Playoffs? Giants have positives, but it's a lot to ask
If you want to quantify just how brutal the Giants have been since their first and only playoff run after the 2011 Super Bowl season, try this: By beating the Raiders, 23-16, on Sunday at MetLife Stadium, they nudged their record to 3-6, which is their BEST record after nine games since their 2016 playoff berth!
That’s about as low as the bar gets with these sort of things, and the Giants had to win two of their last three games to reach that mark, but here we are.
It is still a loooooong way from here to the playoffs, and it’s still asking a lot – maybe too much – for this team to reach the postseason. After all, digging your way out of 0-3 and 1-5 requires sustained success and a fair amount of luck. It also requires teams in playoff contention to stumble, and there’s simply no guarantee of that happening.
But if there was a ray of hope to be found on Sunday, it was this: On an afternoon when the Giants showed plenty of resourcefulness in beating a Raiders team that was admittedly distracted by offfield events, including Henry Ruggs’ fatal drunk-driving accident last week and Jon Gruden’s resignation last month, they also saw the Cowboys pull a no-show in losing at home to the middling Broncos.
That draws the Giants just a bit closer to the 6-2 Cowboys, who have mostly looked like Super Bowl contenders leading up to Sunday’s clunker in Dak Prescott’s return from a calf injury. Yet it’s still a pipe dream to think that the Cowboys will continue to flounder just enough for the Giants to catch them. But the Giants have played better the last three weeks, beating the Panthers and Raiders sandwiched around a very winnable game against Kansas City that they gave away at the end. And there's always the hope of earning one of the three-wild card spots.
"They come to work every week to prepare," coach Joe Judge said Monday. "It’s about going back to the process to do what’s necessary to be successful. It’s a group of guys that are truly a team that support each other, but they show up every week to put in the work to be successful."
And while they face a daunting task after returning from this week’s bye with a Monday night road game against Tom Brady and the defending champion Buccaneers, their schedule does appear more manageable after that. Of the remaining seven games, only two are against teams that currently have winning records – Dallas and the Chargers. They face the Eagles twice, the Dolphins, the Bears and the Washington Football Team in the regular-season finale at home.
Not only that, but they are likely to get two key players back from injury in time for the Bucs game. Saquon Barkley is set to return to practice after missing four games with an ankle injury, and left tackle Andrew Thomas looks like he’ll be back from a foot problem. Wide receiver Kenny Golladay played for the first time since injuring his knee against the Cowboys last month, and the Giants hope to get Sterling Shepard back from a quad injury in the not-too-distant future.
They haven’t had their full complement of offensive players for most of the season, and with Devontae Booker playing well in Barkley’s absence, they’ll have a good one-two combination in the backfield.
Defensively, they’re starting to play better after a brutal start. Defensive coordinator Patrick Graham has mostly pushed the right buttons the last three games, and the Giants forced three critical turnovers that were the difference against the Raiders.
There’s one more potentially promising development: About this time last year, the Giants began to find their stride after an 0-5 start in Judge’s rookie season as coach. They won four of their next six games to get back in the competition in a decidedly weak NFC East before faltering at the end with three straight losses to play their way out of the race.
"I think it feels similar," cornerback James Bradberry said of the vibe in recent weeks compared to midway through last season. "Get some momentum going into the bye week, get our bodies recovered and then hopefully we keep it going once we get back."
It’s a lot to ask, and time is not on their side after getting off to such a horrid start. But as we saw on Sunday, this league has a way of creating unusual circumstances when you least expect it. See: Tennessee dominating the Rams on the road without Derrick Henry; Jacksonville beating Buffalo; Denver stunning the Cowboys.
And the Giants beating the favored Raiders.
The Giants at least have the power to make things interesting in the coming weeks, even if they’re still longshots. But it only happens if they play more like they have the last three weeks, not the first five.
The Giants have only three games remaining against teams with winning records. The final eight:
Week 11 At Tampa Bay (6-2)
Week 12 Vs. Eagles (3-6)
Week 13 At Dolphins (2-7)
Week 14 At Chargers (5-3)
Week 15 Vs. Cowboys (6-2)
Week 16 At Eagles (3-6)
Week 17 At Bears (3-5)*
Week 18 Vs. WFT (2-6)
*Monday night's game not included
Bob Glauber retired in 2022 after covering the NFL for nearly 40 years. He was selected in 2021 for the Bill Nunn Career Achievement Award by the Pro Football Writers of America, and is a three-time winner of the New York State Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. President of the PFWA for the 2018-20 seasons, he is the author of “The Forgotten First” and “Guts and Genius.”
