Revenge is a dish best served cold, so we naturally expect an unseasonably hot day at MetLife Stadium when the New York Giants and Tennessee Titans clash in Week 3.
Ordinarily, the selling point for that Sept. 27 matchup would be the first meeting between Jaxson Dart and Cam Ward, the first two quarterbacks taken in last year’s draft.
That’s where Titans offensive coordinator Brian Daboll comes into play.
Week 3 will mark the first time Daboll coaches at MetLife Stadium since the Giants fired him last November. Daboll went 20–40–1 in nearly four years with the Giants, leading them to the NFC Divisional Round in 2022.
Although the New York Post’s Paul Schwartz believes the Titans game to be among the easiest on the Giants’ schedule, he pointed out that Daboll was “heartbroken” he didn’t get to continue developing Dart.
“You know Daboll, as the Titans offensive coordinator, will want to put many points on the scoreboard against his former team,” Schwartz wrote.
Would Brian Daboll and the Titans try running up the score against the Giants?
There are two ways to interpret Schwartz’s analysis, the first being the obvious idea that the team that scores the most points wins the game.
However, it also raises the question of whether Daboll — and, by extension, Titans coach Robert Saleh — would consider keeping their foot on the pedal all game.
Remember, Saleh coached the Jets from 2021–24, and he’s all too familiar with angering the MetLife Stadium crowd.
It would be fitting, then, for the Titans to score as much as possible, even if the game gets out of hand.
None of this is to say that the Titans will blow out the Giants, or vice versa.
However, it’s nonetheless an interesting storyline worth thinking about given both coaches’ New York ties. Saleh was the first Jets coach fired midseason since Woody Johnson became owner in 2000.
Harbaugh, Dart, and the Giants will be more than motivated regardless, especially if they open the year by losing to the Cowboys and Rams.
In that situation, beating the Titans and lowly Cardinals would at least put the Giants at 2–2 entering a Week 5 NFC East battle with the rival Commanders.
From there, we’ll see just how much different the Harbaugh-led Giants are compared to how they frequently came up short in the Daboll era.
To Daboll’s credit, he led the Giants to the playoffs in his first season. Let’s see whether Harbaugh, a Super Bowl-winning coach in Baltimore, can join the club.
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