After so much anticipation, the Giants would like a do-over for the way they came out of the gate for their 2024 season.
Their offense was abysmal. Their defense was steady early but then withered. Their coaching was off-point most of the day and their usage of personnel was curious. The Giants want to move past their 28-6 loss to the Vikings at MetLife Stadium but that is not possible until we look back and try to unravel what the heck happened to produce such a stinker of an opener.
There is not much to feel good about. Here we go:
— When coach Brian Daboll said — repeatedly — “It starts with me’’ he ain’t kidding. For the second straight year, the Giants opened a season looking unprepared for the real thing. The 2023 opener, playing at home, coming off a playoff win the previous season, was a complete beatdown by the Cowboys, a 40-0 embarrassment. Daboll tried to prevent a slow start this season by changing up his approach in the spring and in training camp, putting his team through more 11-on-11 team work. This strategy seemed sound but it did not result in his offense looking competent the first time out. Daboll’s NFL debut as a head coach in 2022 was a rousing comeback victory against the Titans in Nashville. Since then, the opening acts for the Giants have been abysmal. Perhaps he needs to re-think his strategy of keeping his key players out of preseason action.
— Heading into the season, the guess here was that Wan’Dale Robinson — and not rookie Malik Nabers — would lead the team in targets, and after one week that guess looks to be on the money. Robinson was targeted a team-high 12 times and his meager production (six receptions for only 44 yards) was further evidence that Daniel Jones was having severe accuracy issues. Nabers played all 71 snaps on offense and was targeted seven times. He came away with five catches for 66 yards, including a pair of 25-yard gains, showing his ability to find openings in a defense is real.
— It was not the sort of takeover that occurs when the Eagles or Cowboys are in town but it was noticeable how much purple inhabited the seats closest to the field in the waning minutes of a rousing Vikings opening-day victory on the Giants’ turf. It got so bad that early in the fourth quarter, with the vast majority of the 81,908 who were there earlier already making a hasty getaway, the lower bowl of MetLife Stadium was mostly occupied by Vikings fans, who delighted in clapping their hands together for the Skol chant that is usually reserved for back home in Minneapolis.
— All those downfield throws we saw in training camp and the three joint practices? Gone with the wind. Jones attempted 42 passes and not one of them traveled 20 or more yards in the air. Sure, Daboll in his first game taking over the play-calling duties must have called for a few deep shots but Jones either did not have the time he needed in the pocket or — this is more likely — he did not see the play develop downfield because his eyes were not looking where they needed to be.
“We’re going to go back and watch it,’’ Daboll said. “We certainly called the plays. Sometimes they take them away. We’ve got to do a better job all the way around. It starts with me.’’
Did the Vikings really “take them away,’’ so often that Jones had no chance to unfurl a deep ball? Daboll said the Vikings did not really come after Jones — “They actually didn’t pressure that much’’ — and that the defense “played a bunch of soft shell, split-safety stuff.’’ So, the Vikings were intent on keeping the ball in front of them, daring Jones to beat them by working with shorter stuff down the field. He was not nearly accurate enough to do that.
— The Giants entered the season as the fourth-youngest team in the league, in terms of their entire roster, and the second-youngest team in the league based on a projected starting lineup that included two rookie starters — Nabers on offense and nickel back Dru Phillips on defense. Well, as it turned out, the Giants actually are much younger than that. Five rookies started the game, the most for the Giants in 55 years, since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger. It was also the first time since then the Giants started two rookies on both offense and defense in an opener.
Nabers and tight end Theo Johnson started on offense and three rookies started on defense — safety Tyler Nubin, inside linebacker Darius Muasau and defensive tackle Elijah Chatman. Phillips did not start, but he came onto the field on the third snap on defense and on that first snap registered a forced fumble with a hit on fullback C.J. Ham.
Muasau started because Micah McFadden was still dealing with the after-effects of a groin injury he took out of the second preseason game. Chatman was the first undrafted rookie player on defense to start for the Giants in a first game of the season since 1970. All six 2024 draft choices played in the game.
Having McFadden in uniform is a curious move. Either he was healthy enough to play or he wasn’t. He did not get in the game and so giving him a roster spot was basically wasteful.
Another surprising move was putting Cor’Dale Flott in as the slot corner after the coaching staff had him working on the perimeter for the entire summer. Flott played 37 of the 55 snaps on defense. Adoree’ Jackson, re-signed a week earlier, was on the field for 19 snaps, perhaps more than envisioned, as Nick McCloud was forced out with a knee injury.
— Want more evidence the Giants on offense were not ready to flip the switch from the preseason to the regular season? They committed six penalties on offense — four of the pre-snap variety. And their receivers dropped five passes. Add that into Jones’ tendency in this game to fire the ball at the feet of his targets and it made for an unsightly mess.
— Jalin Hyatt is the fourth wide receiver because he has not shown that he deserves more playing time than veteran Darius Slayton. Hyatt was on the field for only 16 snaps and he dropped the ball on his only target. Slayton (three catches for 26 yards) was in for 51 snaps on offense.
— This was the sixth consecutive loss for the Giants in a home season opener. The last time they won starting a season in front of their home fans was Sept. 12, 2010, when they beat the Panthers 31-18 in the first regular-season game ever played at MetLife Stadium.
