After waiting all summer for the 2024 NFL season, the NY Giants faithful suffered throughout a 28-6 drubbing at the hands of the Minnesota Vikings in Week 1. After last season’s blowout at the hands of the Dallas Cowboys, it’s borderline impressive that the Giants found a way to outdo themselves this time around. There weren’t really any positives from Week 1’s clash with Minnesota — Daniel Joneshad one of the worst games of his career, the supposed ferocious pass-rush was invisible, and Sam Darnold diced up the Giants defense like a prime Joe Montana.
The morale hasn’t been this low since Dave Gettleman and Joe Judge were still in charge in East Rutherford. However, the schedule shakes out quite nicely for the Giants in Week 2, as they’ll travel to Washington to take on the Commanders, a team Jones’ Giants have been able to handle over his five prior seasons in the league.
With that in mind, the Giants have a chance to save their season and avoid sinking the ship in Week 2. While that’s borderline depressing to have to say this early in the campaign, that’s the reality, and there’s a couple of ways New York can get the job done on Sunday at FedEx Field:
4. Let Daniel Jones be aggressive
First, Brian Daboll must allow his quarterback to sink or swim in the passing game. The Giants head coach and play-caller’s strategy in Week 1 was simple, as he tried to limit Jones’ mistakes with a plan that involved a lot of quick-game action, and while the quarterback shoulders most of the blame for Sunday’s performance, Daboll’s inability to adjust to the defense Brian Flores was playing sunk the Giants’ chances in Week 1.
Quite simply, Jones is playing for his job, and the leash is shorter than ever, as there’s a ton on the line for the Giants in 2024. The team emphasized throwing the deep ball all offseason, and then Jones barely threw a ball over 20 yards against the Vikings. It’s time to let the gunslinger loose in Week 2, and let Jones either find the success he had during his rookie season and in 2022, or fail once and for all.
3. Make life difficult for Jayden Daniels
Next, the defensive line has to make it difficult on Jayden Daniels, unlike their performance in Week 1 against Darnold. The Vikings quarterback could’ve done a myriad of things in addition to playing quarterback on Sunday — record a podcast, knit a blanket or binge watch a television series. All that is to say Darnold had ample time to make the right decisions against a defensive line that’s supposed to be one of the league’s best.
Dexter Lawrence came to play, but Brian Burns and Kayvon Thibodeaux’s play left a ton to be desired. The conversation surrounding Thibodeaux specifically is beginning to get louder, and he’s continually disappeared on Sunday afternoons. A big game, like he had in Washington during his rookie season, could begin to quiet some of the doubters.
2. Get more players involved in Week 2
Continuing, some of the players who didn’t receive many snaps in Week 1 have to get on the field, specifically wide receiver Jalin Hyatt, and linebackers Isaiah Simmons and Micah McFadden. It was a head-scratcher that the Giants best deep threat in Hyatt was barely on the field in Week 1, and why rookie linebacker Darius Muasau has received a lion-share of the reps outside of Bobby Okereke at the position.
While some have theorized there’s some deeper to the Hyatt situation, and he’s been hard to find ever since he showed his frustration in the preseason against the Houston Texans, his talent is too valuable to be sidelined throughout almost an entire game, like he was in Week 1. As for Simmons and McFadden, both flashed throughout the 2023 campaign, and the Giants defense would be better if they at least worked them in throughout Week 2’s contest. McFadden is working his way back from injury, but the hope is he can start vs. Washington.
1. Play clean football from start to finish
Finally, the boneheaded penalties have to stop before it becomes a serious issue. Adoree' Jackson’s controversial defensive pass interference call certainly changed the game in the first quarter, but a myriad of other ill-timed flags changed the course of the game for the Vikings inside MetLife Stadium. Specifically, a face-mask on 3rd-and-long that gave Minnesota an automatic first down comes to mind, as well as a delay of game after a stoppage that hurt some of the offense’s much-needed momentum while they were driving. The Giants need to be more disciplined in Week 2, as it’s evident they’re not good enough on offense or defense to overcome flags, and that’s something they’ll need to do if they’re going to defeat the Commanders on Sunday.
As you can tell, the plan won’t be hard to discern for the Giants in Week 2. Honestly, it should be more like last season’s trip to Washington, when Daboll allowed Tommy DeVito to shine throughout the afternoon, airing it out and letting it loose. If Jones doesn’t have the confidence to do it any longer, that’s a bigger issue, and then the Giants will have a tough decision to make regarding whether to bench the veteran quarterbacks or not. Until they’re ready to make that decision, there’s no excuses for No. 8 and the Giants as a whole on Sunday.
The team must go into the road stadium and leave victorious, or water will continue to fill the boat, and the 2024 season will likely be over before most fans even put the cover on their pools. Let's hope that doesn't prove to be the case.