The Giants took a crucial step Monday to prevent their season from slipping away when Bobby Okereke blamed himself.
Despite Devin Singletary losing a fumble, Malik Neighbors dropping a key pass, 10 other defensive starters sharing the blame for allowing seven field goals on seven attempts and coach Brian Daboll's repeated failure to manage his roster for worst-case scenarios, the starting middle linebacker believes he could have changed the outcome of the 21-18 loss to the Commanders.
“I wasn't 100 percent focused on doing my job,” Okereke said. “If I had been focused, I think we could have done better.”
Why not?
“To be specific about me, three-quarters [my] “A quarter of my job is trying to do someone else's job and try to make plays,” said Okereke, who has played all 1,255 defensive snaps since signing with the Giants in 2023. “And that trickles down below. I think everybody should just be focused on doing their job.”
The Giants are 0-2 for the ninth time since 2013, and Daboll's third season appears in jeopardy.
Their final records over the past eight seasons are 7-9, 6-10, 6-10, 3-13, 5-11, 4-12, 6-10 and 4-13.
The new-look locker room will be put to the test without Saquon Barkley (who teammates believe was a big factor in saving the team last season by mobilizing other players to support undrafted rookie quarterback Tommy DeVito) and longtime anchors Xavier McKinney and Sterling Shepard.
“Teams take on the personalities of their coaches, but I think the best teams are self-disciplined,” left tackle Andrew Thomas said. “Coach puts us in positions to make plays, but it's really up to us. He doesn't cross the white line. It's up to us to be dominant, physically and mentally capable of executing.”
The Giants' best defensive player, Dexter Lawrence, has already picked an unwinnable fight with the home crowd, saying he “doesn't respect” the booing.
He changed his tune after the second game, admitting his defense “didn't look good on the video.”
In 2017, teammates Landon Collins and Eli Apple had a feud over Apple's lack of effort, and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie was suspended for walking out of a team meeting.
In 2019, Janoris Jenkins was effectively kicked off the team after he was rude to fans.
Thomas, the Giants' best offensive player, understands why some fans have a traditional view of the team.
“I totally understand the fans' opinions, but for us as players, it's a new team every year,” Thomas said. “Obviously, the personalities are different than they were before, but we have a good group of leaders and we try to make sure it's not a personal attack on offense, defense and special teams.”
The Giants' next six games are against teams that won last season and all entered the season with legitimate playoff hopes: on the road against the Browns, Seahawks and Steelers, and at home against the Cowboys, Bengals and Eagles.
It's fair to wonder where that first win will come from and whether these Giants will repeat or surpass the drought of the 2013 team that started 0-6, or the despair of the 2017, 2018 and 2020 teams that were 1-7 at the midpoint.
Before the season, the two games the Giants were most likely to win in September and October, based on betting lines, were the two games they currently finished with losses to the Vikings and Commanders.
“The mindset and attitude of people in the building is that they're pointing thumbs and not fingers,” Okereke said.
How bad is an 0-2 death sentence?
Since the NFL expanded to a 14-team playoff format in 2020, 32 teams have started the season with an 0-2 record.
Two of the 32 teams made it to the playoffs.
Still, the playoffs were a preseason dream for the Giants.
But owner John Mara hasn't felt it was too much to ask until now to play meaningful games in December, his old benchmark for judging a successful season.
“The first thing Daves said in our meeting today was basically, 'Look in the mirror and think about what you could have done better as a player,'” Thomas said.
Daboll and general manager Joe Sean should do the same after their “collective” thinking left the Giants with no options other than kicker Graham Gano. It's unclear if Gano's pre-existing groin injury contributed to his hamstring injury on the first play of the game.
A simple lineup adjustment would have given the Giants insurance for two more PAT and score-tying 40-yard field goal attempts just before the two-minute warning.
“It's not like 2001 or 2020. [0-2 history] “It's really important,” Daboll said. “The key is doing what we need to do internally to address some of the issues that are bothering us. We've seen some improvement.”
For now, the only accountability issue the Giants have is titled “Leadership and Accountability.”
“No, there's no excuses,” Singletary said of the blunder. “We had a great chance to win the game. We're getting closer to our goal. This is a learning experience.”
