Giants-Vikings ‘Kudos & Wet Willies’: Winners and losers from Sunday’s loss to Minnesota

Let’s pass out this week’s post-game awards

Yes, we have to do this. As we always do after New York Giants games, let’s review Sunday’s disappointing 28-6 season-opening loss to the Minnesota Vikings in our traditional ‘Kudos & Wet Willies’ style.

Kudos to …

Dexter Lawrence — Nothing that went wrong on Sunday can be blamed on the big man. He had a sack, a tackle for loss, a quarterback hit, a pass defensed, and pretty much just batted Minnesota center Garrett Bradbury around all day.

Graham Gano — Made his two field-goal attempts for the Giants’ only points, including one from 50 yards out.

Darius Muasau — The rookie sixth-round pick started in place of Micah McFadden and came away with an interception, a pass defensed, and six tackles (one for loss). Somebody, though, should tell the rookie that trying to get teammates to run the length of the field to go take one of those defensive “team photos” after an interception when you are down three scores late in the game is not a great look.

Jamie Gillan — Gillan punted six times, had four punts downed inside the 20-yard line, gave up one — yes, one — return yard, and had a net punting average of 46.2 yards.

Dru Phillips — The rookie cornerback forced a fumble on Minnesota’s opening possession that gave the Giants the ball at the Vikings’ 20-yard line. Sadly, they could only turn that into 3 points.

Wet Willies to …

Brian Daboll — This is two years in a row that the Giants have opened a season by getting embarrassed. The head coach has to take a hit for that. At least for the Giants’ sake — and maybe the nation’s — this one was not in a prime time slot.

There are other reasons to be unhappy with Daboll on Sunday.

Play-calling — I hate picking on play-calling. A good play call is one that works, and a bad play call is one that doesn’t. But, I have to.

The Giants emphasized getting the ball downfield all spring and summer. Daboll gave his typical “We certainly called the plays” to go downfield answer after Sunday — when the ball did not go down the field. Was that answer a criticism of the quarterback? A complement of the Minnesota defense? Was it not entirely accurate? Maybe it was all of the above. I can recall only one time during the game where it looked like Daniel Jones intended to do down the field with the ball and decided better of it, or could not make the throw.

Whatever the reason, there was one pass attempt out of 42 that traveled more than 20 yards past the line of scrimmage. That’s not going to get the job done.

The back-to-back designed QB runs by Jones in the second quarter that gained 2 yards, turning second-and-5 at midfield into fourth down and a punt, were stupefying. First of all, the guy was playing his first regular season game after tearing an ACL. Secondly, you have receivers and running back for a reason. Oh, and second-and-5 at midfield seems like a nice time to dial up a shot play rather than a QB run up the middle.

The pick 6 thrown by Jones was awful, but the diamond setup with three receivers directly in front of Wan’Dale Robinson screamed from the rooftop that the Giants were throwing a wide receiver screen to Robinson. It’s no wonder Andrew Van Ginkel picked it off like he knew what was coming. It was blatantly obvious. Look at the play:

Daboll’s debut as the team’s play caller was not a good one.

Daniel Jones — As usual with Jones, there were plenty of extenuating circumstances. Nearly a half-dozen drops. Poor offensive line play. Some head-scratching play-calling, as we have mentioned.

Let’s not, though, take Jones off the hook for anything.

I will — almost — forgive his two interceptions. One came on a fourth down where the ball had to be thrown somewhere. The other was the pick 6 where the formation gave the play away.

Still, Jones was not good. He was hesitant. He escaped the pocket a couple of times, but either ran himself into sacks or out of potential plays. He looked unsure. He missed some open targets, saying after the game he has to do a better job staying on balance. My translation of that — he was looking at the rush and bailing. Stand in and throw the ball — that’s the job.

There is one other thing that gets a ‘Wet Willie.’ Fans who behave like this. I understand being frustrated, but this kind of behavior is uncalled for:

Kayvon Thibodeaux and Brian Burns — The ballyhooed edge defenders combined to do nothing on Sunday. At least nothing positive. Burns had four tackles, but no quarterback hits or sacks. Nothing close to an impact play. Thibodeaux? Zero tackles. That’s right. Zero. One QB hit. Oh, and his big play? A third-and-16 face mask penalty that extended a Minnesota drive and led to a touchdown. Thibodeaux says he wants to be a legendary player. Games like Sunday won’t help him get there.

Offensive line — Andrew Thomas called the line’s effort “not great” when I spoke to him after the game Sunday night. Then, he quickly amended that to “piss poor.” That pretty neatly, and perhaps too visually, sums it up.

Jones was sacked five times and hit 12 more. Some of that was probably on the quarterback. The veteran line, though, clearly could not figure out what Minnesota defensive coordinator Brian Flores was doing, because too many Vikings pass rushers were coming at Jones unimpeded.

The Giants’ only “run” longer than 7 yards was a 14-yarder by Robinson that wasn’t supposed to be a run at all. It was a pass that ended up going backwards, thus was counted as a run play.

Apparently, not practicing together all summer is a bad thing for an offensive line.

Adoree’ Jackson — Yes, a think the 36-yard pass interference penalty on a third-and-8 that led to the Vikings’ first touchdown was the right call. Jackson clearly appeared to his Jordan Addison early. Jackson, whose tackle was terrible in 2023, also missed an open-field tackle Sunday.

Tae Banks — It was only two plays, but those two plays indicated why asking the 2023 first-round pick to guard the opposing team’s WR1 might not work. Justin Jefferson blew past Banks for a 44-yard catch to set up a Minnesota TD in the second quarter. That TD cam on easy 3-yard slant on fourth-and-3, with Jefferson getting inside Banks for the score.

Some stuff I don’t understand

These aren’t necessarily ‘Wet Willies.’ They are, though, head-scratching things I have to discuss.

• Gunner Olszewski’s pre-game groin injury — or probably more accurately, re-injury — was entirely too predictable. Olszewski was injured in Week 2 of the preseason and as of a few days ago was clearly still not running at full speed. After Isaiah McKenzie was injured in the preseason finale, why did the Giants leave themselves without an acceptable second punt return option on the roster? Why wasn’t Olszewski, who likely should not have even been active, on IR with a different, healthy, qualified punt returner in his place? I won’t criticize Darius Slayton for his muffed punt. It’s not a job he should be asked to do. The Giants gambled and lost on that one. As much as I can get on board with GM Joe Joe Schoen’s overall philosophy, the Giants’ organizational decision-making is sometimes difficult to understand.
• After practicing all spring and summer as an outside cornerback, why was Cor’Dale Flott taking reps in the slot in Week 1? That’s as mystifying as the Giants asking Josh Ezeudu to play left tackle in Week 1 a season ago after practicing at guard all summer and taking no tackle reps.
• Darius Muasau played pretty well, but why didn’t Micah McFadden — the listed starter who was not on the injury report — play at all?
• Jalin Hyatt received starter reps for most of training camp. He was targeted just once and played a limited number of snaps.
• Isaiah Simmons, who was thought to be a big part of the sub-package defenses as a combination slot cornerback/coverage linebacker, did not play at all.