Giants-Vikings “Kudos & Wet Willies”: Winners and losers of Sunday’s loss to Minnesota

Yes, we must. As we always do after New York Giants games, we will reflect on Sunday’s disappointing 28-6 season-opening loss to the Minnesota Vikings in our traditional “Kudos & Wet Willies” style.

A big compliment to…

Dexter Lawrence — Nothing that went wrong Sunday can be blamed on the big man. He had a sack, a tackle for a loss, a quarterback hit, a pass defensed and basically just held Minnesota center Garrett Bradbury in check all day.

Graham Gano – Converted his two field goal attempts into the Giants’ only points, including one from 50 yards out.

Darius Muasau – The sixth-round rookie started in place of Micah McFadden and had one interception, one pass defensed, and six tackles (one for loss), but someone should tell the rookie that it doesn’t look good trying to make your teammates run all over the field after an interception to get one of those defensive “team photos” when you’re down by three late in the game.

Jamie Gillan – Gillan punted six times, completed four punts inside the 20-yard line, allowed one – yes, one – return yard and had a net punting average of 46.2 yards.

Dru Phillips — The rookie cornerback forced a fumble on Minnesota’s first possession, giving the Giants the ball at the Vikings’ 20-yard line. Unfortunately, they could only convert it into 3 points.

Wet Willies to…

Brian Daboll — This is the second year in a row that the Giants have opened the season with a embarrassment. The head coach has to take a hit for that. For the Giants’ sake, at least – and perhaps the nation’s – this game was not broadcast in prime time.

There are other reasons to be dissatisfied with Daboll on Sunday.

Play Calls – I hate arguing about play calls. A good play call is one that works and a bad play call is one that doesn’t. But I have to.

The Giants made it a priority to get the ball downfield all spring and summer. Daboll gave his typical response after Sunday: “We definitely called the plays” to go downfield — when the ball didn’t go downfield. Was that response a criticism of the quarterback? A compliment to Minnesota’s defense? Was it off-base? Maybe it was all of the above. I can only recall one instance during the game where it looked like Daniel Jones was going to go downfield with the ball and changed his mind or couldn’t make the throw.

Whatever the reason, one of 42 pass attempts went more than 20 yards beyond the line of scrimmage. This means the goal was not achieved.

Jones’ back-to-back QB runs in the second quarter that gained 2 yards and turned second and 5 in the middle of the field into a fourth down and a punt were astounding. First, the guy was playing his first regular season game after tearing an ACL. Second, you have receivers and running backs for a reason. Oh, and second and 5 in the middle of the field seems like a good time to call a shooting play rather than a QB run up the middle.

The pick 6 by Jones was awful, but the diamond formation with three receivers right in front of Wan’Dale Robinson just screamed that the Giants were throwing a wide receiver screen to Robinson. No wonder Andrew Van Ginkel intercepted the pass like he knew what was coming. It was obvious. Watch the play:

Daboll’s debut as the team’s playmaker was not good.

Daniel Jones – As usual with Jones, there were plenty of extenuating circumstances. Nearly half a dozen drops. Poor play by the offensive line. Some puzzling plays, as we mentioned.

But we don’t want to absolve Jones of responsibility.

I will forgive him – almost – for his two interceptions. One was on fourth down, where the ball had to be thrown somewhere. The other was on the pick 6, where the formation gave the play away.

Still, Jones wasn’t good. He was hesitant. He escaped the pocket a few times but either ran into sacks or out of potential plays. He seemed unsure. He missed a few open targets and said after the game that he needed to keep his balance better. My translation of that: He watched the rush and then backed away. Standing still and throwing the ball – that’s the job.

There is something else that gets on your nerves: fans who behave like this. I understand that you are frustrated, but this behavior is inappropriate:

Kayvon Thibodeaux and Brian Burns – The vaunted edge defenders didn’t do anything together on Sunday. Nothing positive, at least. Burns had four tackles, but no quarterback hits or sacks. Nothing that even came close to an impactful play. Thibodeaux? Zero tackles. That’s right. Zero. One QB hit. Oh, and his big play? A face mask penalty on third-and-16 that extended a Minnesota drive and led to a touchdown. Thibodeaux says he wants to be a legendary player. Plays like Sunday won’t help him get there.

Offensive line — Andrew Thomas called the line’s performance “not great” when I spoke to him after the game Sunday night. Then he quickly changed that to “crappy bad.” That sums it up pretty well, and maybe too vividly.

Jones was sacked five times and struck out 12 more. Some of that was likely due to the quarterback. However, the veteran line obviously couldn’t figure out what Minnesota defensive coordinator Brian Flores was up to because too many Vikings pass rushers were coming at Jones unchecked.

The only Giants “run” longer than 7 yards was a 14-yard pass by Robinson that wasn’t supposed to be a run. It was a backwards pass and was therefore ruled a running play.

Obviously, it’s not good for an offensive line not to practice together all summer.

Adoree’ Jackson – Yes, I think the 36-yard pass interference penalty on third-and-8 that led to the Vikings’ first touchdown was the right call. Jackson obviously showed up early on Jordan Addison. Jackson, whose tackling was terrible in 2023, also missed a tackle in the open field on Sunday.

Tae Banks – It was only two plays, but those two showed why asking the 2023 first-round pick to guard the opposing team’s WR1 might not work. Justin Jefferson rushed past Banks and caught a 44-yard pass to set up a touchdown for Minnesota in the second quarter. That touchdown came on an easy 3-yard slant on fourth-and-3, and Jefferson got past Banks and scored the touchdown.

Some things I don’t understand

These aren’t exactly wet willies, but they are confusing things that I need to discuss.

• Gunner Olszewski’s pregame groin injury — or, perhaps more accurately, his re-injury — was far too predictable. Olszewski was injured in Week 2 of the preseason and clearly wasn’t at peak performance a few days ago. After Isaiah McKenzie was injured in the final game of the preseason, why don’t the Giants have an acceptable second punt returner on the roster? Why wasn’t Olszewski, who probably shouldn’t have even been active, placed on the injured list and replaced with another, healthy, qualified punt returner? I’m not going to criticize Darius Slayton for his botched punt. That’s not a job he should be asked to do. The Giants gambled and lost here. As much as I can agree with GM Joe Schoen’s general philosophy, the Giants’ organizational decisions are sometimes difficult to understand.
• Why did Cor’Dale Flott play in the slot in Week 1 after practicing as an outside cornerback all spring and summer? That’s as puzzling as the Giants asking Josh Ezeudu to play left tackle in Week 1 of last season after he practiced as a guard all summer and didn’t do any tackle drills.
• Darius Muasau played pretty well, but why did Micah McFadden – the listed starter who was not on the injured list – not play at all?
• Jalin Hyatt was a starter for most of training camp, being targeted only once and playing a limited number of snaps.
• Isaiah Simmons, who was supposed to play an important role in the sub-package defense as a combination of slot cornerback and coverage linebacker, was not used at all.