Are Daniel Jones, 2-0 Giants ready for prime-time players?
Daniel Jones of the New York Giants after defeating the Carolina Panthers at MetLife on Sunday, Sept. 18, 2022. Credit: Mike Stobe
The Giants are 2-0, much better than what they usually are this time of year, which is the opposite of 2-0.
But now comes a chance to build upon that early success in the most visible way possible — on a big national television stage, facing a big-stage rival.
That would be “Monday Night Football” against the visiting Cowboys, the kind of marquee event Giants fans largely have been deprived of over the past decade.
The Giants themselves are not being shy about this.
Coach Brian Daboll embraced the moment in an email to fans this week thanking them for “bringing the juice” on Sunday against the Panthers — there were some juicy boos mixed in there, too — and asking them to wear white while waving white rally towels in support of their white-clad Giants.
“Playing on Monday night is always special,” Daboll said on Wednesday, before turning to coachspeak. “But the things that help you win a game on Sunday at 1 o'clock are the things that help you win a game on Monday, and I think that's where our focus needs to be.”
Asked about the planned white out, he thanked fans for their “awesome” enthusiasm last weekend.
“That’s like the 12th man,” he said. “It's hard to operate offensive football when it's that loud. So obviously everybody gets juiced up a little bit after good plays.
“I think the crowd really was great. We'll do our best to help them be great again by playing well.”
Adding to Monday’s show-me momentousness will be seeing how a certain fourth-year Giants quarterback reacts to this opportunity.
Daniel Jones’ career record in prime-time games is an imperfect 0-8. (The Giants are 0-10 overall in prime time since Jones joined the team.)
He has not done much in the league’s 4:25 p.m. Sunday showcase, either. The upset of the Titans in the 2022 opener was his first career victory at that kickoff time.
“We’ve got to just come out and play our game,” Jones said after practice. “I think that’s the biggest thing. Prime time or not, we haven’t won enough games over the last few years.”
Asked whether this is a chance for the Giants to prove themselves to a skeptical nation, he said this:
“Monday night game, there’s some [added] energy, there’s some excitement to it, but every time we step on the field we’re trying to play as good as we can and show everyone what we can do.”
So far this season, Jones has not been great in victories over the Titans and Panthers, but he has been good enough to win, with a 70.9% completion percentage, a 99.4 passer rating and only one interception.
He still has far to go to convince the football world in general, and GM Joe Schoen and Daboll in particular, that he should be re-signed for 2023 and beyond. But the team’s first 3-0 start since 2009 wouldn’t hurt.
(The Giants had started 0-2 in eight of the nine seasons before this one, a shocking display of consistent, late-summer ineptitude under four different head coaches.)
ESPN has upped its big-event feel this season by signing longtime Fox announcers Joe Buck and Troy Aikman to starting-quarterback-sized contracts.
Now it is up to the teams to seal the entertainment deal. (There even was a new plot twist on Wednesday, when the Giants’ highest-salaried player, receiver Kenny Golladay, made it clear he is not a fan of his current, limited role.)
These franchises have been going at it in prime time for a long time.
In 1995, when I was a shiny new beat reporter, the talk all summer was of the Giants “closing the gap” on the mighty Cowboys.
Then the season opened with the Cowboys winning, 35-0, on a Monday night at old Giants Stadium.
Those Giants finished 5-11; those Cowboys won the Super Bowl.
So it has gone over the decades, the teams’ fortunes ebbing and flowing but the rivalry remaining intact.
If the Giants succeed against backup Cowboys quarterback Cooper Rush — a former Giants practice-squadder! — to go 3-0, it will be time for all of Football America to take notice.
That’s what beating the Cowboys under the bright lights is all about.
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.
