Giants' schedule about to get a lot tougher, but they're not backing down from the challenge

There’s no sugarcoating what happened Thursday night. The Giants blew a chance to pull away from the NFC East by losing to the Commanders.

Sure, they still lead the division. No matter what happens Sunday, the Giants (5-3-1) will wake up Monday still in first place. But they missed an opportunity to create distance and can only blame themselves.

The Commanders didn’t waste two offensive possessions after fourth-quarter interceptions. They didn’t fumble inside the red-zone like Malik Nabers did or miss an early kick like Dominic Zvada. They didn’t squander five possessions in opponent territory with zero points.

The Giants did all that in a 24-21 loss. So while they’re still atop the NFC East, there’s not much to be satisfied with.

“We’re not dead,” fullback Patrick Ricard said. “This division can still be won. But this one hurts a little bit.”

Now the Giants have to show what they’re made of. They survived on a diet of the NFL’s easiest strength of schedule (.359 combined winning percentage of opponents). All five of their wins are against teams under .500.

Things will get tougher now. According to Tankathon, the Giants have the eighth-hardest remaining strength of schedule. If they want to earn their first division title since 2011 and a playoff berth, they’ll have to earn it with better play and more than just confidence and preparation.

“We want all the smoke with all those teams. We’re not ducking no smoke,” Abdul Carter said. “We’re going to do one game at a time but everybody’s going to get our best. There’s no team we’re looking at like, ‘Oh, my goodness.’ No, we’re going to play every team the same way.”

Starting with the Jaguars next Sunday, five of the Giants’ next six opponents have a winning record. The only team under .500? The 2-7 Colts on Nov. 29. After that? The Giants host the 49ers (7-1), are at the Seahawks (5-4), host the Browns (5-4) and then are at the Lions (6-2) on a Monday night.  

There’s a good chance the season could buckle after four games. The Jaguars have the league’s highest point differential. The 49ers are second while being tied for the league’s best record.

The Seahawks? Just the defending champions who lead the league in total defense. That’s a heavyweight gauntlet awaiting the Giants.

The Colts might be a breather but given the Giants’ poor run defense, Jonathan Taylor could run wild and remind the Giants why they wanted to trade for him.

Either way, no easy slate for a team used to playing in one-score games. The Giants have fight and resilience from those contests but they need consistency as John Harbaugh said Friday.

“We don’t live in that scared world,” Harbaugh said. “You don’t sit back and go, ‘Oh no, we got to beat a heavyweight’ or whatever you want to call it. It’s the National Football League. We’re planning on going out there and playing to win the game. So we don’t look at it from that perspective.”

It’d be easier saying that if the Giants had six wins instead of five. They could afford to lose those three games and still be above .500. No one believes the Giants’ scrappy play is a reason to expect to roll over. But that style also shows that they’ve played with a low ceiling. Rarely have they overwhelmed any opponent. They’re tough but that means surviving games against bad opponents.

Can that translate to good performances against better ones? We’ll see, but their losses indicate there’s reason to worry their mistakes like Thursday night will be exploited by better teams.

That doesn’t mean the Giants lack confidence. Far from it.

“The so-called heavyweights, I’ve seen them play bad games, too,” Harbaugh said. "I’ve seen them have [plenty] of bad plays. There’s no perfect team in this league . . . this is a tough league, it’s pretty even. So we’re in it like everybody else.”

Sure, but it's hard not to think of the 2022 season.

Remember that? The Giants started 7-2 after nine games. Then they fell apart the rest of the way, going 2-5-1. The crash didn’t stop them from making the playoffs and they even won a road playoff game.

Maybe these Giants follow that same course to the same ending. They’re in a better spot leading a weaker division. But there’s less room for error with this hard slate coming up.

That’s why Thursday’s loss stung so much. A win could've make this gauntlet less daunting. Now, the Giants must hope their resilience leads to better execution or risk ruining this promising start.

“We got to go in the next five, six games not wanting to lose,” Cam Skattebo said. “We gotta win the football games. So I’m not too worried about it. [The Commanders] got us this time but we got the rest of the division to handle and we’ll let it work itself out.”

By Evan Barnes

evan.barnes@newsday.comevan_b

Evan Barnes covers the Giants for Newsday. He previously covered the Brooklyn Nets, Memphis football and the Memphis Grizzlies and also covered prep sports in Los Angeles.