The New York Giants are somehow running out of new ways to lose while simultaneously running out of ways to explain it. Sunday's 24-20 loss to the Chicago Bears wasn’t shocking. It wasn’t even painful. It was something much worse than those — it felt normal.
It was Big Blue's fourth straight loss, their 11th consecutive on the road (congrats on the new franchise record), and the fourth time this season they’ve blown a double-digit lead on the road. There’s no new heartbreak here, just the same one replayed every single week.
Head Coach Brian Daboll has been publicly pounding the 'We didn’t play well enough to win' drum weekly now. The problem with the message is the G-Men usually do — at least for three quarters. Then it completely unravels. It’s a pattern that’s come to define the Daboll regime. Games follow the same script: early spark, mid-game slippage, full-blown collapse. It's a joke, and the G-Men are the punchline.
Tight end Theo Johnson, one of the few relatively bright spots in this dark season, summed up the postgame mood with his own version of the same message after the game:
"If you watch the tape, turn the game on, we're doing a lot of good stuff. Just when it matters the most, we're not capitalizing. We're not finishing plays, we're not executing."
Giants’ silver linings are starting to sound like excuses
Johnson’s honesty is refreshing, but it also says everything about what's wrong with the team.
It’s the same message, week after week — we’re close, we’re competing, we’re doing good things. The Giants have turned moral victories into a coping mechanism. They’re now 5-22 under Dabs since the start of 2024, and the conversation never changes. For a head coach whose job is on life support, that kind of comment is a massive red flag.
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There’s no denying Johnson’s having a mini breakout season — 33 catches, 314 yards, and five touchdowns in a pretty middle-of-the-road offense is nothing to sneeze at.
But when one of your most productive players still leans on silver linings after another you-have-to-see-it-to-believe-it collapse, it shows how Dabs' messaging has sunk in and been received by the players. The team is learning how to live with losing.
Accountability in East Rutherford can’t just mean saying the right things after the game. It has to translate onto the field. Because at some point, doing “a lot of good stuff” stops being a positive and starts being the problem.
The Giants can keep talking about progress all they want. But when the same nonsensical mistakes keep happening — poor game management, questionable coaching hires, bad personnel decisions — that stops being a player issue. It’s a coaching one. And right now, that falls squarely on Brian Daboll.