Big Blue View
Shades of 2021?
With Daniel Jones gone, Tommy DeVito (note to self: proofread to make sure you didn’t type ”Danny DeVito”) took over as the New York Giants’ starting quarterback against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This was a source of some excitement given the three games he won as a starter last season and Brian Daboll’s choice to elevate him over ostensible QB2 Drew Lock, but all in all would an undrafted free agent be just another brick in the wall of failed Giants’ quarterbacks? How would the rest of the team react to Jones’ departure? Here are some things we learned from the Giants’ loss to the Buccaneers.
The late Don Meredith used to sing that on Monday Night Football when a game got out of hand. He could have started singing halfway through the second quarter in this game. The Giants were lifeless on defense and played scared and conservative on offense for most of the first half.
They did come out in the third quarter remembering that they had the No. 6 pick in the draft on their side, and after not targeting Malik Nabers at all in the first half, went to him successfully on three consecutive plays to get into scoring position for the first time in the game. After Tyrone Tracy converted their first third down of the game, the Giants got down to the Tampa Bay 5-yard line before Tracy fumbled on an ill-conceived wildcat play. The Buccaneers recovered and drove 95 yards to put the game out of hand (if it wasn’t already) at 30-0.
The Giants’ performance revived memories of the 2021 closing stretch after Jones’ season was ended by a neck injury against Philadelphia. The Giants ran the table, so to speak, with six consecutive losses with Mike Glennon and Jake Fromm at the helm. This season is starting to look like that. It hasn’t gotten to the point of the end of 2021, when they were afraid to even throw a pass and went into “surrender formation” against Washington. But tell me you can’t imagine it happening eventually. The Giants have not only lost their last six and have not won a single home game this season...they haven’t had a lead in any game since their last victory in Seattle.
I have considered it unlikely that Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll would not be brought back next season. The Giants had played hard all season and could have won most of the games they lost with a key play here or there. Today’s game made me entertain such thoughts for the first time. The players are going to have to look in the mirror and decide whether they are going to be motivated to finish the season. Daboll is going to have to look in the mirror himself and ask whether his in-game and in-week decision-making process is flawed. Schoen is going to have to look in the mirror and ask...
