Can someone let the New York Giants know the point of playing football games is to win? That's what we're trying to do here, right? You couldn't tell that by the way things are unfolding in East Rutherford.
It's not about starting well, or trying hard, or doing a lot of good things. It's about winning. And the Giants do that about as well as a fish rides a bike. Just ask the players and the coaches following Sunday's 24-20 Week 10 collapse against the Chicago Bears, and they'll tell you it's on everyone to do better, but the head coach position inherently carries more weight. Call it part of the job description.
Related: 4 no-brainer head coaches Giants can’t ignore with Brian Daboll on the ropes
And after falling to 2-8, dropping their fourth straight, setting a new franchise record with 11 consecutive road losses, and coughing up four double-digit road leads in six tries, Daboll’s shoulders are feeling it. Nothing is going right. Everyone knows it, and now so does the coach.
Daboll sounded like a dead man walking after the game. When asked about why the team can't finish and close games, his dejected response said it all:
"I mean, there were a number of things today. There were all three phases, just didn't get the job done."
Thank you so much for the insight, coach. Really clears things up.
Brian Daboll sure sounds like a coach who knows his time is up
The postgame comments were tough to hear. Nobody roots for someone to lose their job, but you could feel it in the room as Dabs spoke with the media. It sounded like a man who knew his time was up. WFAN’s Boomer Esiason said as much on his radio show, saying it sounded like someone who realized the writing was on the wall.
The cracks in this thing have been showing up for a while. The same late-game collapses, the same missed chances, the same tired explanations afterward — they’ve all become part of the weekly routine.
It’s hard to take “we’ll learn from this” seriously when the same lesson keeps showing up in the most frustrating ways every week.
The G-Men are 11-33 over the past two and a half seasons. That is an incredible amount of losing for a franchise trying to sell winning football. And the same bone-headed personnel decisions, coaching hires, and confusing game management issues keep rising — and those are on Daboll.
Rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart presents the biggest question mark surrounding the 50-year-old's employment. They clearly have a strong relationship, and he's well ahead of schedule, which bodes well for the "keep him" camp. But Dart was supposed to be Daboll's last playing card. His last chance to prove he's worth keeping around.
That's an objectively much tougher sell when the losses continue piling up.
At some point, the tone shifts from urgency to inevitability. Players mirror what they hear, and when the message sounds defeated, the football usually follows. That’s where the Giants are at right now — playing out the string while the coach who once looked like the franchise’s answer has quickly turned into its biggest problem.