A Giants’ Win on Opening Day Goes Beyond the Standings
By Jack Harrold
It’s finally here! The first game of the New York Giants’ 2016 season against their division rival Dallas Cowboys. We’ve hard all of the story lines. From the spending spree in free agency to Dallas’s rookie quarterback, speculation will soon be moot as the games count now. For our beloved Giants, the significance of either a win or loss goes far beyond the record, statistics or standings.
In the past week, we’ve had a number of articles featuring key match-ups for the opening game; highlighting important bench marks that must be met in order for our beloved Giants to emerge victorious. And yet, Giants’ fans have several larger questions lurking in the background that will, for better or worse, begin to be answered with this game.
Was Coach McAdoo the right choice for Head Coach?
Once named as the new head coach, Ben McAdoo quickly began to put his personal stamp on the franchise. From changes to his staff, the facilities and practice schedules, he seems to have made good on his edict of “Evolution not Revolution.”
The four preseason games gave us few clues as to how the team will ultimately perform during the regular season. Even McAdoo is concerned with the offense, whose starting unit failed to score in the first two preseason games.
NJ.com’s James Kratch reported McAdoo’s thoughts:
“But it’s more than just the offensive line,” McAdoo added. “Everything there (on offense and with the line) is correctable. We need to work hard to finish, detail our fundamentals, eliminate the penalties. We need to stay ahead of the chains.”
Let’s give McAdoo some credit though; he has corrected one of the Giants’ biggest concerns – injuries. According to ESPN.com, the New York Giants have the fewest players on the injury list. This is a welcome change as the Giants have the dubious honor of being the first team to have the most games lost due to injury three years in a row (2013-2015.)
Has Reese fixed the roster enough to justify keeping him?
At the end of the 2014 campaign in which the Giants ended with a record of 6-10, Ebenezer Samuel of the NY Daily News reported that both Coach Coughlin and Jerry Reese were on the hot-seat for the 2015 season. Following the similar 6-10 campaign last year, Coach Coughlin parted ways with the Giants. Following his departure, there was much speculation on the future of Jerry Reese by both the media and among fans.
As the person ultimately responsible for the Giants’ roster, many believed that Reese is just as much at fault for the previous three losing seasons as Coughlin. The problem with Reese can be summed up with player retention.
From the 2011 Championship roster only six players remain on the roster: Eli Manning, Will Beatty, Jason Pierre-Paul, Victor Cruz, Zak DeOssie and Mark Herzlich. Bob Glauber of Newsday.com reports that is turnover is entirely due to risky draft picks by Reese that have not panned out. He does point out that Reese is generally good with the first round picks – Jason Pierre-Paul, Justin Pugh, Ereck Flowers and of course Odell Beckham Jr.
Perhaps it is because of those first rounders that Reese got a pass while Coughlin did not. Sunday should give us a good idea of the team as a whole.
Will the retooled defense justify the $200 million spending spree?
According to Giants.com, the Giants lost six games in which they lead in the going into the final two minutes. Those six games were decided by a total of just 15 points. More than that though, it indicates a serious deficiency on the defensive side of the ball.
Luckily, the Giant had the third-most cap space of any NFL team going into the 2016 Free Agency season according to BigBlueView.com. The majority of this was spent retooling the defense by acquiring DE Olivier Vernon, CB Janoris Jenkins and DT Damon “Snacks” Harrison – three of the top defensive prospects in the free agency market.
The question remains though, will this be enough?
Mark Maske of the Washington Post warns that “history suggests it won’t pay off.” Since 2012, teams that spend high guaranteed salaries rarely improve their record from the previous year. Out of the tops 20 spenders, only five teams saw an improvement of more than two games. In fact, fully half of those teams either saw no change or more losses than the previous year.
Big spending does not necessarily equate to increased production.
Dallas has nothing to lose, everything to gain; Giants have everything to lose
How a team reacts to adversity is a test that indicates their chance of success. But in this contest, the Giants stand to lose everything.
Dallas is without their star quarterback, who is out with back issues. In his place is rookie Dax Prescott. If he does well, he will be a hero to the Cowboy Nation. If he fails, he has the built in excuse that it was his first NFL game.
The Dallas’s defense is without three of their starters: LB Rolando McClain, DE DeMarcus Lawrence and DE Randy Gregory. Like their quarterback, the Cowboy’s defense has a built in excuse if they perform poorly – they are without their starters. Also, if they do manage to shut down the Giants offense, they will be seen as real contenders in the division.
In both cases, Cowboy fans will not suffer a crisis of faith in their team (not that they ever do.)
For Giants’ fans however, things are much shakier.
Will the Giants’ expensive defense contain the Cowboys? Can Victor Cruz return to his pre-injury production? Is the injury bug finally gone?
All these questions and more lurk in the back of Giants’ fans minds. If (when) the Giants win, those questions are not likely to go away immediately. However, if the unthinkable happens, we will likely be stuck questioning all of the changes made in the off-season. And emotionally taxing state that can lead to a long season.
Change does that to an organization, and its followers. Cowboys fans can emotionally give their team a pass. We, as G-Men supporters, must take things one week at a time.