The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Giants’ 16-13 Loss to Minnesota Vikings

At this point, what’s left to say that hasn’t already been said about the New York Giants, now the owners of a nine-game losing streak that seemingly has no end in sight with two games remaining?

See you next year?

Not so fast. There are still two more games left before this horrific season comes to a close, a season that is a long way off from the promise this squad showed in the spring.

At this point, the only positive is that the Giants still hold the first overall pick in the 2026 draft, a pick that one kind of hopes they end up with as with some fancy finagling, the Giants can come away with a boatload of draft picks if they trade the pick to a quarterback needy team that’s in love with projected No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza out of Indiana.

But that’s a discussion for another time. Let’s instead get into the good, bad, and ugly from Week 16.

The Good

Dec 21, 2025; East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA; New York Giants cornerback Paulson Adebo (21) reacts after a turnover against the Minnesota Vikings during the first half at MetLife Stadium. | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

For the third time this season, the Giants had a multiple-turnover game, recording two in this one.

The first was an interception by cornerback Paulson Adebo toward the end of the first quarter that set up a 27-yard field goal by rookie kicker Ben Sauls.

The second was a huge trip sack by Brian Burns against J.J. McCarthy on the play where McCarthy injured his hand and had to come out of the game.

The fumble was picked up by safety Tyler Nubin and returned 27 yards for a touchdown, making it a 13-10 game, the Giants down by three at that point.

There should have been a third turnover as well, this one being a pick-6 by safety Jevon Holland returned 96 yards for a score that would have made it 10-3 in favor of the Giants, except the flag-happy officiating crew, which called 22 penalties (11 per team , not counting any penalties that were declined), called rookie Abdul Carter for having his hand in the neutral zone.

That flag wiped out the turnover and ensuing score and allowed the Vikings to continue the drive, which was capped by a 31-yard field goal by Will Reichard to make it a 6-3 Vikings lead.

The Giants defense also recorded four sacks in this one and nine quarterback hits, but that nullified pick-6 really hurt.

The Bad

Dec 21, 2025; East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA; New York Giants head coach Mike Kafka (Interim) reacts against the Minnesota Vikings during the first half at MetLife Stadium. | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

All week long, a topic of conversation was the aggressive and “chaotic” Vikings defense run by Brian Flores, a specialist in designing disguised defenses.

In response, Giants interim head coach Mike Kafka approved a game plan that leaned heavily into the running game (which made sense given that the Giants’ rushing game has been solid these last few weeks and the Vikings' run defense not so much).

"I wouldn't call running the ball conservative," Kafka said after the game.

"We just wanted to try and minimize some of that pressure package and let our run game go. So we were mixing a couple different personnel groupings. Getting into some 13 personnel, some 12, a little bit of 11, but trying to create an advantage for us."

Great, but at some point, passes needed to be mixed a little more into the game, and the Giants, who finished with 141 net yards of total offense on 48 plays, only managed 13 net passing yards.

Yes, you read that correctly. Thirteen net passing yards.

Some might say that it was warranted, given that Dart held onto the ball at times a bit too long while trying to decipher what he was seeing, but at the end of the day, the kid needs a little help out there if he’s ever going to become the quarterback they think he can be.

The Ugly

New York Giants wide receiver Darius Slayton (18) drops the ball during a game against the Minnesota Vikings at MetLife Stadium, Dec 21, 2025, East Rutherford, NJ, USA | Yannick Peterhans / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Speaking of help for Jaxson Dart, yet again, his receivers let him down with drops. Two came at the hands of his buddy, tight end Theo Johnson, who actually volleyed the ball, which admittedly was thrown high, into the air, where the Vikings picked it off.

"Theo is a guy that we really rely on and I think he's a guy that's made a lot of big plays consistently throughout the last, call it, five, seven games and he's a guy we'll continue to put the ball in his hands and give him opportunities down the field," Kafka said.

"I know he's had drops in the past. Like that's in the past. I have a lot of confidence in Theo and him being able to make big time plays for us."

Then there was the big drop by receiver Darius Slayton on a pass that would have gone for at least 20 yards had it been caught. Slayton, who came into this week’s game with four drops on the year, has had three in his last two games, counting this week.

Dart lamented after the game that he has to do a better job of throwing better balls to help his receivers, but short of running the ball down the field and personally handing it to them, what more can he do?

Want another ugly factor of this game? Try all the big chunk plays that the Giants defense allowed.

"Obviously we don't want to give up those big third downs," Kafka said. "It might be something as simple as just the fundamentals, getting the guy down and tackling him.

I know on a couple we had some opportunities to tackle them short of the sticks. Didn't do it. But we'll look at it. We'll focus on it and make that a point of emphasis for this week of practice."

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The Good

The Bad

The Ugly

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