It’s a fundamental line of the team’s secular writings, the “John 3:16” or the “Luke 6:31” of all things written and believed about the nature of the New York Football Giants: a season doesn’t end at 0 – 2. It doesn’t matter how terrible the 0-2 look is either. There is a lot of football beyond the 0-2. The proof is in the good book.
In that case, this would be the logbook. In this case, as always, it’s the 2007 season, which began as terribly as a season can begin: a 45-35 schooling by the Cowboys in Dallas in week 1, followed by a maceration of 35- 13 administered by the Packers at the opening of the home during week 2.
And it ended with a parade.
This, forever, or at least for 14 years, has been the Golden Rule, one of the basic pillars of the Giants ’patience. Another is the fact that in three of the four years the Giants won the Super Bowl, they started the season 0-1. It is a protection against panic, against the Overlords of Overreaction. See? We have evidence that the season has not ended 0-1.
Or even at 0-2.
We have evidence. This is a quartet of beautiful silver foosball players, named after a former Giants offensive coordinator. So keep your panic forms in a closet, sir, as that fabulous OC might say.
It’s a smart, prudent, and mature approach to modern sports, especially the modern NFL. It is the right way to think, the right way to believe. No one will discuss it.
OKAY.
That said…
That said, the Giants really need to avoid going 0-2 this year. The buzzkill loss that opened the season on Sunday for the Broncos was bad enough. But you can live with the loss of a non-conference game against a team with a quarterback trying to push all the lost seasons of his career on many good Sundays that his knee will allow. Losing the Broncos is a nuisance, but it’s not harmful and it doesn’t have to be damning.
But backing him up with a Thursday night loss to Washington (an enemy of the division), who will start his quarterback (Taylor Heinicke, a 28-year-old fourth-year traveler who leaves the well-known Old Dominion football factory) and himself a desperate 20-16 loss at home to the LA Chargers …
Well, look. The season would not end. The NFC East can be a place, again, where a team can start a year 1-7 (as the 2020 Giants did) and find themselves shouting that they had stolen a division title between 6 and 10 (as they did the Giants of 2020). , seeing as the Eagles approached the WFT last week 17). The Eagles looked good in week 1. The Cowboys looked better. But it is a fickle sport and a demanding league. These things can change. Fast.
Still, it’s best not to to trust in another edition of NFC Least.
So the Giants will have to find their legs sometime by 8:20 a.m. Thursday at FedEx Field. The Giants swept the WFT last year and the two times they played looked like the best team. Daniel Jones was fantastic on both occasions: 35 against 53, 437 yards, two touchdowns, one pick and zero fumbles lost (and rushed for 74 yards in the first game).
Knowing how much better they had the eventual division champions was one of the puzzling things of 2020 when looked at from 30,000 feet. But it should also provide the giants with minimal comfort. And a direct reality that 1-1 looks and feels, in many ways, much better than 0-2.
“We’re looking at it as an opportunity,” said Leonard Williams, a defender. “Good teams see short change as an opportunity to get bad taste out of our mouths.”
There is no better mouthwash than winning, especially when you prefer not to have another humble cake help, and especially with the 0-2. It doesn’t matter what the start of the season really is.