Slow starts have plagued Big Blue all year
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Giants have rolled to a 5-1 record despite getting off to slow starts in almost every game this season. Of their six opening drives on offense, the Giants have come up empty five times. In Week 2, their opening series produced a field goal. Other than that, nada.
It is no wonder the Giants have just 16 points — total — in first quarters this year. Flipping the script is advised if the Giants, who face the Jaguars on Sunday, are serious about keeping their winning ways going, knowing dramatic fourthquarter comebacks will dry up at some juncture.
“Yeah, I certainly wouldn’t mind that,’’ Daniel Jones said about finding a way to get games off to a fast start. “I think that’s something we’re focused on is getting out to a quicker start and playing as well as we can throughout the game. We’re going to keep trying to do that.’’
If Jones has any theories as to why it takes the offense so long to get moving he wasn’t sharing them.
“I don’t know, I think it just takes coming out and executing early,’’ he said. “Obviously, we want to start fast, we’re trying to start fast and just haven’t executed as well as we have later in games early in games. We’ll try to do that this week.’’
This could be a tough week for that. The Jaguars have allowed seven points in the first quarter all season.
➤ Landon Collins was elevated off the practice squad and will make his second Giants debut Sunday against the Jaguars.
Collins last played for the Giants near the end of the 2018 season. He was their 2015 second-round pick out of Alabama and went on to make three Pro Bowls in a four-year span. He also was first-team All-Pro in 2016. Collins left the Giants in 2019 after signing a sixyear, $84 million free agent deal with Washington. The Commanders released him this past March.
Collins, 28, will fill a safety/inside linebacker hybrid role in coordinator Wink Martindale’s defense. The Giants signed him two weeks ago and the expectation was he would stay on the practice squad only as long as necessary to acclimate to the new scheme and get in playing shape.
With Azeez Ojulari out with a calf injury, OLB Quincy Roche will also come up off the practice squad.
The Giants decided to put Ojulari on injured reserve, meaning he will miss the next four games. It has been a rough second season for Ojulari, who missed the first two games with a strained calf, then came back to play in two games before straining his other calf, forcing him to miss the past two games.
The Giants also brought up DL Ryder Anderson from the practice squad.
➤ The Giants will be without two of their top edge rushers: Ojulari (calf ) and Oshane Ximines (quad). Expect to see more of Jihad Ward and an uptick in snaps for rookie