2-0, how fun it is! For Giants, and their fans
Head coach Brian Daboll of the New York Giants hugs Sterling Shepard #3 after a game against the Carolina Panthers at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, Sep. 18, 2022 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Too often over the past decade, Giants fans began to check out by the end of September, followers of a team that inspired something far worse than anger: indifference.
But here we are, with autumn arriving on Thursday, followed by the Dallas Cowboys next Monday night, and indifference has left the building.
The Giants are 2-0 for the first time since 2016 after a grind of a 19-16 victory over the Panthers in Sunday’s home opener, and their fans are acting accordingly.
That included the loud cheers defensive coordinator Wink Martindale had called for — especially when Carolina had a third down, a circumstance in which they converted twice in 12 tries.
It also included some spirited booing, notably early in the third quarter, when the Giants were down by a touchdown, their offense was stuck in neutral and they were facing a third-and-9 from their 25-yard line.
The next six plays went like this: 15-yard pass completion in traffic, 16-yard run, 12-yard pass completion, 15-yard pass completion, incomplete pass, 16-yard touchdown pass completion from Daniel Jones to Daniel Bellinger.
“That drive, I thought we got into a good rhythm there,” Jones said.
There was not much booing after that.
“We definitely heard them,” offensive tackle Andrew Thomas said of the boos. “Coach [Brian] Daboll tells us when you hear the boos, that equals focus for us. It’s nothing we can control except execute.”
Execute they have, and in a season that was supposed to be about assessing existing assets and clearing room for future talent, fun suddenly is on the agenda for fans.
For players, too, of course, but unlike fans, they must remind themselves and reporters how much work they have left to do — as they did repeatedly after Sunday’s victory.
But they did not deny the fun part.
“It’s fun, and it all starts with winning,” Saquon Barkley said. “That’s what really breeds fun; you have to come out here and win games. We have to continue to do that, but we can’t get caught up in the hype.”
Said receiver Sterling Shepard, “It’s been a while, since my rookie season [in 2016]. It’s a blessing, man. We have a lot of work to do. That’s the good part about it. You’d like to clean stuff up with a 2-0 start rather than the other way around.”
Few outside the team had any realistic expectations that the Giants would be a playoff team this season. But the late co-owner Wellington Mara’s old baseline standard — meaningful games in December — is very much in play now.
Sure, probably not a Bills-Giants Super Bowl XXV rematch, but fans can dream, can’t they?
Sunday’s game mostly was a slog, but it had its dramatic moments, including a pivotal third-down sack of Carolina’s Baker Mayfield by Julian Love on what would be the Panthers’ final offensive play.
“Julian is a bad man,” Oshane Ximines said. “We got drafted together, so I know all about it. I see how he works every day. He’s a bad guy.”
The play was a result of Martindale keeping the heat on the Panthers even after losing a key player to injury in tackle Leonard Williams.
“It’s fun as hell, because you know that no matter what, he’s going to keep coming,” safety Xavier McKinney said of Martindale. “It’s fun to play for a guy who doesn’t care if we make mistakes and just lets you go out there and play freely.”
There’s that “fun” word again. But the Giants also are proud of the work that leads to it.
Daboll said that is why he trusted Jones to make the right decision when he scrambled for a game-clinching first down with less than two minutes left.
“I think it’s important to show players that you have faith in them,” Daboll said. “They work their [butts] off during the week. They’ve worked their [butts] off during camp. They’re the ones out there playing on Sunday, and you have to put it in their hands when it counts the most.”
That is the kind of talk players love and that fans should love, too.
There is no telling where these Giants are headed, but for the moment, having something to care about is the best reward.
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
