**Let me start by getting this out of the way now. DJ was absolutely terrible. I have defended him in the past but I can't any longer. There's no excuses. His confidence is completely shot. He does deserve the majority of the blame.
But there's a lot of blame to go around.
I'll start with the (very) few bright spots - I thought the rookies Nubin, Phillips, Muasau, Nabers played well. I'm shocked at how little Phillips played though. Made no sense to me. He's already our 2nd best CB. Gano looks like he's back to his normal self after the injury last year. Gillan is actually turning into a good punter. Dex is an absolute beast. Best NT in the game. Wan'dale looked good as well.
Now to the bad...
Outside of Dex, the DL is non existent. When he came out of the game they ran it right down our throats with no problem. Yes they're young and we knew this was a weak area but jeez. We didn't play the Eagles OL. The Vikings line is average at best and manhandled everyone but Dex.
Thibs is just as bad as DJ. He sucks. With Dex & Burns he should have a much easier time making plays. Was invisible except for the bonehead facemask on 3rd and 14 that continued the drive and scored a TD. Burns showed his burst and speed but got no pressure either. Again this isn't the Eagles line. terrible performance from the D front.
I'll give Banks a very very little break as he was going up against Jefferson, but he didn't look good.
The defense as a whole looked awful. 99yd td drive. No pressure on Darnold, WR wide open, communication breakdowns in the secondary... awful. Bowen made no adjustments.
OL played ok. Better than they have in a long time but thats not saying much. No push in the run game. Pass pro in the 1st half looked pretty good, but missed stunts as usual. DJ made them look worse.
WR and Theo dropped a few balls. Yes DJ was off target on a lot but some should've been caught. All around a terrible game by the 99% of the team...
Which leads to my last point:
I blame a LOT of this on Daboll. 2 years in a row they came into week 1 not prepared and out of sync. Vikings coach was saying post game that they out coached, out played, out conditioned the Giants which is all on him.
Thibs was just as bad as Jones yesterday
He won a playoff game...
I totally agree with you. Like I said, im not defending DJ whatsoever. He was the worst player on the field yesterday (as well as Thibs)
Obviously DJ is going to get 99.999% of the blame. And deservedly so. But the rest of the team outside of a few players were awful too.
What if it was Darnold vs Darnold?
I wasn't focusing on him, but heard Nacho's name announced alot yesterday. Ot atleast alot more than I was expecting.
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But if you swap QBs, the Giants win easily.
What if it was Darnold vs Darnold?
Giants got outplayed on every level.
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But if you swap QBs, the Giants win easily.
What if it was Darnold vs Darnold?
I think it's like 60/40 Vikings but it would depend on turnovers, red zone, big plays etc like most games between similar level teams.
No, because it was 100% true. The Vikings out-coached, outplayed, out-conditioned the Giants and was 100% more prepared coming into the game.
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But no better than Jones? Come on. Jones is one of the worst starting QBs of my lifetime.
He won a playoff game...
So did Tim Tebow. Blake Bortles even made a conference championship game.
Enough with the "he won a playoff game" nonsense.
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In comment 16602791 Greg from LI said:
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But no better than Jones? Come on. Jones is one of the worst starting QBs of my lifetime.
He won a playoff game...
So did Tim Tebow. Blake Bortles even made a conference championship game.
Enough with the "he won a playoff game" nonsense.
I think he was saying it tongue in cheek. But outside of the strip sack against Wash, Thibs has done nothing since he was drafted. Those were the quietest 11.5 sacks i've ever seen. Yes he's still young. Edge rushers take some time to develop but he hasn't been good. But I was just going by yesterday. He was awful and the worst player on the field outside of DJ
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But no better than Jones? Come on. Jones is one of the worst starting QBs of my lifetime.
Thibs was just as bad as Jones yesterday
And Thibs was very snarky in the post game when he was asked about him getting shut out on the score sheet
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In comment 16602791 Greg from LI said:
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But no better than Jones? Come on. Jones is one of the worst starting QBs of my lifetime.
Thibs was just as bad as Jones yesterday
And Thibs was very snarky in the post game when he was asked about him getting shut out on the score sheet
He's lucky Jones was awful because he got all the attention. If not, Thibs would've been the one who got blasted by the fans and media.
+1000000000000000000000000
Outside of his strip sack against Wash, what else has he done that's worth remembering? I know he had 11.5 sacks last year but I don't remember any game where you were like "Wow! Thibs played really well today!"
He was so bad yesterday he got benched for Ojulari.
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that O'Connell was saying what he said in his own self-interest to keep his team believing in his program?
No, because it was 100% true. The Vikings out-coached, outplayed, out-conditioned the Giants and was 100% more prepared coming into the game.
Well, keep thinking about it.
Minnesota outexecuted us because their bad QB played out of his mind compared to our bad QB.
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Thibs is AWOL way too often.
+1000000000000000000000000
Outside of his strip sack against Wash, what else has he done that's worth remembering? I know he had 11.5 sacks last year but I don't remember any game where you were like "Wow! Thibs played really well today!"
He was so bad yesterday he got benched for Ojulari.
"I don't remember the games where he played well" is such a flawed way to do any measuring.
You don't remember the 3 sack, 9 tackle, forced fumble game against the Jets because the Giants couldn't score more than 10 points, so they lost.
You don't remember the 8 tackle, half sack, forced fumble, tipped pass game against green bay, or the sack/fumble win against New England because 2024 was a forgettable season overall. It's not because he never plays well. It's because memory is a bad system.
Sacks and forced fumbles and run support impact the game. You can't have a football discussion if it's grounded on the idea that tangible production is meaningless.
Sack 1 in GB created a turnover, recovered by McKinney ina 7-7 game with Green Bay at the Giants 27
The PD in ended a Green Bay drive at the NY 18 and forced a FG instead of a TD.
Sack 2 in GB happened at the Giants 9 yard line which sent GB to 3rd down, and eventually a FG.
These are game defining plays you don't remember. Literally points off the board.
Wins are what make other perceived problems go away. Who plays quarterback has a direct hand in winning games.
No one is yapping about penalties if they won. They were so bad with penalties they had *two* more than well-prepared Minnesota. They have to clean it up, but it's week 1, and refs always call games tighter the first 5 weeks to re-emphasize the rules. The Pass Interference on Jackson was also a completely wrong call anyway.
Flott not having played slot in preseason is also an imaginary problem. He was a slot in college. He played slot all of last year to the tune of 83% of the time per Dan Duggan. The preseason was about seeing if he can transition and gaging his competency at outside CB. Portraying it like playing him at nickel was some gross misuse of personnel is silly. It's a position he's been familiar with since before the NFL. This is another thing that no one is griping about as some kind of organizational failure if they were not disgruntled customers.
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Some people act as if Jones goes away and all problems are fixed. I understand the frustration with Jones--he needs to go. But I do not understand the apparent blind eye when it comes to other players and the coaches. Thibs has never justified his draft position and Neal--well enough said there. The inability to fix the secondary all preseason and then playing Flott where he had not played all preseason? Questions must be asked. Where's the running game? Where's the blocking? Where is the pass rush? Four pre-snap penalties on the offense? Thibs with a facemask penalty to keep a drive alive? Mishandling the PR situation by not having an option available for a player who had been out most of preseason? Sorry but the frustration has not gone away from yesterday and I just wish that the only problem with this team was Jones at QB.
Wins are what make other perceived problems go away. Who plays quarterback has a direct hand in winning games.
No one is yapping about penalties if they won. They were so bad with penalties they had *two* more than well-prepared Minnesota. They have to clean it up, but it's week 1, and refs always call games tighter the first 5 weeks to re-emphasize the rules. The Pass Interference on Jackson was also a completely wrong call anyway.
Flott not having played slot in preseason is also an imaginary problem. He was a slot in college. He played slot all of last year to the tune of 83% of the time per Dan Duggan. The preseason was about seeing if he can transition and gaging his competency at outside CB. Portraying it like playing him at nickel was some gross misuse of personnel is silly. It's a position he's been familiar with since before the NFL. This is another thing that no one is griping about as some kind of organizational failure if they were not disgruntled customers.
We'll just agree to disagree on this. I am not the only one surprised by the use of Flott over Phillips yesterday. laying slot a year ago does not mean the kid was ready to step into the role yesterday. It's not like he distinguished himself there a year ago.
As for penalties I never said that Minnesota was well prepared. That's part of the problem--the Giants were handled by a team that is likely mid-pack at best. Giants had no running game to speak of. No ability to stop the run. No ability to defend the pass. Where was the pass rush?
QB is an important position and the Giants need one, but that is just one of the issues with this team and its coaching/management.
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Sacks are a meaningless stat. Sure it's great when it happens, but a guy could get one each game and his 17 sacks will probably lead the league and make him all-pro. But, what did he do during the other 50 or 60 snaps?
Sacks and forced fumbles and run support impact the game.
See? You made my point right there. Sacks alone don't tell the whole story. It's the other stuff too. So, a guy gets a sack and does nothing of note the rest of the game is a meaningless Stat