For the last two weeks following the New York Giants’ crushing defeats to the Dallas Cowboys and Los Angeles Rams, head coach Joe Judge resorted to his playbook of cliche coachspeak in responding to the media’s concerns about his team’s showing through six games of the season.
It was the same type of coachspeak phrases he employed to distinguish himself in the hiring processes back in 2020. While nobody batted an eye at it after the Giants earned a surprise win against the New Orlean Saints in Week 4, it has severely rubbed a lot of people the wrong way when put into perspective of the Giants’ overall record and display of football since Judge and his staff took over.
Taking the position in January 2020, the New York Giants have gone 7-15 under Judge’s command, started 1-5 for the second consecutive season, and have lost their first three home games of this season, one in blowout fashion. His hands are dirty in recent Giants history featuring an overall record of 19-51 and home record of 9-26 since the start of the 2017 season.
Judge has had to deal with extraneous challenges to his coaching and the team’s success in the season and a half he’s been in East Rutherford. Last year, the entire NFL had to learn and adjust their entire business model–and teams their week-to-week activities–to the demands of the COVID-19 pandemic. This time, injuries have plagued the Giants in domino effect since Week 3 when Sterling Shepard and Darius Slayton were the first notable Giants skill players to enter the injury log.
Yet, even with injuries, his locker room has failed to compete in many games, made mistakes that have cost the Giants two wins and a .500 record through six weeks, and not responded well to his messages at the podium which he delivers to them prior.
Thus, it was time for someone within the organization to take responsibility for the product that’s been on the field so far this season, and Joe Judge stepped up as he should have.
Speaking at his recent media availability this week, Judge put blame on himself first for the Giants 1-5 start and made a point to say “the fish stinks from the head”.
“There’s your answer. I’m the head coach. It’s my responsibility, point blank,” Judge said Thursday. “Every player on this field, every position group, the execution, it all comes down to me. The fish stinks from the head down.”
“I’ve been taught that from great guys who I worked for, played for. There are no excuses, no exceptions. You demand it from your coaches to make sure that the players are playing the right way. You demand it of the players to know what to do and then go out there to do it.”
With the confidence of his coaching staff behind him, however, Judge shot down any concerns about pressure from the organization towards his job security, insisting he feels no pressure in regards to that.
“To me, the only time you really feel any kind of pressure and nerves is when you’re unprepared,” he said. “If you’re prepared and you go through the tasks and process at hand and you’re consistent with it, then you go in with confidence.
Judge even made a promise to Giants fans last Monday that things would improve for the team and that the organization will be working tirelessly to ensure short and long-term success.
Again, this is something that the Giants fan would want to hear from a young head coach. A resounding affirmation of confidence. However on Sunday, Judge and his football team didn’t just let his words fall on deaf ears and perform business as usual.
Instead, the Giants returned to MetLife Stadium, backed their head coach with a resounding performance for sixty minutes, found ways to get over the faults that have haunted them, and walked off with a much needed win.
With the first half featuring a peculiar baseball score and multiple three-and-out drives, the final outcome of the Giants Week 7 meeting with former Jets quarterback Sam Darnold and the Carolina Panthers felt dependent on which side would crack first and make the big mistake. This time, the Giants sealed their defensive cracks, dominated the second half on both sides of the ball, and handled the Panthers for their second win of the season, 25-3.
The victory was certainly a confidence booster for the Giants organization in terms of evaluating their future with Joe Judge, whom John Mara and Steve Tisch chose as the successor to Pat Shurmur over Panthers head coach Matt Rhule. More specifically, it was a win the Giants desperately needed, as they now enter the most difficult stretch of their season.
While Sunday’s outcome left a lot of things to talk about, below are five of my important takeaways from a timely Giants win.
1: Hit the Brakes Slightly on the Joe Judge Criticism
It’s become very clear that the modern NFL is a results-oriented business. No longer do team owners, media personalities, or fans remain patient while their teams slowly build up over several years to a level of championship-caliber success. Particularly in the New York market, the need for instant gratification is constantly there, and like with quarterbacks, a head coach only gets so long of a honeymoon before the calls for his job start brewing from dissatisfied consumers.
Lately, Joe Judge has fallen victim to this “what have you done for me lately” mentality.
The Giants selected Judge over candidates like Rhule–aside from financial reasons surrounding Rhule’s massive contract offer from Carolina–for his disciplinarian coaching style, his upbringing behind two of the most successful coaches in football in Belichick and Saban, and his experience with successful programs in the past.
In year one, Judge was given a break due to lack of offensive firepower, including the absence of Saquon Barkley most of the season, and the way the Giants rallied and put together a decent 6-10 season that nearly saw the playoffs in a strange year for the NFC East division.
Before Week 7, the Giants were sitting at 1-5 for a second straight year, and the questions about Judge’s ability to be “the guy” began to emerge before he even got through two full seasons. Nonetheless, a second season where the injury woes have been twice as horrific and the biggest problem of a poor offensive line has yet to be fixed.
With the win over the Panthers, Judge’s overall record as Giants’ head coach improves to 8-15, exactly the same as Matt Rhule’s in Carolina through the same span.
Surprisingly, the disappointing win-loss ratio to the fan eye is actually not far separated from that of one of the legendary coaches in Giants history–Bill Parcells.
Through his first 23 games as head coach of the Giants, Parcells had an overall record of 7-15-1. Taking over as coach in 1983, he inherited a team that had posted only one winning record in the previous ten seasons and that dealt with inconsistency at the quarterback position. Then, in the 1984-85 season, Parcells partnered with Phil Simms and the two led the Giants to back-back winning seasons before ultimately winning a Super Bowl championship in the 1986 season.
Parcells also led the Giants to a second Super Bowl in 1990, where they started 10-0 and finished 13-3 with their second title in a 20-19 win over the Buffalo Bills.
Like Parcells, Judge took over a team that had not made the playoffs since the 2016 season, and had a young roster including then second year quarterback Daniel Jones. He’s partnered with Jones, and with the help of fellow offensive minds, has mentored him significantly in his skills which has led to the best of Jones’ passing and running abilities coming out on the field in recent games.
The Giants have not played an entire game with the entirety of their offensive weapons, some of which were signed in the offseason, since Week 1. They have also lost two games on game-winning field goals as a result of individual discipline on a couple plays, something that Judge has consistently preached since he took the podium in January 2020.
Yes, you are what your record says you are, but perhaps we should see just how much more juice Judge can squeeze out of a bruised Giants’ orange and be more patient before pulling the plug on the fourth Giants coach in the last six years.
2: Daniel Jones is Still Growing, But He Can Be the Giants Quarterback of the Future
The first six games of the 2021 season for Daniel Jones haven’t been spectacular by any stretch, as the third year quarterback has had to deal with a concussion injury suffered in Week 5 and has still shown growing pains in trying to learn how to protect the football on important offensive drives.
Yet, in two games against NFC South opponents, including Sunday’s win against the Panthers, Jones has played at a different level, flipping the switch and providing flashes of the overall skill set he brings, which the Giants have lacked from a quarterback in recent years.
Jones went 23 for 33 on pass attempts for a total of 203 yards and a touchdown, but it was his work outside of the pocket that impressed the sports world watching. The team leader in rushing yards due to the absence of Saquon Barkley amid an ankle injury with 229 yards on 41 rushes, Jones ran eight times against the Panthers for 28 yards with his longest rush going for 14 yards.
While his legs were a key factor in extending Giants drives, nobody expected Jones to extend one using his hands. On a reverse play executed decently by the inexperienced route runner, Jones caught a 16-yard pass from receiver Dante Pettis–whose father is the third base coach for the Houston Astros– along the right sideline to give the Giants a huge first down during their 22-point unanswered run in the second half. The catch instantly lit up the internet, as Jones’s catch was captured in a still image photo that looked eerily similar to the infamous Odell Beckham Jr. catch at MetLife Stadium.
Daniel Jones is currently ranked third among quarterbacks for rushing yards, behind only Lamar Jackson and Jalen Hurts. He did all this Sunday behind a mediocre-at-best offensive line and a receiving core featuring fourth and fifth string players.
Imagine what Jones and the Giants offense could accomplish with a healthy roster and revamped offensive line? That thought certainly makes one reconsider whether Jones should become a scapegoat in the offseason pending the Giants executives elect to make sweeping changes.
The organization’s jury may still be out on whether Jones will get his fifth year option picked up by the team, but I believe the Giants need to see if Jones can get a full season with his entire offensive arsenal and the outcome of his individual performance before they decide whether he is capable of being the franchise quarterback.
3: If the Giants Defense Can Answer the Call Each Week, They Have a Chance to Compete
Even with a crippled offense, the Giants defense has been a significant factor in their dismal performances thus far.
Prior to Week 7, they’ve allowed the opposition an average of 382.3 yards of total offense, including 243.1 yards in the passing game, and a total of 21 touchdowns.
They are also responsible for a -42.0 point differential in the final two minutes of the first half of games, the worst in the NFL for that category.
Recently, the entire defense was called out by defensive coordinator Patrick Graham for their lackluster performances and inability to make the game-sealing plays that would have given the Giants a couple more wins. The Giants lost two games on field goals by Washington and Atlanta, both following untimely mishaps by members of the defense–an offsides penalty by Dexter Lawrence in Washington and a dropped interception by Adoree Jackson against the Falcons.
Being ticked off from the constant criticism and booing for their downfall despite a much improved roster, the Giants defense came out with a fire in their belly Sunday and gave the Panthers the response expected from a unit that was ranked near the top 10 in the league last season.
Behind a six sack effort–two and a half of which went to rookie linebacker Azeez Ojulari–the Giants defense held Carolina to 173 total yards of offense, including 56 yards rushing and an average rush of 3.3 yards. They gave Sam Darnold and the Panthers no chance to march downfield on lengthy drives, holding them to 2-of-15 on third down conversions and allowing only 11 first downs compared to the Giants’ 21.
Most notably, they kept the Panthers away from the endzone after the opening drive that ended in Carolina’s sole score of the game, a 49-yard kick by Zane Gonzalez. It was the first game this season an opponent did not score on the Giants in the final two minutes of the first half either.
Cornerback James Bradberry added a turnover with his interception of Darnold at the NYG 25 yard line in the second quarter to stall the closest the Panthers got to the redzone the remainder of the game and cap off an incredible performance by the Giants defense.
From watching Sunday’s game, the Panthers were a struggling football team with their own injuries and offensive mishaps, yet still the Giants defense wanted the win more and avenged everything that went wrong against the Rams to get it. All the veteran names had an impact, from Leonard Williams and Dexter Lawrence’s on the pressure up front to Logan Ryan and Azeez Ojulari with the open field tackling, and their performances earned back the applause of Giants fans for one week.
There is no doubting that the talent the Giants front office has accumulated for this side of the ball is there, but the defense needs to show off that talent and experience every week. The Giants have high-caliber offensive opponents coming up in Kansas City, Las Vegas, and Tampa Bay, so they need the defense to make huge stops more than ever to counteract a Giants offense that averages just under 20 points per game.
If Patrick Graham’s crew can muster more Week 7 performances in the games ahead, then the Giants can certainly compete regardless of the final outcomes.
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