ClutchPoints
The New York Giants were overwhelmed by the New England Patriots on Monday Night Football. Despite Jaxson Dart’s return from a concussion that cost him two games, the Giants were noncompetitive in the 33-15 rout.
The last time the Giants played in prime time, they beat the Eagles on Thursday Night Football in Week 6. But the team that faced the Patriots on Monday night feels eons removed from the swaggadocious squad that shocked Philadelphia earlier this season.
The Giants impressed on the national stage back in October, earning admirers with their raw talent and brash confidence. But New York hasn’t won again since then and on Monday the team dropped its seventh straight game, falling to 2-11.
No one expected the Giants to come to Foxborough and upset the Patriots. But New York played worse than the sum of its parts in an entirely lifeless performance. While the Giants were sleepwalking through the first half, New England was well prepared. The Patriots got off to a fast start, played physical defense and executed in key moments.
Blaming individual players for this loss feels a bit like kicking a three-legged dog. Since the biggest contrast between these two teams comes down to coaching, we’ll start our therapeutic blame assessment exercise with Mike Kafka.
The Giants proved they can’t fire their way out of this mess. After a 2-8 start, the team is 0-3 since Brian Daboll got the axe. And New York’s 30th-ranked defense looked particularly toothless in its first game since interim head coach Mike Kafka canned defensive coordinator Shane Bowen.
The Giants allowed more than their already generous per-game averages in total yards and points against the Patriots. If Bowen was holding the unit back, it was not readily apparent at the start of the Charlie Bullen era.
Kafka was given an opportunity to win the Giants’ head coaching job by proving the team already has the best candidate in-house. But Monday’s performance created serious doubts. The Giants desperately need a steady hand at the wheel given their talented but inexperienced roster and the chaos of Daboll’s tenure.
A first-time head coach who’s also retained play-calling duties for the offense has a lot on his plate. And yet Kafka has focused on firing the defensive coordinator and doling out discipline.
First-round rookie Abdul Carter was benched for the second time in Kafka’s three-week reign. He sat out the first drive of Monday’s game for an unspecified disciplinary reason. Of course accountability is important but surely there’s a better, less public way to handle whatever issues you’re having with the third-overall pick during practice.
And in addition to unnecessarily providing fodder for the media, it doesn’t seem like Kafka is getting his point across. Carter got frustrated with reporters asking about his benching, telling them simply, “Sh-t happens.”
The Giants got off to a ridiculously slow start on Monday night. They essentially took the first quarter off, and things only marginally improved...
