Mike Kafka makes impressive NY Giants debut as interim head coach

The New York Giants did not win Mike Kafka’s debut as an NFL head coach on Sunday. It is certainly, though, hard to blame the Giants’ interim head coach.

It was a pretty impressive first act for Kafka in his audition for the full-time coaching job in 2026.

• Kafka disciplined rookie edge defender Abdul Carter.
• The head coach, calling offensive plays, went for it on fourth down four times. Three of those were on one drive.
• Kafka said he would have gone for two if the Giants had scored a touchdown in the final two minutes when they were behind 27-20.
• An insistence on pounding the ball with the running game led to a 38-carry, 142-yard day that saw the Giants dominate the time of possession, 35:56-24:04.
• Kafka took the ball rather than deferring, which has become standard, when the Giants won the coin toss. That enabled the Giants to jump to an early 7-0 lead.
• Kafka lost an early challenge, but there was no issue with the mechanics of his first-ever challenge.
• Kafka elevated Elijah Chatman and Dalen Cambre from the practice squad for the first time. Each played big roles. Chatman was part of the defensive line rotation, and was a lead blocker from the fullback position on one of Devin Singletary’s two touchdown runs. Cambre, an undrafted free agent rookie was an All-American special teams player at Louisiana, had a solo tackle and an assisted tackle in kickoff coverage.

Kafka wasn’t ready to reflect on any overriding emotions about his first time on an NFL sideline as the boss.

“I’m sure there will be. Not right now, but I’m sure there will be at some time,” Kafka said. “My focus was on the game. My focus was on the players, putting them in the best positions, just thinking through how we were going to play the game. Again, talking about some of the weather stuff, some of the substitution stuff. So that’s really all my focus was, just on the game.”

Kafka said over and over in the post-game press conference that he wanted the Giants to be aggressive above all else.

He led from the front on that account.

The fourth-down decisions and the early challenge flag were part of that. He called an offense that played some bully-ball against the Packers, running the ball 38 times while throwing it just 29. The Giants had drives of 15 and 16 plays in the second half, and wound up holding the ball for 35:56 to just 24:04 for Green Bay.

“We want to be aggressive. That’s, to me, as a former player, being around a lot of good play callers, head coaches, like you want to have an aggressive mentality on offense and defense, special teams,” Kafka said after the game. “So that’s really the messaging throughout. We continue to be aggressive, whether it’s one-on-one situations, whether it’s by play call, or whether it’s just by style of play. I...