Giants-Browns “Things I think”: After holding out, the Giants have reason to hope

On Sunday, the New York Giants gave themselves the chance to achieve something this season. Or at least to be something other than one of the weakest teams that is looking for an easy win.

Barely.

The Giants led by two points at halftime and dominated proceedings, except for the first two plays, until the start of the fourth quarter. Thanks to good defense and poor play from Cleveland, they held on and earned a much-needed 21-15 victory.

GM Joe Schoen said on the offseason edition of Hard Knocks that the Giants needed to avoid an 0-3 start, something they should have managed last week in a game against the Washington Commanders that should have been a Giants win, but as bad teams often do, they found a way to lose the game.

On Sunday it looked like they would do it again.

After Cleveland got within 21-15, the Giants held Cleveland for three possessions. Granted, the Browns lost the ball once on a simple handoff and Cedric Tillman thwarted Cleveland's last chance by dropping a pass on fourth down that hit him shorthanded.

Still, the Giants have managed to lose games like this too often lately.

Head coach Brian Daboll called it “a normal NFL game.”

Maybe, in terms of ups and downs. However, this was not a “normal” game for the Giants. This game had huge implications for what kind of season the Giants could have. That being said, I don't think it's an exaggeration to say it could have been an important game for the Schoen-Daboll regime and the direction of the franchise.

A 3-0 record heading into Thursday's primetime game against the Dallas Cowboys would have made MetLife Stadium an unbearable place on Thursday. The season would have been over. The booing of Daniel Jones would have been ugly. The calls for Daboll's head would have made social media an even more horrible place than it usually is.

Now there could even be a hopeful atmosphere at MetLife Stadium on Thursday.

I wrote a post a few days ago titled “Can the Giants be a good football team in 2024?”

It depends on what happens now.

The Giants may be a bad team. This could be a temporary reprieve. A deal to feel good for a few days in a bad year. Maybe the Giants are taking advantage of a team that has more problems than they actually do.

On the other hand, it might not be so.

The Giants have a huge chance in four days against a Cowboys team that seems anything but unbeatable. Despite a furious comeback, the Cowboys are 1-2 after their loss to the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday.

The Philadelphia Eagles shattered the dream that all four NFC East teams would be 1-2 on Thursday — meaning the Giants' game against the Cowboys would have been for first place. But if the Giants win, they can put themselves in the middle of a race in which there appears to be no dominant team.

The Giants showed a lot of good things against the Browns. The same was true of the game against the Commanders a week ago.

One of those factors in a league full of ups and downs and weekly madness that is difficult – and sometimes impossible – to explain is resilience.

They showed it after an Eric Gray fumble put them in a 7-0 hole 11 seconds into the game. They showed it again in the fourth quarter when they stopped the Browns three times after Cleveland had pulled within six points.

“This is the third anniversary of my grandmother's death. She raised me,” Daboll said. “After those first two pieces, I pretty much ripped her apart. I was like, 'What the hell do you have in store for me?'”

However, the Giants continued to play despite this bad luck. They dominated the first half and led 21-7 at halftime.

A fumble by Devin Singletary in the third quarter – his second in as many weeks – and a botched field goal by new kicker Greg Joseph with 3:00 minutes left in the game made the victory more difficult than necessary.

Nevertheless, the Giants did it.

Back to the question “Can the Giants be a good team?”

“We want to have a good process that leads to good results. That's the ideal box. Sometimes you have a good process that leads to bad results, but still a box you want to be in even though the results are not good,” Daboll said after Sunday's victory. “Then there can be bad processes and bad results, and that's what we don't want. So the mutual commitment in how we do things, or bad processes but good results, which is also a sensitive issue.”

“The way our guys work, their commitment, their practice habits, their study habits, it doesn't always translate to a win. You'd like to do that, but I know they give it everything they have every week. Working hard in the classroom, on the practice field. The coaches are together, there's chemistry, they work their asses off, unfortunately sometimes you don't get the results you want. It's good to get results in return.”

The Giants showed a lot of things on Sunday that can help them win football games.

Malik Nabers is a star.

In his 8-catch, 78-yard, 2-touchdown performance, he showed acrobatics, the toughness to wrest the 50-50 ball from a defender, and a brilliant, combative play to bat away a fluttering ball that was supposed to be intercepted after Daniel Jones was hit in the arm.

The Giants are considering how to play on offense.

Daniel Jones was efficient in the first half, completing 17 of 19 passes for 178 yards and two scores. However, he had one interception disallowed by a penalty. And no, he wasn't nearly as good in the second half.

Nevertheless, the Giants have played a pretty good offense for two weeks in a row. They protected Jones well enough again on Sunday – even though Myles Garrett overwhelmed Andrew Thomas. They were excellent in the short to medium passing game, Jones gave Nabers opportunities and Nabers proved the quarterback right to trust him.

The Giants played a varied running game. They used Singletary, sprinkled in designed runs for Nabers and Jones, and gave Tyrone Tracy Jr. some touches. The Giants even made a few well-executed screen passes.

They took some deep shots that Jones couldn't connect with. Still, the plan was good and the execution — if not perfect — was promising.

The pass rush was relentless – until the Giants loosened the reins. Defensive coordinator Shane Bowen forwent his usual four-man rush and instead sent Cleveland quarterback DeShaun Watson into the game, taking advantage of the Browns' battered offensive line.

The Giants finished with 8 sacks and 17 hits on Watson, knowing they would need that pressure not just on Sunday, but consistently to build a good defense.

There is, as Daboll also said, “a lot to clean up.” Some of it they may be able to clean up, others they may have to work around.

• The special teams play – Gray's fumble and Greg Joseph's horribly missed field goal – was problematic.
• One problem was the game of Deonte Banks, who was no match for Amari Cooper.
• Singletary losing the ball in two consecutive weeks is cause for concern.
• Jones' inability to reach the long ball will make it increasingly difficult to sink the ball underneath.
• The fact that the Giants, who had a clear advantage at the start of the second half, made the victory unnecessarily difficult for themselves is cause for concern.

Still, the Giants won. They have hope. So Sunday was a good day.

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