Let’s imagine that you, a passionate Giants fan, were wrapping up the Labor Day weekend in September when a normally reasonable friend predicted that your team would just miss the playoffs with a 9-8 record.
How would you have responded? By spitting out your beer? By mocking the friend’s knowledge of the NFL? By suggesting the friend submit to a drug test on the spot?
After all, the 2022 Giants were supposed to be dreadful. They had a general manager who had never been a general manager before, and a head coach who had never been a head coach before, and both would require time to clean up the toxic mess left by 59 losses over the previous five seasons. That’s assuming they proved to be competent, of course.
Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll would have signed for 6-11 … in blood. But then somehow, some way, the Giants started 7-2, and changed the way everyone looked at their program and their prospects for success. Though back-to-back losses to Detroit and Dallas were dispiriting, they were not devastating.
The 7-4 Giants would make the playoffs today as the sixth seed in a seven-seed conference tournament. So that’s why Daboll gathered his players Monday and, according to Kayvon Thibodeaux, “kind of give us that idea that the beginning of the season starts now. So everything we’ve done has put us in position to go for it all.”
Daboll doesn’t ask his players to merely take it day by day; he asks them to take it practice drill by practice drill. He appreciates “look ahead” and “big picture” thoughts and questions as much as he appreciates losing, because he knows that these Giants have no margin for error, and that the league can turn their cute little story upside down in a heartbeat. Daboll always talks about the potential for getting humbled for a reason.
So he probably didn’t love the “go for it all” part of Thibodeaux’s response, not when he desperately wants the Giants to focus solely on beating Washington for the sake of beating Washington, rather than as the first step in an improbable Super Bowl run. But that’s OK. In their micro world, the Giants could use a little macro thinking along these lines:
They absolutely need make the playoffs for the first time since 2016, and nothing less should be considered acceptable.
Over their final six games, the terms of engagement are clear. Every NFL team that finished with at least 10 victories last year, and a couple that finished with only nine, advanced to the postseason. That likely means the Giants have to go 3-3 to secure their bid to The Dance.
Victories over Washington and Indianapolis at home would leave them in search of a split with 10-1 Philadelphia or a road win over the Commanders or the 9-2 Vikings to reach double figures. It’s not going to be easy, and it’s not supposed to be easy. The first part of the formula — beating the Commanders at MetLife Stadium on Sunday — isn’t exactly a gimme. The visiting team is favored after winning six of its last seven games.
The good news is that even during the dark hours of his first three seasons, Daniel Jones beat Washington four times in five starts and threw nine touchdown passes against three interceptions. Athletes and coaches are forever swearing that past results against an opponent are irrelevant when handicapping a matchup, because so many faces and circumstances change by the year. But their public statements don’t often align with their private beliefs, and common sense says Jones’s track record against Washington certainly won’t hurt him Sunday.
The banged-up Giants are supposed to be getting healthier, as they just designated outside linebacker Azeez Ojulari, guard Ben Bredeson and safety Tony Jefferson to return from injured reserve. Odell Beckham Jr. would represent a major playmaking upgrade, but his airline misadventure over the weekend surely didn’t help the chances of a reunion and he’ll rightfully face questions about the unnecessary drama when he visits the Giants later this week.
With or without Beckham, the playoffs remain a doable proposition and one the Giants can’t squander. Who would’ve ever believed before the season that they would be sitting here at 7-4, while the Super Bowl champion Rams and Aaron Rodgers’ Packers are a combined 7-16 and Tom Brady’s Buccaneers are a game under .500?
Sports is a crazy place. So crazy, in fact, that the 2023 Giants might follow this charmed season with a deflating one. There’s no such thing as a natural progression to a championship, which is why the Giants need to take full advantage of this unexpected opportunity.
Asked if the recent losses had stripped his team of any confidence, Thibodeaux said, “No, I don’t think our swagger is gone. I don’t think anything about who we are and our character is gone.”
Good. All the Giants have to do now is finish third in their division to effectively clinch a playoff spot. Even after already giving their fan base so much, that shouldn’t be too much to ask.