After their second trouncing of the season at the hands of the Dallas Cowboys, Brian Daboll and the Giants have been left reeling and searching for solutions to an innumerable amount of problems.
When a team is 2-8 and fans start to look more toward mock drafts than playoff pictures, frustration begins to build. The frustration from Daboll is certainly apparent.
“We should make no excuses about where we’re at. I own it. I own it,” he said on Monday. “So, I’ve got to do a better job all the way around and that’s what we are going to work towards.”
Daboll’s Monday morning press conference was spent searching for answers. Now projected as the No. 2 pick in next year’s draft, the future of the Giants franchise is now in question.
Having conversations about next season while there are still eight weeks to go in 2023 is never a spot teams want to find themselves in. Daboll realizes the precarious position his team sits in yet does not believe the Giants have hit a breaking point yet.
“No, it’s every day, it’s every week,” he said. “You’re always self-evaluating, team evaluating, process evaluating, in my position, on a daily basis.”
Self-evaluation was a major point in the press conference: “We control how hard we work, we control how hard we prepare, we control our approach, coming in with a positive attitude. Look, no one’s happy. I’m at the top of that list.”
While Daboll is saying all of the right things and trying to rally the troops, the question must be asked, what can change?
The Giants have the worst offense in the NFL, ranking 32nd in total yards per game, passing yards per game, and points per game. Saquon Barkley has remained the one bright spot on the offense, averaging over 80 yards per game on the ground. This becomes even more impressive when considering how one-dimensional the offense has been.
On defense, the story does not get much better. After allowing 640 all-purpose yards in Sunday’s defeat, Daboll defended defensive coordinator Wink Martindale, who has received plenty of scrutiny.
“We can all do a better job,” Daboll said. “That starts with me. Play complementary football and do the things we need to do.”
Giants football has been anything but complimentary lately, as both the offense and defense are in the bottom third of the NFL. With another division opponent in the Washington Commanders up next, the outlook on the season only becomes more bleak.
“We haven’t been good enough,” Daboll reiterated. “That starts with me, and we’ll continue to work the right way with a positive mindset, a great approach, continue to evolve our processes, and get ready to play this week.”
While the seat is certainly heating up for the Giants head coach, he has spearheaded the issue and not shied away from the critics.
“You make no excuses about it,” he said. “We are at where we are at and that’s where we’re meant to be right now, relative to what we’ve done. So, you don’t feel sorry for yourself.”
If the Giants continue to trend in this direction, there will certainly need to be change sooner rather than later.
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