You can make a case the Giants didn’t bother to play last night versus the Patriots. Indeed, the team looked checked out for the season.
The New England Patriots missed the playoffs for the fourth time in five seasons after Tom Brady left the team to continue his majestic play for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In the process, Brady won a Super Bowl in his first season with the Bucs, and Bill Belichick was fired years later.
The Patriots are going back to the playoffs this season, presumably as AFC East winners. To get there, all they did was this: be bad enough to draft Drake Maye last year and hire Mike Vrabel as their head coach. Voila!
On Monday night, the Giants could only gaze at them with envy following their 33-15 loss at Gillette Stadium. It was Big Blue’s seventh straight loss.
The 2-11 Giants have been pathetic for a decade now. They only have a playoff win against the Minnesota Vikings to brag about since that awful period. Yeah, that isn’t success, despite what the Shaun Morashes of the world want to tell you.
Yet you hear folks such as Morash, Art “Big Blue” Stapleton, Steve Serby, Ralph Vacchiano, Paul Dottino, Tom Rock, and even Giants fans gaslight folks into believing the Giants are a team on the rise. Based on what? Delusion of grandeur?
You hear about the Giants’ young talent of Jaxson Dart, Malik Nabers, Kayvon Thibodeaux, Abdul Carter, and others. But here’s the problem with that argument: What exactly have they won? If they were so good, there’s no way Brian Daboll would have been fired as coach, and the Giants wouldn’t have the record they have.
As Bill Parcells would say, “You are what your record says you are.” Put another way, the Giants are losers, and they have played like one for a decade now. They change players, executives, and coaches, but losing is still constant.
This latest loss serves as another example of what has been a forgettable season.
Abdul Carter has issues (photo courtesy The Spun)
It all started when rookie Abdul Carter was benched for the first quarter because of tardiness. It was the second time in three games that the rookie linebacker was disciplined. Before the recent one, he was benched for a quarter for missing a walkthrough.
When asked about being benched after the game, he mentioned that (profanity) happens. His response shows that he doesn’t get it. Coming to work on time is a responsibility, especially in professional sports.
Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised by his stupidity. That is the same guy who wanted Lawrence Taylor’s number for his jersey. That was a red flag of what was to come for this immature No. 3 overall draft pick. Carter has played like an underachieving loser all season, and he behaves like one.
The news on the Giants’ rookie linebacker set an ominous tone for a long night.
Dart struggled to throw throughout the night, raising questions once again about his throwing accuracy. If being a running quarterback who takes hits is the best he can do, he is not a long-term answer for the Giants. Then, Ridgewood native Younghoo Koo botched a field goal attempt by somehow missing the ball as he was kicking it. It resulted in a turnover.
That right there summed up the Giants’ night, season, and decade. This play was even worse than Mark Sanchez’s Butt Fumble.
The Patriots entered halftime with a 30-7 lead. There’s no doubt Vrabel showed mercy on the Giants by not running up the score. It could have gotten even uglier than what we saw. No matter. The damage was done.
You can make a case the Giants didn’t bother to play last night. Indeed, they looked checked out for the season. But this team has four more games after the bye week. Outside of Morash and the media bobos who cover this team, does anyone seriously think a win is in the cards again this season? Las Vegas, maybe.
Giants general manager Joe Schoen will address the media on Tuesday. Fortunately for him, the press here is too soft to ask tough questions. That said, the press isn’t the big issue; the Giants’ ownership is. Schoen has done nothing literally to retain his job.
The only storyline left for the Giants this year is how low they can go. Does pathetic include another gear? We’ll know soon.
