It’s impossible to avoid the thought of “here we go again” with the Giants.
Once again, this franchise is off to an 0-2 start. That’s seven times in the last nine seasons, if you’re keeping score at home. This is the first time they have done so without yet playing a home game, but hosting Kansas City on Sunday night in their MetLife Stadium opener is hardly inspiring.
The Chiefs are also 0-2, although you can’t write off the three-time reigning AFC champions after losses to the Chargers and the Eagles, especially when they always seem to start slow.
Yet the stakes here are obvious: The loser faces astronomical odds to make the playoffs, as only four of 165 teams since 1990 have done so after starting 0-3.
Who really wants to bet on the Giants coming out victorious?
“I’m excited about the challenge,” quarterback Russell Wilson said this week, days after the Giants’ heartbreaking overtime loss in Dallas. “A little bit of adversity is never a bad thing, it molds you. I think it’s a long season, but we’ve got to play this season right now. Play like this is the fourth quarter, this is the last play of the game every time.”
For as well as the Giants played on offense against the Cowboys — they scored 37 points for only the second time in 55 regular season/postgame games under Brian Daboll — it was still a loss. And they don’t get to carry over those points into Sunday.
That’s the thing about the NFL: It’s a clean slate in every game. There are new matchups. Momentum from one week to the next doesn’t exist. You have to take advantage of opportunities to win, and the Giants have instead found ways to lose.
The loss in Dallas was another case of the Giants being done in by critical mistakes and a lack of complementary football.
Frustration began to boil in the visiting locker room. One of the team’s captains, defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence, held a contentious interview. In response to multiple questions by one reporter, he asked them if they watched the game.
In another back-and-forth, when I asked whether the Cowboys made any schematic adjustments at halftime to gain the upper hand on the Giants, Lawrence doubled down on the idea that, no, it was all about penalties and giving the Cowboys too many second chances.
Call me skeptical that four defensive penalties alone accounted for 30 points and 334 yards allowed in the second half/overtime.
The talk throughout the week was about how the Giants could possibly have allowed tight end Jake Ferguson to so easily get an 18-yard catch over the middle to put the Cowboys in field-goal range at the end of regulation. Defensive coordinator Shane Bowen conceded he wished the coverage would have been “a little bit tighter,” but it’s baffling that the play call had to be second-guessed. The Giants knew that kicker Brandon Aubrey’s career-long was 65 yards.
Between that and the Giants seemingly having no answers for their barrage of penalties, it’s getting harder and to harder to believe that the coaching staff’s magic touch from Daboll’s first season in 2022 is ever coming back.
Still, here is another chance for the Giants to make amends.
In a primetime game with the Chiefs, Wilson can prove that his 450-yard performance was no fluke — that the Giants’ “quick strike at any moment” offense, as wide receiver Darius Slayton dubbed it last Sunday, can perform against better defenses.
The Giants have occasionally cooked passive zone coverage teams like the Cowboys (see: the Colts last season and the Vikings in the 2022 playoffs), whereas more complex and aggressive schemes like Steve Spagnuolo’s in Kansas City have posed more issues.
Wilson should have chances to take shots downfield with the amount of Cover 0 (man-to-man with no deep safety) that the Chiefs play, but the Giants are also going to have to be able to pick up more blitzers up front.
With that in mind, it’s crucial for the Giants that All-Pro left tackle Andrew Thomas is expected to make his long-awaited return from foot surgery.
“You’re trying to create explosives as an offensive unit each week,” Daboll said. “Now, how you get played, personnel matchups, a lot of those things are dictated on a week-to-week basis in our league. So, no question you want to try to create explosive plays, you want to play well in the red zone, you want to take care of the football, you want to control the line of scrimmage, you want to make good decisions. Those are staples that I think any good offense has.”
Defensively, Bowen’s much-maligned unit needs a strong response against a Kansas City offense that still has one of the greatest quarterbacks ever in Patrick Mahomes but is less explosive these days. The Chiefs are averaging only 19 points per game and have generated only 94 rushing yards from their running backs in two games. But the expected return of wide receiver Xavier Worthy, a first-round draft pick last year, gives Mahomes a key weapon.
Can the Giants step up at home against a team with championship pedigree? It’s hard to see it, frankly, after another 0-2 start, but it would certainly go a long way toward quieting the noise around Daboll’s regime.
The pressure is on.
Greg Johnson covers the New York Giants and NFL for MediaNews Group. Reach him at gjohnson@trentonian.com.
Giants Gameday
The Game: Chiefs (0-2) at Giants (0-2), MetLife Stadium, Sunday, 8:20 p.m. ET (NBC)
The Line: Kansas City by 6.5
History: The Giants lead the all-time series, 11-4. The Chiefs won the last meeting in Kansas City in 2021, but the Giants won the last meeting in East Rutherford in 2017 in overtime (when QB Patrick Mahomes was a rookie and on the bench).
Key Matchups:
Giants C John Michael Schmitz vs. Chiefs DT Chris Jones: Schmitz has been one of the worst centers, per Pro Football Focus (ranked 43rd among 44 this season). His play on the interior is a concern with Kansas City’s three-time First Team All-Pro looming.
Giants QB Russell Wilson vs. Chiefs secondary: The NFL’s early-season leader in passing yards per game is … surprise, Russell Wilson! The veteran quieted critics with 450 yards in Dallas, but the Chiefs are less susceptible to big plays (five 20+ yard passes allowed, zero 40+ yard passes allowed).
Giants run defense vs. Chiefs rushing offense: The Giants have continued to be a mess stopping the run this season as they are allowing the most rushing yards per game (177.5). The Chiefs are 17th in yards per game (109.5), but Patrick Mahomes has accounted for 123 of the 219 yards. That means the Giants have to be ready to handle scrambles this week, and that was an issue in the season opener against the elusive Jayden Daniels, who had 11 carries for 68 yards.
Giants CB Paulson Adebo vs. Chiefs WR Xavier Worthy: Kansas’ top receiver is expected back in the lineup after dislocating his shoulder in Week 1. It’ll be important for Adebo to keep him in check as Patrick Mahomes has just two passing TDs in the Chiefs’ first two games (both losses).
Injury Report:
Giants: OUT: ILB Darius Muasau (concussion/eye); DOUBTFUL: LB Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles (calf), DL Rakeem Nunez-Roches (foot); QUESTIONABLE: DL Chauncey Golston (ankle), WR Gunner Olszewski (back), RB Tyrone Tracy Jr. (back).
Chiefs: OUT: DE Mike Danna (quad), CB Kristian Fulton (ankle); QUESTIONABLE: WR Jalen Royals (knee), WR Xavier Worthy (shoulder).
Giant Facts: The Giants have the second-worst red-zone touchdown rate (14.29 percent) and second-worst opponent red-zone touchdown rate (85.71%). … The Giants are 2-8 in primetime games under Brian Daboll. … Russell Wilson entered the week with the most 25-plus yard completions in the NFL (eight) — two more than Josh Allen, Jared Goff and Geno Smith.
The Prediction: Chiefs 23, Giants 17
