging just 5.5 points per contest after the latest loss, the Giants went another weekend without having any receiver cross the 100-yard threshold or punch in a touchdown in the first two quarters of play. The defense helped the cause by forcing three Miami turnovers, including a pick-six by safety Jason Pinnock to cut the Dolphins’ lead to 14-10 shortly before halftime.
Nevertheless, the Giants still couldn’t muster a passing groove in the second half, posting just one drive of at least 50 yards and two field goals to lighten the miserable load. They now rank 30th or worse in almost all the major passing categories for a group with such heavy expectations over a month ago.
“Yeah, we didn’t expect it, for sure,” said wide receiver Darius Slayton on the lack of a click within the offense. “We expect to be better, expected to play better, but we haven’t. That’s the reality right now, and we must go back to work and get better.”
The worst part of this disastrous funk is that it now becomes an even tougher challenge in a trip to Orchard Park to face the Buffalo Bills on Sunday night. Like Miami, the Bills have taken off as one of the most electric offenses in the entire league, one that Daboll knows all too well from his days as their former offensive coordinator before coming to New York.
While their offense has stood atop the best in both phases of the offense, their defense has evenly manhandled opponents by limiting them to the second-fewest points and sixth-fewest yards, respectively. The combination could make it easy for the Giants' offense to enter the game looking eager to fold, but instead, they are ready to embrace the next challenge head-on with grit and positivity.
“It’s easy for people to point fingers and blame at this point,” added Waller. “It’s hard to stay the course. It’s hard to maintain a positive attitude. It’s hard to pick guys up when everybody is just kind of figuring what’s going on. It’s difficult, but we do hard things.”
The hardest part of the road ahead may be continuing to play without several of their biggest pieces on the offensive side. It remains to be seen whether Barkley will make his return from an ankle sprain he has been nursing since Week 2.
The offensive line continues to be banged up beyond the realm of depth on the roster, and now Jones has been added to the mix with a neck injury suffered in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s loss.
Still, as all eyes will be set upon Daboll’s return to Buffalo in a week, the message in the Giants locker room in the coming days as they work up to that will be to move forward and not lose confidence if they want to preserve what is left of their next 12 games and build the team stronger for the future.
“We’ve got a lot of the work to do,” said Jones, who was to have an MRI on his neck on Monday. “We’re in a tough spot, but we got the guys to do it. Confident we can bounce back. We got to put the work in, and it's about what we do on the field.”
“Can only take one day at a time,” added Daboll. “So that's what we'll try to do.”
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