With Daniel Jones gone, Tommy DeVito (note to self: proofread to make sure you didn’t type ”Danny DeVito”) took over as the New York Giants’ starting quarterback against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This was a source of some excitement given the three games he won as a starter last season and Brian Daboll’s choice to elevate him over ostensible QB2 Drew Lock, but all in all would an undrafted free agent be just another brick in the wall of failed Giants’ quarterbacks? How would the rest of the team react to Jones’ departure? Here are some things we learned from the Giants’ loss to the Buccaneers.

Turn out the lights, the party’s over

The late Don Meredith used to sing that on Monday Night Football when a game got out of hand. He could have started singing halfway through the second quarter in this game. The Giants were lifeless on defense and played scared and conservative on offense for most of the first half.

They did come out in the third quarter remembering that they had the No. 6 pick in the draft on their side, and after not targeting Malik Nabers at all in the first half, went to him successfully on three consecutive plays to get into scoring position for the first time in the game. After Tyrone Tracy converted their first third down of the game, the Giants got down to the Tampa Bay 5-yard line before Tracy fumbled on an ill-conceived wildcat play. The Buccaneers recovered and drove 95 yards to put the game out of hand (if it wasn’t already) at 30-0.

The Giants’ performance revived memories of the 2021 closing stretch after Jones’ season was ended by a neck injury against Philadelphia. The Giants ran the table, so to speak, with six consecutive losses with Mike Glennon and Jake Fromm at the helm. This season is starting to look like that. It hasn’t gotten to the point of the end of 2021, when they were afraid to even throw a pass and went into “surrender formation” against Washington. But tell me you can’t imagine it happening eventually. The Giants have not only lost their last six and have not won a single home game this season…they haven’t had a lead in any game since their last victory in Seattle.

I have considered it unlikely that Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll would not be brought back next season. The Giants had played hard all season and could have won most of the games they lost with a key play here or there. Today’s game made me entertain such thoughts for the first time. The players are going to have to look in the mirror and decide whether they are going to be motivated to finish the season. Daboll is going to have to look in the mirror himself and ask whether his in-game and in-week decision-making process is flawed. Schoen is going to have to look in the mirror and ask himself whether an aversion to void years on contracts is worth neglecting the interior defensive line, the backup quarterback position, and the backup offensive tackle position. (I feel sorry for that mirror.)

Tommy was no pinball (or football) wizard

DeVito began the game looking like the confused quarterback who could not sort out the defense of the New Orleans Saints last season. In keeping with his reputation, DeVito held the ball too long throughout the first half and paid for it. DeVito had to know that Buccaneers’ head coach Todd Bowles was going to bring pressure, and Bowles did not disappoint, blitzing on about 70% of DeVito dropbacks. Somehow, DeVito was not ready to hit a quick read and make the defense pay for it, being sacked three times in the first half and four times overall, plus nine QB hits. To be honest, if Danny DeVito had suited up today he couldn’t have looked much worse. DeVito wasn’t the only one to blame – the offensive line did not handle the blitz well, most notably John Michael Schmitz, who looked like he was at Rockefeller Center the way Vita Vea put him on skates. Those nine QB hits were not all on DeVito,

To DeVito’s credit, he bounced back in the second half, leading a drive that might have resulted in a touchdown were it not for Tracy’s fumble, and finally leading an actual touchdown drive to avoid the bagel.

The defense had its worst game of the season

We’re used to the Giants’ run defense getting gashed up the middle when Dexter Lawrence isn’t on the field. What’s worse, though, is that even when he is in the game, he’s getting double-teamed much of the time, making him less effective than he usually is, and the rest of the line is like a living welcome mat to opposing rushers like Bucky Irving and Sean Tucker.

Missed tackles have become part of the identity of this Giants defense. Today they missed nine more (for comparison, Tampa Bay missed three). It’s happening at all three levels of the defense. There are outright whiffs by players taking bad angles to the ball carrier, and worse, there are the defenders who get to the ball carrier and don’t wrap up, letting them bounce off for big gains. Even Andru Phillips and Bobby Okereke, two of the Giants’ best defenders, had two missed tackles apiece today.

The pass rush was nowhere to be found either. Lawrence, Brian Burns, just-returned Kayvon Thibodeaux, and newly-injured (toe) Azeez Ojulari DID NOT MAKE THE STAT SHEET on pass rushes – 0 sacks, 0 hits, 0 hurries. The Giants’ only two pressures (both hurries) were by Micah McFadden and Tyler Nubin. And this against a Buccaneers’ offensive line without Tristan Wirfs today.

Tampa Bay averaged 7.3 yards per play for the game. Disgraceful.