Giants have grown considerably since Week 5 loss to Cowboys
Giants quarterback Daniel Jones is sacked by Cowboys defensive end Aldon Smith in the second half of an NFL game in Arlington, Texas, on Oct. 11. Credit: AP/Ron Jenkins
Football coaches don’t spend a lot of time peeking at the rearview mirror. Certainly not during the season. Their attention is generally focused on what lies directly ahead. The next play, the next series, the next opponent.
But preparing for Sunday’s game against the Cowboys did mean the Giants had a chance to revisit an era that, in NFL terms, might as well have been ages ago.
In reality, it was Oct. 11, 2020, their Week 5 game in Dallas. The coaches went over the video from that contest, which the Giants lost, 37-34, on a late field goal, to see if they could pick up any trends or tendencies that could come in handy for the upcoming meeting.
They also got a little nostalgic.
Because watching the Giants play in October, when they still were a winless team, and comparing that to the squad that will take the field Sunday with a chance to end the day as NFC East champions, made them realize just how far they have come.
Defensive coordinator Patrick Graham compared it to going through old baby pictures and videos of his kids to see how much they have changed throughout the years.
"When you look at games earlier in the year, you see the growth," Graham said. "You can really see that. It jumps off the tape in terms of when you’re watching that. That’s one thing I did notice when I’m looking at it."
Joe Judge agreed.
"This is far from the team that played the Cowboys the first time," he said. "There are a number of things I look at from that game that you can say, ‘OK, we’re a lot better.’ You turn that tape on from 12 weeks ago and you can look at that, and I’ve watched it several times this week at least, and it kind of jumps out at you like, ‘Man, I can see individual improvement from a lot of players. I can see collective improvement from units, and I can see collective improvement from the entire team as a whole.’ There are a lot of encouraging things going forward."
That, Judge has said from the day he was hired almost one year ago, is what he wants. Improvement. And Sunday’s game against the Cowboys may be the best and last chance to show it.
When the Giants played Washington and Philadelphia twice each, the four games were packed inside a five-week window. The results changed, but the Giants as a team did not necessarily make any great strides during that short timeframe.
Facing an opponent the Giants haven’t played in nearly three months? That’s a perfect opportunity to display the long-term changes that have marked this season.
It’s also an opportunity to make the playoffs, something that seemed absurd when the Giants fell to 0-5 with that loss in Dallas. The winner of Sunday’s game will have a chance to win the NFC East title, but only if Philadelphia can beat Washington on Sunday night. The Giants-Cowboys loser will be eliminated and the winner will have to wait several more hours to see if its season comes to an end as well.
It’s clearly the most important game of the season for the Giants. Yet Judge insists that even without a win on Sunday, in which case their record would fall to 5-11 and they could wind up finishing in last place, the 2020 campaign will be a success.
"I think there are a lot of things in terms of what we set out to accomplish this year that no one game is going to go ahead and define the season," he said. "I’m proud of the culture and the foundation we’ve laid and the work ethic and urgency we’ve instilled in these players going forward.
"There are a lot of things we need to do better as an organization across the board. We have to keep building this thing in the right direction. But I know there’s a vision going forward and there are a lot of people pointing in the right direction right now. So yeah, absolutely [it can be a successful season]."
The baby pictures back that up.
It would be nice, though, to have more concrete examples. A victory over Dallas, perhaps?
"That being said, look, our job is to go out and win on Sunday," Judge added quickly. "We’re doing everything we can right now to go out there and win a football game."
And maybe even add another week to this season of growth.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
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