Just When You Think It Can't Get Any Worse, It Gets Worse The New York Giants have been an NFL franchise since 1925 and they've seen good times and bad in that century. But it's hard to imagine a weirder week - or a worse Sunday - in a pure football sense than this one. The week actually began with Week 10's 20-17 overtime loss to the Carolina Panthers. In the bye week that followed, quarterback Daniel Jones was benched, made a public apology for his performance, and asked for his release from the team - a request that was granted on November 22. With all that happening, the Giants had to get ready for their Sunday game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This, they did not do, because the Bucs whooped up on Big Blue unmercifully in a 30-7 win. New starting quarterback Tommy DeVito looked helpless against Todd Bowles' defense, and the game plan didn't help. DeVito completed 21 of 31 passes for 189 yards total, and just three of five passes for 31 yards in the first half before things got completely out of hand. Due to that mangled game plan, the Giants' best offensive player -rookie receiver Malik Nabers - was not targeted at all in the first half. Nabers finished the game with six catches on nine targets for 64 yards, and a very bad taste in his mouth about the whole experience. When your rookie receiver is openly blaming your head coach (Brian "Dabs" Daboll), that's not at all good. It's less good when both your best offensive player AND your best defensive player (defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence) calls your team's effort "soft" (there's no bigger insult in football) with expletives added in for good measure. "We played soft, and they beat the [expletive] out of us today," Lawrence opined. "Soft as [expletive]," Nabers added. Daboll didn't have much in the way of answers postgame. "It wasn't good. It wasn't good. For a variety of… Missed tackles, converting in the red zone, turning the ball back over in the red zone. We had a good week of practice. Did a lot of work and obviously it didn't show. So, no excuses." Whatever a good week of practice means, it was nowhere to be found once the game started. As if that wasn't bad enough, three players the Giants deemed to be expendable over the last two seasons were absolute world-beaters with their new teams. Defensive lineman Leonard Williams, who signed with the Seattle Seahawks in 2023, had 2.5 sacks and looked completely unblockable in Seattle's 16-6 win over the Arizona Cardinals. Safety Xavier McKinney, who signed with the Green Bay Packers this offseason, had his seventh interception on Sunday against the San Francisco 49ers, tying him with safety Kerby Joseph of the Detroit Lions for the league lead. And most crushing of all, running back Saquon Barkley, who switched NFC East teams this offseason, totalled 255 rushing yards and 302 yards from scrimmage in Philly's beatdown of the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday night. Barkley's rushing yardage and yards from scrimmage totals were each the ninth-highest in NFL history. Some may remember that Giants president, CEO, and co-owner John Mara tried to warn general manager Joe Schoen about this. Not that Barkley would be anywhere near this effective behind New York's awful offensive line, and with their mystery quarterback situation. Still, committing to Daniel Jones in favour of Barkley is a truly epic fail. Anyway, if you had a bad Sunday, at least you're not the New York Giants. Doug Farrar, New York Times, published 25 November 2024