Hey, New York Giants fans, here's a fun stat: The G-Men have given up 71 points in the last five quarters of football. And no, that’s not a typo. It's certainly not hyperbole. But it is a complete defensive crisis happening in real time.
After blowing an 18-point lead in under six minutes in Denver, defensive coordinator Shane Bowen’s group followed that up by getting absolutely steamrolled by the Philadelphia Eagles in the City of Brotherly Love. If it felt like the defense couldn’t stop anyone even if they had the playbook, it’s because they can’t — and everything under the sun proves it.
Related: Brian Daboll has 1,062 reasons to question Shane Bowen’s job with the Giants
All of us can see it, which makes what Bowen said to the media on Thursday all the more infuriating:
“We have to get the fundamentals fixed. We have to make sure we’re looking at the right guy. We have to have the right technique in man coverage, all that type of stuff.”
Giants DC Shane Bowen confirms what fans feared: he has no answers
Let me get this straight... it's Week 9, and he’s talking about fixing fundamentals? What are we even doing here?
If anything, that's the most blatant admission of guilt I've ever heard. Do you know who's supposed to be on top of the fundamentals? The defensive coordinator. At this point, it's just infuriating. The Giants didn’t hand Bowen the keys to spend half the season pretending the 2025 offseason just didn't happen.
And yet here we are — still talking about basic coverage principles, proper alignments, and defensive technique like it’s mid-July.
For all the firepower this defense has — Dexter Lawrence, Brian Burns, Kayvon Thibodeaux, Abdul Carter, Jevón Holland, Paulson Adebo — it continues to get embarrassed because the guy running the show either can’t coach them up or doesn’t know how to adjust. There’s no other explanation for giving up 33 points in a fourth quarter one week and then 38 the very next.
And it’s not just what happened in Denver or Philly — it’s that it keeps happening. This is the sixth time in his last 12 games as a coordinator that Bowen’s defense has given up 30 or more points. His group plays soft, misses tackles, and can't figure out gap alignment to save its life. Now he’s up at the podium saying they still need to learn how to do the basics. You can't make it up.
We are so far beyond patience. It's full-on accountability mode at this point. Bowen has been out of his depth since the day he arrived in East Rutherford, and if head coach Brian Daboll won’t make a change, then everyone tied to this disaster deserves whatever reckoning comes next.