Week 1 of the NFL season, more than ever, is a wonderland of overreaction. Win the game? Visions of 14-3 or 15-2 dance in your imagination. Lose? “Oh God, oh god, oh god, oh god, can we win another game? Can we win three or four games? When's the draft?”
It happens every year. Usually it's stupid. The Chiefs lost their first game of the year last year. They decided to play a full schedule and keep going. The Jets won their first game last year. Football forensics teams are still trying to figure out why. The first week of the football season is a hoot and holler and after the silliness of the preseason, players finally get to actually play.
There's no need to jump to conclusions or jump off a bridge.
The usual.
Except for the second year in a row, the Giants have ignited such a big stink bomb in their first game of the season, in front of an incredulous crowd of 81,908, just like they did last year, that I'd be lying if I told you, dear reader, that they'd be stumbling over the next two games. do not have Overreacting, do not have Panic attacks do not have Suddenly, you start to wonder if you're always reading the same script.
Was it really that bad?
That's how bad it was. Vikings 28, Giants 6, and the final 40 or so minutes of the game looked a lot like Cowboys 40, Giants 0 a year ago, except the Cowboys had won 12 games then. The Vikings would have a hard time winning even half that much this time around if they weren't caught up in a whirlwind of overreactions. But the Giants made that task a lot easier on Sunday afternoon.
“It was a disappointing game,” Giants manager Brian Daboll said. “We've got a lot of things to work out. We'll fix them and get better.”
That sounds like a great plan, but lest you think it was a prank until you understand what actually happened, let me start with the following story, in italics and capital letters: They were filleted and taken to school by Sam Darnold.
Yes, Sam Darnold. Darnold played great, completing his first 10 passes and finishing 19 of 24 with two touchdowns and one interception intercepted at the line of scrimmage. Apparently, someone forgot to let the ghost in the building, which is a shame, because the defensive line (which was sacked only once all day) and secondary (which was as weak as advertised) needed help.
“They didn't surprise us,” said Brian Barnes (four tackles, zero sacks in his Giants debut).
“We knew what they were going to do and they did it,” said Kayvon Thibodeau, who had four fewer tackles than Barnes.
This was all stated in a descriptive way, but if the quiet pair wished to soften the disaster that everyone was watching, it only raised doubts.
You knew what was going to happen still Have you participated in a boat race?
I’m 479 words into this column and I haven’t even mentioned “Daniel Jones.” That should give you an idea of how rough this day has been, because Jones is…
(I'm looking for a cup of kindness here, because Jones just returned from a season-ending knee injury and was expected to be rustier than a 1957 Chevy left in the rain. I'm looking for a comforting adjective. Search, search, search…)
Jones was awful. Part of that was corrosion, part of it was just not getting used to the mind-blowing speed of the game.
But let's be honest, a lot of the day's game looked like the best hits we've seen from Jones in the last five years. It was a messy game with a mix of bad decisions and horrible decisions, not to mention inaccurate throws. First, an interception six that Minnesota's Andrew Van Ginkel ran for 10 yards to score ended the competitive portion of the afternoon with more than 19 minutes still left in the game.
“We just weren't good enough,” Jones said. “We didn't get in the end zone. We've got to play better and give ourselves a chance to make plays.”
He'll get a chance next week against Washington, but after that, who knows. In fact, if Daboll is willing to bench everyone responsible for this miserable mess, we might see Dexter Lawrence, Malik Neighbors and 20 rookies against the Commanders. Sometimes you have to be a little skeptical after Week 1.
And sometimes a truth serum is much more appropriate.
