So much for the Giants' new and improved pass rush.
The unit, expected to be one of the team's biggest assets this year, was largely unremarkable in the team's season-opening, humiliating 28-6 loss to the Vikings on Sunday afternoon at MetLife Stadium.
With the addition of Brian Burns to a contract extension, Kayvon Thibodeau on the other end and star Dexter Lawrence up the middle, the Giants should, in theory, have plenty of options to intimidate opposing quarterbacks.
But they recorded just one sack on Sam Darnold on Sunday, by Lawrence on the Vikings' second offensive play, and only two quarterback hits.
Thibodeau recorded 15.5 sacks in his first two years in the league after being drafted fifth overall by the Giants in 2022, but he barely registered on the stat sheet.
He didn't record a single tackle and only had one quarterback hit.
“It can't be helped,” Thibodeau said of the missed tackles. “Maybe we missed one. We've got to do what we can. We've got to set the edge, we've got to impact the quarterback, we've got to continue to impact the game. … We've got to be honest with the film, we've got to face the facts and get better going into next week.”
In fact, one of Thibodeau's lone contributions helped the Vikings win.
Trailing 14-3, the Giants stopped the Vikings on their first possession of the second half on third down and 16 yards.
But Thibodeau was called for a facemask foul, giving the Vikings an automatic first down, and then scored a touchdown to make it 21-3.
Barnes, on the other hand, was a bit more aggressive but was far from the game-ruining threat the Giants were hoping for when they traded him to the Panthers for a 2024 second-round pick, a 2024 fifth-round pick swap and a 2025 fifth-round pick, then signed a five-year contract worth up to $150 million.
He recorded four total tackles but was never able to make actual contact with Darnold.
“It was tough to disrupt their game plan and get them off track,” Barnes said. “They did a good job of executing what they wanted to do.”
Last year, the Giants recorded just 34 total sacks, fourth-fewest in the NFL.
The new year brings the same results.
“It's always tough to make a tackle, it's tough to sack a quarterback, it's tough to do anything different when you're playing from behind,” Thibodeau said. “That's the nature of the game. It never gets easy, so you just have to keep chopping up the film and keep doing it.”
