‘Things I think’: Brian Daboll’s grip on the New York Giants, and his job, might be slipping away

Losing is one thing, but losing the way the Giants did on Sunday and then having players question each other’s effort is another

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — In thinking about the New York Giants and Brian Daboll’s increasingly tenuous hold on the team’s head-coaching job prior to Sunday’s game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, I posted this on social media:

“Brian Daboll needs to hope things go well today as the post-Daniel Jones era begins. It can’t be good for Daboll if the Giants are awful today and fans are leaving early.”

Well, things went as badly as they could possibly go once the game started.

• The listless Giants gave up a 14-play, 70-yard touchdown drive on the Buccaneers’ opening possession.
• They fell behind 23-0 at halftime and 30-0 in the third quarter en route to a never-competitive 30-7 loss, their sixth straight, that left them at 2-9.
• Fans who have yet to see the Giants win a game in six tries at MetLife Stadium this season barely bothered to boo, putting about as much energy into that as the Giants seemed to put into trying to compete with the Buccaneers. Instead, they just headed for the exits before the third quarter was over.
• After the game Dexter Lawrence and Malik Nabers each called the team “soft.” Nabers went so far as to say “soft as f—k.” Lawrence said the Buccaneers “beat the shit” out of the Giants.

When I was asked before the season began, and even a few weeks ago, if I thought Daboll deserved to remain as head coach beyond this season, I consistently said yes. With the caveat that the one thing that could change that would be the season going completely off the rails and Daboll losing the locker room.

Well, the season has gone off the rails. And, with the non-competitive, seemingly disinterested way the Giants played on Sunday and players sounding after the game as though they had reached the point of hopelessness Daboll might be losing the locker room.

There are six games to go. That’s an eternity for a hopeless team. The Giants have lost six straight. They are an unwatchable 0-6 at home. After losing to the Carolina Panthers, watching the best quarterback on the team get benched and ultimately waived, and then being non-competitive Sunday from the first drive against a team that had itself lost four straight games it is fair to wonder if Daboll even finishes the season as the team’s head coach.

The Giants have a short week with a Thanksgiving Day game in Arlington, Texas against the Dallas Cowboys on Thanksgiving Day. If the Giants put up another turkey on Thursday, it is not unimaginable to think co-owners John Mara and Steve Tisch will de-activate Daboll’s key card.

I continue to think Daboll is a good coach — or, at least could be a good coach. I continue to think that with the right quarterback Daboll could be a winning coach with the Giants.

Daboll, though, seems to be watching everything blow apart with no answer for how to stop it. The Giants were competitive in most of their losses before the bye, 1-5 in one-score games an losing a sixth by 10 points. They played hard.

They weren’t competitive Sunday, and it is hard to argue that that they gave their best effort. If this continues it is hard to imagine Daboll getting a chance to find out if he can succeed with whatever quarterback comes next after the one the Giants disposed of last week.

The Bucs cut through the Giants’ defense like a knife through warm butter as the Giants offered no resistance. The league’s worst offense, orchestrated by Daboll, offered no threats. Daboll, as losing coaches always do, insisted “we had a good week of practice.” But, he had no answers. He just kept repeating some version of the same thing:

“It wasn’t good.”

“We didn’t play well … just not good enough.”

“We just didn’t do a good enough job.”

“We weren’t good.”

“We didn’t do a good enough job.”

Daboll didn’t want to hear questions about whether the benching and ultimate waiving of former starting quarterback Daniel Jones caused a hangover that led to his team’s apparent lethargy on Sunday.

“We’ve moved on here,” he said.

But, have they? Or, more precisely, have the players? They insisted after the game that they had:

“I don’t think that is the reason why we came out here today and got beat the way we did,” said wide receiver Darius Slayton. “At the end of the day, DJ wasn’t on the field today. He had no affect on how well the people that were out there did their jobs and at the end of the day, the people who did play today did a terrible job and that is why we got beat.”

Still, while it may have ultimately been the right decision, it is hard to believe the Jones departure had no impact on Sunday.

This was former Giants placekicker Lawrence Tynes while watching and trying to process Sunday’s awful performance:

Players know that Jones, for all his flaws, was the best quarterback on the Giants’ roster. They know how hard he worked and how willingly he sacrificed his body. They know, even though they won’t blatantly say it, that performance might have gotten the quarterback benched but it was money that got him sent packing.

They know the organization is moving on to thinking about the future.

So, it shouldn’t be any surprise that they don’t appear to possess much resolve in the present.

These comments from veteran players are damning for a coach:

Jermaine Eluemunor: “I personally don’t think everybody is giving 100%.”

Darius Slayton: “We’ve got capable players that don’t play like they’re capable — period. Six long years for me, dog.”

Daboll, and the organization might have another problem. An unhappy, unhinged rookie first-round pick.

Nabers’ post-game rant has to set off alarm bells. Here is part of it:

Here’s more:

That’s not good. That is the star rookie wide receiver, a player the Giants knew long before that drafted him had the potential to be volatile when things were not going well, being critical of the head coach.

So, here is the current situation:

• The Giants look inept on both sides of the ball. The offense that is Daboll’s baby averages a league-worst 14.8 points per game.
• Sunday’s performance made it look as though they were disinterested.
• Players are calling the team “soft.”
• Veteran players are openly saying not everyone is giving their best effort.
• A frustrated star rookie, the youngest player on the team, is being openly critical of the head coach.
• The team is 2-9 with six straight losses and appears to be getting worse instead of better.

Mara wants to have patience. He knows that at some point he needs to have patience to get the Giants out of this losing cycle they have been in since 2011. If the Giants embarrass themselves on national television — again — on Thursday, he might not be able to.