If ever the start of a season felt like a turning point for better or worse in a team’s future, this one might be it. In the third year of the Joe Schoen/Brian Daboll regime, the New York Giants appeared going in to finally have a capable offensive line, finally have a bona fide WR1, finally have a pass rush that can get home from left/right/middle. To go even further, the season would begin with two winnable but far from easy games, followed by a five-week stretch of games against teams who would surely be favored. Get off to a fast start against the Minnesota Vikings, survive the gauntlet that follows, and this might be a season to remember. Fall flat and there might be wholesale changes at the top in store for 2025.

Well …

Daniel Jones was awful

Unless I missed something, Jones did not even attempt a single pass more than 20 yards downfield. So much for the explosive passing offense we expected to see this year. Jones looked confused all day by Brian Flores’ defenses. I don’t know if receivers were open and he didn’t see them, or whether the coverage was that good.

Either way, he seemed uncomfortable in the pocket from the start, and the criticism that Jones cannot read a defense will only get louder. He showed poor pocket awareness, e.g., when he avoided a sack by free rusher Patrick Jones and then let himself be sacked anyway rather than throwing the ball away. When he did have someone open, he often made inaccurate throws, either short-arming the ball or making the receiver jump or reach back unnecessarily, limiting yards after the catch. For the second straight game, he was pick-6’ed on an awful decision.

Jones did connect with Malik Nabers a few times (5 of 7, 66 yards) while the result was still in question, but Jalin Hyatt was invisible until he was targeted once late in the game. Wan’Dale Robinson saw the bulk of Jones’ passes.

Consider the Quinn Ewers, Carson Beck, Cam Ward, Jaxson Dart, etc. watch to be on. Arch Manning may be too long to wait.

Maybe Mike Kafka should call the plays?

If today was an example of what Brian Daboll unchained does, then give me Mike Kafka back. Two consecutive Jones keepers? An obvious bubble screen at your own 5-yard line with Andrew Van Ginkel in the path? Not a single deep throw, even early in the game when the pass protection wasn’t that bad?

The larger issue, beyond the play calling, was that Daboll, for the second season in a row, didn’t seem to have his team prepared to play. The Vikings looked crisp on both sides of the ball, the Giants did not.

The offensive line wasn’t 2023 bad, but it wasn’t great either

Early in the game, it seemed to me that Jones had enough time to throw, but as the game progressed, the pressure ramped up. By the second half the Vikings were teeing off, no longer having to worry about the run. While they were still close, the run blocking appeared to be adequate, but there weren’t any holes opening like the ones Saquon Barkley saw on Friday night.

Jones was sacked five times by the Vikings, and while he was partly responsible, there was too much pressure, especially up the middle.

The worst fears about the defense were realized

Coming into the season, the thinking was that the Giants’ secondary would at best be a work in progress, but that suspect pass coverage would be partly shielded by an invigorated pass rush.

The first of those thoughts was realized. Adoree’ Jackson had a questionable pass interference call made on him on a 36-yard pass that Sam Darnold underthrew to Jordan Addison. Up to that point the coverage had been adequate. From that point on, the dam broke. The Vikings are not a team you want to play much man defense on, considering they have possibly the best wide receiver in the NFL in Justin Jefferson. Yet the Giants did that at least once too often, and Jefferson beat Tae Banks badly. Jefferson later beat Banks on a short slant for the 3-yard TD that put Minnesota ahead by two scores. In the third quarter Cor’Dale Flott bit on Jefferson short and let Jalen Nailor breeze by him for a 21-yard score that more or less sealed the outcome. Darnold completed his first 12 passes and was 19 of 24 on the day.

The flip side of the Giants’ prospects on defense was supposed to be an improved pass rush that would force opposing quarterbacks to hurry their throws and/or make bad decisions. Early in the game, Dexter Lawrence was up to his old tricks, sacking Darnold and getting pressure several other times. But Brian Burns and Kayvon Thibodeaux? You’d have to check the gamebook (which we’ll show tomorrow) to know that they were even on the field. Burns was as close to invisible as a player wearing number 0 can be in his Giants debut. Thibodeaux would have been invisible were it not for his face mask penalty on 3rd-and-16 that kept a Vikings drive alive and led three plays later to the Nailor 21-yard TD reception that broke open the game.

When Dexter Lawrence came off the field for a breather, the Vikings immediately started gashing the Giants with runs up the middle.

It’s only Week 1, and there’s still time to correct the problems. As Yogi Berra would say, though, “It’s getting late early.”