I have nothing clever or witty to say (other than the subhead to this article, the Talking Heads always cheer me up). The New York Giants sank to new…well, not new considering most of the past decade…depths today in a desultory 27-22 loss to the Washington Commanders. I was right about one thing in my prediction for this game: The Commanders are not a great team. They were very beatable today. The Giants are a bad team, though, and could not take advantage.

What did we learn from this debacle?

Are Brian Daboll’s days as head coach numbered?

I cannot understand Daboll’s approach to the game today. If I counted correctly, 21 of the Giants’ first 25 offensive plays were rushes. A couple of them may have been scrambles, but most were designed. I don’t mind a rush-heavy offense when you don’t have confidence in your quarterback. This started to remind me of Joe Judge’s final game as Giants’ head coach, though (also at MetLife vs. Washington). All that was missing was the surrender formation.

On the rare occasions Daniel Jones did try to pass, it was all short stuff for most of the first half. Jones finished the half 4 of 6 for 0 yards, -8 total including sacks. One of the passing plays of course was the Jones fumble as he tried to dump off a screen pass to Devin Singletary and was met by Dante Fowler, who had blown past backup left tackle Chris Hubbard. I think Jones was looking downfield and only tried the screen when he saw Fowler coming out of the corner of his eye but he should have eaten that ball.

When Jones did start passing in the second half, he actually did well, though once again he didn’t take any deep shots. The Commanders blitzed quite a bit in the first half when he did try to pass and he did not respond well. Overall, though, the offensive line held up fairly well. Jones managed to bring the Giants back to within a score in the second half after the Giants fell behind 24-10, first on a 2-yard keeper in which he bounced off two tacklers, and then on a beautiful 35-yard pass to Theo Johnson, who surprised the Commanders by catching rather than dropping the pass. Before that, Jones had another TD pass, to Wan’Dale Robinson, called back by a very questionable offensive pass interference call on Darius Slayton. I don’t know if Jones missed open receivers downfield, but overall he seemed to play one of his better games and was tough as nails as he often is.

The problem was that Daboll went for two after the first TD. Probabilities say that gives you the best chance of winning the game, assuming that you have a 50% chance of making the first 2-point conversion. There’s the problem. Daboll called this game as if he didn’t believe in his offense…and then he changes his mind in the fourth quarter and does something that requires at least 50% confidence or close to it to be a good decision. Then, after the first miss, on the second attempt late in the game, he designs a passing play with only three receivers sent out, on vanilla fades plus one right in the middle – no crossers, no attempt to create traffic for the defensive backs to sift through. No wonder on both plays Jones wound up keeping the ball and being tackled short of the goal line.

Finally, down 27-22 with less than three minutes left and Washington driving, Daboll declined to use a timeout before the two-minute warning. I don’t get it. In the end it didn’t matter, because the Commanders got the ball close to the goal line and didn’t score only because head coach Dan Quinn showed class by having Jayden Daniels take a knee to drain the clock.

Daniel Jones wasn’t (directly, anyway) the problem today. He played his you-know-what off. But Daboll seems to have given up trying to win because of him when he has a choice. The question is whether he can hold the team together enough to avoid Judge’s fate during the second half of the season. Next Sunday, the Cam Ward sweepstakes tournament begins with a game against Carolina, who got their second win today. There are nine two-win teams as I write this, so there’s a long way to go to get No. 1. Will Daboll get a chance to coach whichever quarterback the Giants add in 2025?

Will the real Giants defensive backs please stand up?

Halfway through the season, no Giants defensive back has an interception. Deonte Banks is of course Exhibit A. He looked good early last season, and specifically he played Terry McLaurin tough in both games against Washington in 2023. Since then, though, McLaurin has owned him, twice today for touchdowns. I expected to see a spirited performance from Banks today. Instead, I saw

(1) A McLaurin slant for an easy 1-yard TD that looked almost identical to the one that Justin Jefferson made on Banks in Week 1. Banks makes no effort to get inside leverage on these plays and just cedes the middle of the field to receivers.

(2) A second TD by McLaurin over Banks’ head in which Banks, as he always seems to do, never looked back to locate the ball and never put a hand up to contest the catch. It’s as if he doesn’t understand how to play pass defense.

The problems weren’t restricted to Banks, however. I saw Dru Phillips and Tyler Nubin badly missing tackles today after not playing very well last week. I know that Jason Pinnock played, but how many positive plays has he made this season? Cor’Dale Flott makes the occasional play and that’s about it. Nick McCloud, after playing well in 2023, is invisible this year except when he gets isolated on A.J. Brown for a TD. At least Adoree’ Jackson broke up a pass. Really, when opposing QBs drop back to pass, I’m holding my breath that the pass rush gets to them (which it didn’t do much of today) because I have come to expect any pass that makes it past the line of scrimmage to be caught.

The Giants’ run defense is offensive

We knew coming into the season that the Giants were thin at defensive tackle. Joe Schoen rightly traded Leonard Williams at the trade deadline last year, and the way the draft unfolded, there wasn’t a great way to address that weakness given the needs in the secondary. Kayvon Thibodeaux’s injury makes things worse because Azeez Ojulari is a poor run defender. Still, it’s painful to watch opposing running backs gash the Giants’ run defense.

The Commanders were without Brian Robinson today, but they still rushed for 149 yards and a touchdown. They consistently moved the chains on third and fourth down, often via a running play. The Giants’ DL rarely stacks up a running back for no gain and just about never stops an opponent who goes for it on fourth down. This is especially true when Dexter Lawrence is not on the field. The Giants have given up over 100 yards rushing in seven of their nine games. If they’d stifled Jayden Daniels on passing plays it would be OK, but they didn’t sack him once today.