The Giants took a crucial first step toward stopping a spiraling season from going off the rails Monday when Bobby Okereke blamed himself.
Though Devin Singletary lost a fumble, Malik Nabers dropped an important pass, 10 other defensive starters shared culpability in allowing seven field goals on seven possessions and head coach Brian Daboll repeated his failure to administer the roster for the worst-case scenario, the workhorse middle linebacker thinks he could’ve modified the end result of a 21-18 loss to the Commanders.
“My focus wasn’t one hundred pc on doing my job,” Okereke said. “If it was, I feel we’d’ve had a greater result.”
Why not?
“Talking about me specifically, three-quarters doing [my] job, one-quarter attempting to do another person’s job, attempting to make a play,” said Okereke, who has played all 1,255 defensive snaps since he signed with the Giants in 2023. “And that trickles down. I feel everybody should just give attention to doing their job.”
The Giants are 0-2 for the ninth time since 2013, and Daboll’s third season seems like it has reached a teetering point.
The ultimate records in those previous eight seasons were 7-9, 6-10, 6-10, 3-13, 5-11, 4-12, 6-10 and 4-13.
A brand new-look locker room minus Saquon Barkley — who, teammates imagine, was largely answerable for salvaging last season by getting others to affix him in rallying around undrafted rookie quarterback Tommy DeVito during desperate times — and fellow longtime voices Xavier McKinney and Sterling Shepard is about to get tested.
“Teams tackle the personality of their coach, but I feel one of the best teams police themselves,” left tackle Andrew Thomas. “Coaches put us in position to make plays, however it’s really as much as us. They don’t cross the white lines. It’s as much as us to have the mentality to be dominant, physical and execute.”
Dexter Lawrence — the Giants’ best defensive player — already picked a battle he can’t win with the house crowd by saying he doesn’t “respect” booing.
His tune modified by admitting after the second game that the defense “wasn’t going to look good on tape.”
In 2017, teammates Landon Collins and Eli Apple were in-fighting over Apple’s perceived lack of effort, and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie was suspended for walking out on a team meeting.
In 2019, Janoris Jenkins was essentially thrown off the team for using disrespectful language toward fans.
Thomas — one of the best offensive player — understands why some fans might feel a Same Old Giants sentiment.
“I definitely understand the attitude of the fans, but for us as players, it’s a latest team every 12 months,” Thomas said. “Obviously, the personalities are different than what we had before, but I feel we’ve an excellent group of leaders and what we’re working on now could be just not being individuals so far as offense, defense and special teams.”
The Giants’ next six games are against teams that finished last season with winning records and all entered the season with legitimate playoff aspirations: The Browns, Seahawks and Steelers on the road, and the Cowboys, Bengals and Eagles at home.
It’s fair to wonder where the primary win is coming from and whether these Giants will repeat or surpass the drought of the 2013 team that began 0-6 or the hopelessness of the 2017, 2018 and 2020 teams that were 1-7 on the midway point.
Before the season, the 2 most winnable games that the Giants had in September and October, based on betting lines, were the 2 games which might be now finished with losses to the Vikings and Commanders.
“The mindset and attitude of the fellows within the constructing is we’re pointing the thumb, not the finger,” Okereke said.
How bad of a death sentence is 0-2?
Since 2020 — the identical 12 months that the NFL expanded to a 14-team playoff format — 32 teams began a season 0-2.
Two of the 32 have reached the playoffs.
Nevertheless, the playoffs were a preseason pipe dream for the Giants.
But playing meaningful games in December — owner John Mara’s old standard for judging a successful season — didn’t feel like an excessive amount of to ask until now.
“The very first thing Dabes said after we had meetings today was mainly, ‘Look within the mirror and see what you might’ve done higher as a player,’ ” Thomas said.
Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen must do the identical after their “collective” considering left the Giants with no alternative to kicker Graham Gano, whose preexisting groin injury may or may not have contributed to his hamstring injury on the primary play of the sport.
A straightforward roster tweak would’ve given the Giants the insurance to aim two more PATs and a tiebreaking 40-yard field goal just before the two-minute warning.
“2001 or 2020, none of that [0-2 history] really matters,” Daboll said. “What matters is doing the things we want to do internally to repair a number of the things that we’re having issues with. There’s been some improvement.”
For now, the one blame game the Giants have falls under the title of “leadership and accountability.”
“Nah, we are able to’t make any excuses for that,” Singletary said of the mismanagement. “We had enough opportunities to win the sport. We’re near where we wish to be. That is going to be a learning experience.”
The Giants took a crucial first step toward stopping a spiraling season from going off the rails Monday when Bobby Okereke blamed himself.
Though Devin Singletary lost a fumble, Malik Nabers dropped an important pass, 10 other defensive starters shared culpability in allowing seven field goals on seven possessions and head coach Brian Daboll repeated his failure to administer the roster for the worst-case scenario, the workhorse middle linebacker thinks he could’ve modified the end result of a 21-18 loss to the Commanders.
“My focus wasn’t one hundred pc on doing my job,” Okereke said. “If it was, I feel we’d’ve had a greater result.”
Why not?
“Talking about me specifically, three-quarters doing [my] job, one-quarter attempting to do another person’s job, attempting to make a play,” said Okereke, who has played all 1,255 defensive snaps since he signed with the Giants in 2023. “And that trickles down. I feel everybody should just give attention to doing their job.”
The Giants are 0-2 for the ninth time since 2013, and Daboll’s third season seems like it has reached a teetering point.
The ultimate records in those previous eight seasons were 7-9, 6-10, 6-10, 3-13, 5-11, 4-12, 6-10 and 4-13.
A brand new-look locker room minus Saquon Barkley — who, teammates imagine, was largely answerable for salvaging last season by getting others to affix him in rallying around undrafted rookie quarterback Tommy DeVito during desperate times — and fellow longtime voices Xavier McKinney and Sterling Shepard is about to get tested.
“Teams tackle the personality of their coach, but I feel one of the best teams police themselves,” left tackle Andrew Thomas. “Coaches put us in position to make plays, however it’s really as much as us. They don’t cross the white lines. It’s as much as us to have the mentality to be dominant, physical and execute.”
Dexter Lawrence — the Giants’ best defensive player — already picked a battle he can’t win with the house crowd by saying he doesn’t “respect” booing.
His tune modified by admitting after the second game that the defense “wasn’t going to look good on tape.”
In 2017, teammates Landon Collins and Eli Apple were in-fighting over Apple’s perceived lack of effort, and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie was suspended for walking out on a team meeting.
In 2019, Janoris Jenkins was essentially thrown off the team for using disrespectful language toward fans.
Thomas — one of the best offensive player — understands why some fans might feel a Same Old Giants sentiment.
“I definitely understand the attitude of the fans, but for us as players, it’s a latest team every 12 months,” Thomas said. “Obviously, the personalities are different than what we had before, but I feel we’ve an excellent group of leaders and what we’re working on now could be just not being individuals so far as offense, defense and special teams.”
The Giants’ next six games are against teams that finished last season with winning records and all entered the season with legitimate playoff aspirations: The Browns, Seahawks and Steelers on the road, and the Cowboys, Bengals and Eagles at home.
It’s fair to wonder where the primary win is coming from and whether these Giants will repeat or surpass the drought of the 2013 team that began 0-6 or the hopelessness of the 2017, 2018 and 2020 teams that were 1-7 on the midway point.
Before the season, the 2 most winnable games that the Giants had in September and October, based on betting lines, were the 2 games which might be now finished with losses to the Vikings and Commanders.
“The mindset and attitude of the fellows within the constructing is we’re pointing the thumb, not the finger,” Okereke said.
How bad of a death sentence is 0-2?
Since 2020 — the identical 12 months that the NFL expanded to a 14-team playoff format — 32 teams began a season 0-2.
Two of the 32 have reached the playoffs.
Nevertheless, the playoffs were a preseason pipe dream for the Giants.
But playing meaningful games in December — owner John Mara’s old standard for judging a successful season — didn’t feel like an excessive amount of to ask until now.
“The very first thing Dabes said after we had meetings today was mainly, ‘Look within the mirror and see what you might’ve done higher as a player,’ ” Thomas said.
Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen must do the identical after their “collective” considering left the Giants with no alternative to kicker Graham Gano, whose preexisting groin injury may or may not have contributed to his hamstring injury on the primary play of the sport.
A straightforward roster tweak would’ve given the Giants the insurance to aim two more PATs and a tiebreaking 40-yard field goal just before the two-minute warning.
“2001 or 2020, none of that [0-2 history] really matters,” Daboll said. “What matters is doing the things we want to do internally to repair a number of the things that we’re having issues with. There’s been some improvement.”
For now, the one blame game the Giants have falls under the title of “leadership and accountability.”
“Nah, we are able to’t make any excuses for that,” Singletary said of the mismanagement. “We had enough opportunities to win the sport. We’re near where we wish to be. That is going to be a learning experience.”
