LANDOVER, Md. — The disaster was so predictable that any seasoned New York Giants’ observer could see it happening in real time.
Washington’s Austin Ekeler broke through a crowd and darted into the open field on Sunday’s opening kickoff of the Giants’ 21-18 loss. The long return forced Giants kicker Graham Gano to give chase, which ended in disaster.
Gano pulled his hamstring as Ekeler blew past him into the end zone. The touchdown was called back due to a holding penalty, but Gano was left writhing in pain on the field.
Losing the kicker on the first play of the game would have merely joined the list of bad breaks to plague the Giants during their interminable run of incompetence if there wasn’t a sense that it could have been avoided. But Gano had been added to the injury report Saturday with a groin injury, and he experienced enough discomfort during pregame warmups that he disrupted his typical routine to retreat to the locker room to get his groin wrapped.
So the Giants had plenty of notice to deploy a contingency plan for their hobbled 37-year-old kicker. The most obvious solution was elevating kicker Jude McAtamney from the practice squad on Saturday to have a ready-made insurance policy.
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But even when the Giants elected not to elevate McAtamney, they still could have added a safeguard after Gano’s disjointed warmup routine. Punter Jamie Gillan could have filled in on kickoffs to preserve Gano for field goals and extra points, thus eliminating any chance of chasing any returners for 40 yards.
Because it’s the Giants, those decisions came back to haunt them in the worst way imaginable. Gillan, who had made 1-of-2 field goal attempts in his six-year career, missed the extra point following the Giants’ first touchdown, so coach Brian Daboll elected to attempt two-point conversations after the team’s final two scores. Daboll also eschewed a 40-yard field goal on fourth-and-4 with just over two minutes remaining in a tie game.
Both two-point attempts failed, and rookie wide receiver Malik Nabers’ lone lowlight from a monster 10-catch, 127-yard, one-touchdown performance came with a drop on the fourth down. The Commanders drove down after Nabers’ drop and kicked the game-winning field goal. In a cruel poetic twist, Austin Seibert, who Washington signed on Tuesday, went 7-for-7 on field goals on Sunday.
So in a game decided by three points, the Giants failed on three extra-point attempts because of Gano’s injury, and they bypassed a potential go-ahead field goal because Daboll didn’t trust Gillan.
“We thought Graham would be OK,” Daboll said. He got hurt chasing down a (runner). It was a hamstring. He didn’t hurt his groin.”
These are the types of catastrophes that lead to a coach getting asked about his future two games into his third season. Daboll was asked if he’s concerned about his job security if the results don’t change.
“I’ve done this for a long time. My focus is on our football team,” Daboll said before directing an extended glare at the reporter who asked the question.
Brian Daboll is asked if he’s concerned about his job status:
“My focus in on our football team” pic.twitter.com/YmxGs7YGqU
— Giants Videos (@SNYGiants) September 15, 2024
That was Daboll’s lone testy moment in his news conference that he opened by praising his team’s competitiveness, the play of quarterback Daniel Jones and improvements made after a 28-6 loss to the Vikings in Week 1. Daboll clearly had calmed down after slamming his head set to the ground as Seibert’s 30-yard game-winning field goal split the uprights as time expired.
It’s remarkable how quickly things have turned for Daboll. He was named coach of the year 18 months ago after his surprisingly successful debut season. But the Giants are 6-13 since the start of last season, and 9-18-1 since the midpoint of Daboll’s first season.
Whatever touch he had during his first season has disappeared. Instead, there have been too many missteps, with personnel blunders like the Gano mismanagement becoming an alarming trend.
Incredibly, the Giants have put themselves in this situation before with Gano. The kicker was dealing with a left knee injury early last season, but he continued to kick until he missed two field goals in a 13-10 overtime loss to the Jets in Week 8. Gano was shut down after that game and underwent season-ending knee surgery.
There was a similar snafu last week with returner Gunner Olszewski, who suffered a groin injury in practice before the second preseason game. Olszewski was limited in practice leading into Week 1, but was deemed ready to play. He then re-injured his groin in pregame warmups and will miss at least four weeks after being placed on injured reserve on Saturday.
The Giants didn’t have an experienced returner on hand despite Olszewski dealing with the groin injury for three weeks, so wide receiver Darius Slayton was pressed into punt return duty. Slayton failed to cleanly field his first return and then fumbled the ball, but it was recovered by a teammate.
What’s so troubling about these mistakes is that they’re almost entirely in the hands of Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen. They’re not the same as allowing the Commanders, led by rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels, to convert 50 percent of their third downs or to rush for 215 yards. Those are disappointing results, but there’s a variety of factors involved.
But setting the game day lineup is something every fantasy football owner can manage. And it wasn’t a complicated puzzle to assemble to have McAtamney active, either.
The Giants used their two practice squad elevations on linebackers Ty Summers and Tomon Fox. That duo didn’t play a defensive snap, but were on the field for every kickoff, kickoff return and punt return. Could the Giants have used other players already on the active roster for those 13 plays? Sure, but even that wasn’t necessary.
The Giants only had 52 players on their 53-man roster after placing Olszewski on IR on Saturday. So they could have signed Summers to the 53-man roster and used an elevation on McAtamney, an undrafted rookie signed out of Rutgers.
The Giants then would have needed to make one more player inactive. They likely would have survived without their No. 5 defensive tackle Jordon Riley playing a handful of snaps, especially at the expense of not having a backup plan for Gano.
“All the decisions that are made are mine,” Daboll said, before later adding that roster decisions are a collective process with Schoen.
“I can’t tell you that he’s going to get hurt chasing a 100-yard kickoff return that was called back”
Brian Daboll with more on the Graham Gano situation: pic.twitter.com/7ZEqqkueJz
— Giants Videos (@SNYGiants) September 15, 2024
These types of miscues are emblematic of an overall sloppy operation. The benefit of the doubt from this regime’s unexpected Year 1 success has faded. Now Daboll needs to figure out how to pull the team out of this spiral.
The first two games of the season were supposed to be the easy part of the schedule. No matter how bleak things have gotten for the Giants during this wretched decade-long stretch, they had at least been able to count on beating Washington. With even that off the table, it’s hard to see where wins will come from.
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Daboll is tasked with finding that answer. Games like Sunday erode the faith in his ability to do so.
(Photo: Tim Nwachukwu / Getty Images)
