Is Week 1 a must-win game for the Giants?

Their history since their last Super Bowl says so

The 1986 New York Giants did not get their season off to an auspicious start, losing 31-28 at Dallas in their opening game. After a 21-0 playoff embarrassment in Chicago to end their previous season, it was not what fans were looking for. That team turned out OK, though.

Things were even worse in 2007, when a Giants team coming off two consecutive one-and-done playoff seasons suffered two embarrassing losses in which their supposedly elite defense gave up 45 points to Dallas and 35 points to Green Bay in their first two games. It almost became three losses in a row in Washington when they fell behind 17-3. The Giants stormed back to take a 24-17 lead, though, and then held on in the final minute, stopping Washington running back Ladell Betts (hired this winter as Giants’ running backs coach) on third and fourth down near the goal line to preserve their first win:

That team turned out OK too.

In 2011, it was more of the same. The Giants lost their opener 28-14 at Washington, the key play being Ryan Kerrigan’s pick-6 of Eli Manning when the game was tied in the third quarter. You know what’s coming...that team turned out all right, too.

I don’t know what it is with this team, but through good years and bad, they tend not to get off to a good start. It hasn’t always happened that way, e.g., the dominant 1990 team started 10-0, including an opening win against Philadelphia and series sweeps against Dallas and Washington. That was an exception, though, and not the rule. In the years since their last Super Bowl especially, Game 1 has been a harbinger of the season, and usually not a good one:

• 2012: 24-17 loss to Dallas -> finished 9-7 but missed playoffs
• 2013: 36-31 loss at Dallas -> finished 7-9
• 2014: 35-14 loss at Detroit -> finished 6-10
• 2015: 27-26 loss at Dallas -> finished 6-10
• 2016: 20-19 win at Dallas -> finished 11-5, made playoffs
• 2017: 19-3 loss at Dallas -> finished 3-13
• 2018: 20-15 loss to Jacksonville -> finished 5-11
• 2019: 35-17 loss at Dallas -> finished 4-12
• 2020: 26-16 loss to Pittsburgh -> finished 6-10
• 2021: 27-13 loss to Denver -> finished 4-13

Well that’s ancient history, you say...but the pattern has continued through the Brian Daboll era:

• 2022: 21-20 win at Tennessee -> finished 9-7-1, made Divisional Round of playoffs
• 2023: 40-0 loss to Dallas -> finished 6-11
• 2024: 28-6 loss to Minnesota -> finished 3-14

That’s 12 consecutive seasons in which the Game 1 result perfectly predicted a winning or losing season, and 13 consecutive years in which it predicted making or missing the playoffs. That’s amazing. Last season, the Ravens, Broncos, Rams, Packers, and Commanders, all playoff teams, lost in Week 1, while the Saints, Patriots, Dolphins, Seahawks, Cowboys, and 49ers, all non-playoff teams,...