After yet another loss, Joe Judge tried to keep his locker room message simple.
“He just said now is not the time to reinvent the wheel,” defensive lineman Leonard Williams said after the 49ers spanked the Giants on Sunday, 36-9, including 20-3 after halftime.
Sign up for Giants Extra: Get exclusive news, behind-the-scenes observations and the ability to text directly with reporters
The Giants are 0-3, and on their way to another miserable season. An 0-5 start seems a given, with road games against the Rams and Cowboys next, followed by Washington at home.
Despite what Judge, a rookie head coach, insisted while speaking to his team Sunday, the Giants do need to reinvent the wheel — because what they’re doing isn’t working at all.
One problem with that: They can’t do it, even if they want to.
So they’re stuck in this mess, at least until they hire a competent general manager next offseason to fix all the problems Dave Gettleman created since the Giants hired him in 2018. (At this point, Gettleman being canned seems inevitable, doesn’t it?)
Sunday marked the second time this season that the Giants' offense accomplished nothing in the second half. They were outscored 10-6 after halftime by the Steelers in Week 1. All told, the Giants have three touchdowns this season, including zero Sunday.
Against the shorthanded 49ers, the Giants' defense was also an abject failure in the second half. It was an all-around fiasco of a second half that typified everything that’s gone wrong with this organization over the three-plus seasons — a stretch during which the Giants are 12-39.
Here’s how bad Sunday was: The Giants didn’t run a play in the red zone, and the 49ers had zero punts. Yes, zero. The 49ers hadn’t done that since 1993, when Judge was 11 years old.
But here’s the big problem for a wheel reinvention: There are no life rafts on this roster, no reasons for immediate hope. Judge is playing all of his best options right now, which is the biggest indictment of Gettleman. This isn’t like last year, when the Giants could finally bench a declining Eli Manning for Jones, and offer a glimmer of optimism for the future.
No, the 2020 Giants are who they are — and they’re atrocious.
Not that you’ll hear any of them confront that reality publicly. At least not yet.
“I believe that we’re right there, and we just need to fix a few pieces,” Williams said.
This is a laughable sentiment, of course — an insult to the intelligence of any fan who watched Sunday’s game, or even Sunday’s second half.
To be fair, Williams is used to trying to say nice things about his awful teams. Between his time with the Jets and Giants, he is 17-49 over the past four-plus seasons.
If Gettleman had done even a semi-competent job of fixing the Giants' issues this offseason, they’d perhaps be able to contend for ... something, since the NFC East is so weak and the division champion might have just seven or eight wins.
Instead, they’re marching their GM out the door, one loss at a time.
Make no mistake: Unless something changes quickly, that absolutely will be the end result here — Gettleman sent packing — because co-owner John Mara made it clear he wanted to see progress in 2020.
What happened Sunday — when the Giants got slammed by an ailing team and wilted in the second half — was not progress. Not even close.
Now the Giants are 2-13 since last Sept. 29, almost a year ago, when they beat Washington in rookie quarterback Daniel Jones' second start, boosting him to 2-0. Hopes soared for Jones' future, for Gettleman’s rebuild. Since then, the Giants are 1-12 in Jones' starts.
So maybe therein lies the reason why their wheel reinvention wouldn’t work anyway: The wheels have fallen off.
Get Giants text messages: Cut through the clutter of social media and text directly with beat writers. Plus, exclusive news and analysis. Sign up now for a free trial.
Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a subscription.
Darryl Slater may be reached at dslater@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here.
The Link LonkSeptember 28, 2020 at 05:00PM
https://www.nj.com/giants/2020/09/despite-what-giants-insist-they-do-need-to-reinvent-the-wheel-but-heres-why-they-cant-and-why-theyre-stuck-in-this-mess-opinion.html
Despite what Giants insist, they do need to ‘reinvent the wheel’ — but they’re stuck in this mess | Opinion - NJ.com
https://news.google.com/search?q=Wheel&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
No comments:
Post a Comment