The New York Giants were beaten 22-9 by the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday Night Football.
I am sure many other writers have snuck in Taylor Swift song titles and puns into their articles!
The Giants only play the Chiefs every four years, so by the time I have a chance again, who knows what the status of Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift will be.
Let us pray the Giants have won a game by then. I am not even a ‘Swifty’, I just cannot face writing about that disappointing game without finding ways to make it more entertaining for myself and you.
Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?
Standing at 5’9″ tall, running back Cam Skattebo was the only real bright spot on the offensive side of the ball.
If any plays happened, they went through him. On a day where only one wide receiver had a reception before the fourth quarter – Wan’Dale Robinson and Malik Nabers both had zero receptions going into the final quarter – any hope of moving the ball lived with Skattebo.
While he may lack that explosive speed where you think every single play could be off to the races, he certainly makes the most of every touch, and ensures that every defender knows who he is by pounding the ball through them, like he has Bad Blood with every single player on the opposition’s defense.
He finished the day with 10 carries for 60 yards and a rushing touchdown, plus six receptions for 61 yards.
Cruel Summer
After so much hope and optimism during preseason, it really is disappointing to start 0-3. I am finding it hard to find bright spots in the team.
Once again, we had lots of opportunities to win this game, but it is a team that just does not know how to win.
There we so many potential game-changing plays that could have been made.
Bobby Okereke trying to scoop and score a fumble recovery from the Patrick Mahomes backwards pass, rather than diving on the ball and giving the offense a goal-to-go situation. Paulson Adebo had a dropped interception. Multiple defenders had good chances to get Mahomes down in the back field but let him get free and make plays.
Right before half time, all Dru Phillips needed to do was tackle the Chiefs wide receiver after he caught the ball and time would have expired, preventing a field goal kick right on the half, but instead decided to tackle him to the ground and give away defensive pass interference penalty.
The coaching staff does not put their players in the best situations to make plays. Head Coach Brian Daboll is becoming an Anti-Hero with the playoff season of 2022 seeming a very distant memory and the Love Story between Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll seems to be ending as both will be looking to save their own jobs.
But Daddy I Love Him
There is only one person now who can salvage this season and make Giants football entertaining.
While the damage might already be done on the season, first round pick Jaxson Dart’s debut will be getting nearer and nearer, with coach Daboll refusing to commit to Russell Wilson as the starter for Week 4.
The pass blocking looks reasonably OK and this offensive line is not as bad as it used to be. On a very tough schedule, there will not be a good time to get Dart into the starting job.
So… why not just pull the trigger now and start to see what we have? Give us some hope and excitement. If he starts this week though and it all goes wrong, Don’t Blame Me.
I Knew You Were Trouble
Going up against former Giants Super Bowl-winning defensive co-ordinator Steve Spagnuolo, it was always going to be key that our coaching put us into situations to win the game.
Spagnuolo tends to be a very blitz heavy coordinator, sending a blitz on 43.9% of plays over the first two weeks of the season.
Expecting to have lots of man coverage and deep shots to Slayton and Nabers available, Spagnuolo completely change his scheme and blitzed on less than 15% of snaps – opting to keep two deep safeties and stop the infamous Russell Wilson moonball.
Other than an above average run game, our coaches looked totally clueless on how to get the ball in the hands of their playmakers.
A real reluctance to try screens, end arounds, trick plays or anything to get the ball into our best players hand. It seems bringing Dart in to run a read-option run play is the only wrinkle we have and that is getting boring fast.
Fortnight
The next two weeks for the Giants is the unbeaten Los Angeles Chargers and then the woeful-looking New Orleans Saints.
Imagine two weeks time and we are sitting here with Jaxson Dart 2-0 as a starter and the Giants are going into Week 6 against the Eagles, looking to get back to .500.
As Lloyd Christmas infamously said in Dumb and Dumber: “So you’re telling me there is a chance?”
Hang tight Giants nation, it is not over until it is over.
How many ‘T-Swizzle’ songs did you spot? Let us know over on X @JoinTheHuddleUK. If only there were 22.
