Giants' Identity Taking Shape--and It's Not a Good One

The Giants have shown through three games so far that they're a long way off from being able to compete against the league's better teams.

At the end of training camp, New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen warned people that it might take a few weeks into the season before we know how much better this Giants team is.

After three games, including two blowout losses and one nearly a blowout loss, it looks like we have an answer.

The Giants simply haven't been good enough to stand on the same field as some of the competition they've faced this season. They've been lacking in executing the fundamentals--see the 16 missed tackles or their inability to get off the field on third down, particularly in the first half when the 49ers converted seven of nine attempts--and have yet to define who or what they are as a football team.

What they aren't, at least right now, is a very good football team, not if you compare them to the Dallas Cowboys or the San Francisco 49ers, the two teams that steamrolled the Giants en route to wins by at least two scores.

Why this is so is a topic up for debate another day, considering the resources Schoen poured into improving a roster that last year went 9-7-1 and surprised everyone with a postseason berth, yet here we are.

The Giants' loss against the 49ers wasn't quite as catastrophic as the 40-0 embarrassment they took at the hands of the Cowboys. For three quarters, the Giants kept it close, the score 20-12 (it should have been 20-13, but for some inexplicable reason, head coach Brian Daboll decided to try a 2-point conversion attempt after running back Matt Breida scored on an 8-yard touchdown run to make the score at the time 17-12 five minutes into the third quarter.

The Giants, knowing they had no Saquon Barkley and on their third iteration of the offensive line--Shane Lemieux got the start at left guard with Ben Bredeson in the concussion protocol--did all they could to protect their offensive line, keeping in six to block a very good 49ers defensive front that still managed two sacks and six quarterback hits among their 23 total pressures.

“It comes down to making plays,” head coach Daboll said. “That’s a heck of a football team. They did a lot of good stuff.”

The Giants did not, and they are now 1-2 with 11 days to fix what ails them. The problem is that the calvary isn't about to come riding in to save the day; it's up to the coaching staff to figure out how to get this group back on track and get the most out of what they have on the roster.

Oh, and the schedule, which has been a bear to handle thus far? It doesn't get any easier. Although the Giants get a bit of a mini bye week now, they'll host the Seahawks on Monday Night Football before jetting off to Miami for a date six days later against a rising Dolphins team.

The following weekend, the Giants are back in primetime, which hasn't been kind to them for years to face the Buffalo Bills on the road.

The season isn't over for the Giants, who have 14 more games to turn things around and ease the growing sentiment of people who believe that last year's record and postseason berth was simply a bone tossed their way by the football deities who took pity on a Giants fan base that had suffered through a decade of mostly garbage football.

“No excuses," Daboll said. "We could do a better job.”

So now what?

"I’ve got all of the confidence in the people in our room, and we’ve got a lot of work to do," he added. "Again, make no excuses, roll up our sleeves, go to work, and have a good week of practice.” 

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