As soon as Julian Love prefaced his comment with, “When you put it in perspective,” you knew this was going to be something good because the fourth-year safety is an astute observer of the state of the Giants.
Love continued.
“Last year we were 1-7 at this point, and so, yeah, it’s a tale of two years, and we still have accomplished a lot this first half of the season.” This was not long after the Giants’ winning streak ended at four games with a 27-13 loss to the Seahawks in Seattle on Sunday and Love provided the data — which was almost correct — as he succinctly hammered home his point.
The Giants after eight games in 2021 were 2-6. They were out of it after eight games. The Giants in 2022 are very much in it. It will be difficult, but not impossible, for them to fall out of it any time soon.
“And now it’s going to be a race,” Love said.
It remains to be seen how capable the Giants are of being able to keep running the race the way they sprinted through the first half of this season. Each victory seemed to come with a disclaimer: They gutted this one out but they cannot keep operating with so little margin for error and continue to win. They won that one because the opponent left much to be desired. The NFL has a way of turning nice little stories into old news. Whenever the projections go something like, “If they only play .500 ball for the rest of the season they get to 11 wins and that gets them in the playoffs,” there should be a shudder or two, because nothing is ever a given. What transpired in September and October for the Giants created an impressive opening to the Brian Daboll program and sets them up beautifully for November and December. But it guarantees the Giants nothing.
“When you think of the four quarters of the season, the first quarter we’re 3-1,” Love said. “Now the second quarter we’re 3-1. Really the story is going to be about the second half. I think we’ve done a great job so far, playing well, winning some close games. But the story is very promising going forward.”
The story can take so many different plot twists from here. Close-call stretches of success can morph into close-call losing skids. This is not an overreaction to the offensive doldrums, turnovers on special teams, and a few red-zone failures on defense that contributed to the loss at loud Lumen Field. This is the reality the Giants know about themselves. They cannot line up and dominate anyone. The flip side: No one has lined up and dominated them.
“I’m still happy about where we are at,” defensive lineman Leonard Williams said. “I think we have no reason to hang our heads down low now. That was a good team that we played. It wasn’t against slouches or anything like that. Guys have been nicked up, banged up, and we’re hoping to go for a stretch after the bye week and hope that guys are able to take care of their body for a little bit.”
This respite comes at a good time for the Giants. In the past month, they went to London and won, returned home to face the Ravens and won, went to Jacksonville and won and went to Seattle and lost. They need a break. They have positioned themselves on much firmer ground than anyone had a right to believe. There will be some shaky moments in the second half of the season. Hold on for the ride.
More that came out of the loss to the Seahawks:
— This was the fourth consecutive game the Giants trailed at some point in the fourth quarter. They came back to beat the Packers, Bears, and Jaguars. They did not come back to beat the Seahawks. Were the Giants due to lose a game like this? Well, this was the first Giants game all season decided by more than one score. Entering this game, the Giants were the only team in the league to have every one of its games decided by one score (eight points or less). At some point, they were not going to make their own breaks, have the bounces go their way or force the opponent into making a critical mistake. At some point, they were going to lose a close one.
— The Giants were down 10-7 and had the ball with 1:38 remaining on their own 23-yard line. Plenty of time to work the ball down the field. Throughout the league, this scenario puts teams in attack mode. The Giants were certainly not in attack mode. Daniel Jones ran it on a keeper for 3 yards. Saquon Barkley took a handoff for 5 yards. On third-and-2, Jones on a drop-back was sacked for a loss of 8 yards. The Giants punted the ball away. There seemed to be some mixed messaging here. If the Giants were making a concerted effort to score, why run it on first and second down? If the Giants wanted to run out the clock and get into halftime, why drop back to throw it on third down?
Brian Daboll’s explanation of this passive approach on offense said all there is to know about what he thinks of his offensive weaponry.
“Yeah, we had — we didn’t want them to take timeouts,” Daboll said. “It wasn’t like we were moving the ball well so we were up and at it, if we got a first down, we could get going into it, not giving them the ball back with much time. So that was it.”
Yeah, that was it. Daboll wants the Giants to be much more high-powered than they are yet he knows sometimes it is better to play it conservative with an offense that does not have the manpower to be dynamic.
— All of a sudden, there was No. 41 on defense getting meaningful snaps and making a few plays, for the first time in nearly a month. Rookie Micah McFadden had a total of four snaps on defense in the previous three games after getting 30 and 27 in Weeks 3 and 4. This is the way it has gone down for the Giants and their inside linebacker position. McFadden was dusted off in this game by defensive coordinator Wink Martindale to play 26 of the 64 snaps on defense. McFadden had four tackles, one tackle for loss, one quarterback hit and even got his first NFL sack, when he lined up as an edger rusher, beat fellow rookie Charles Cross and dropped Geno Smith. Good for McFadden, but the shuffling of personnel at this position is a sign that Martindale does not view anyone at this spot as a complete enough player to warrant a consistently heavy workload game in and game out. Tae Crowder never came off the field earlier this season and now he is in and out — he played only 22 snaps in Seattle. Jaylon Smith is getting his reps but not on an every-down basis. Austin Calitro, an opening-day starter, was again a healthy scratch. This is not an area of strength for the Giants, and they know it.
— Landon Collins in his first game in his return to the Giants got on the field for 23 snaps on defense last week in Jacksonville. It seemed the start of an upward trend for the former three-time Pro Bowl player in his second stint with the Giants. Not so. Collins logged only seven snaps against the Seahawks, as the hybrid safety/inside linebacker role carved out for him has not yet taken shape. With a week off and more time to further acclimate, perhaps Collins comes out of the bye with a more defined role. Or, perhaps, he will be one of those situation-based players — now you see him, now you don’t. Despite Collins’ pedigree, he was signed off the street and often those signings do not lead to big things.
— The Giants had 65 offensive snaps in Seattle and Marcus Johnson was out there for 56 of them, the most of any player other than the five offensive linemen and Daniel Jones. Johnson was out there more often than Saquon Barkley (48 snaps). In that time on the field, Johnson was targeted with passes six times and finished with one catch for 3 yards. Johnson, 28, entered this season with 51 career receptions in 41 games for three different NFL teams. The Giants need an upgrade here with Johnson and David Sills. Otherwise, it is going to be difficult to generate a competent passing game and even more difficult to get a fair evaluation of Jones.
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