New season, same problems along Big Blue O-line

The Giants are adamant they are not a one-man team.

They had better hope they are wrong, and that they are a one-man team and that one man, Odell Beckham Jr., can return to save the day and restore some sense of legitimacy to a downtrodden offense.

The 11 players on the field Sunday night, getting paid on the offensive side of the ball for the Giants, might as well have stayed on the sideline with Beckham. He has a sprained left ankle but it is the unit he plays in that is hurting. It was as alarming an opening-game showing as anything the Giants could have imagined and, as usual, their same-as-last-season offensive line had its fingerprints all over this 19-3 loss to the Cowboys, a football atrocity.

“There were just breakdowns across the board,’’ Ben McAdoo said Monday. “It wasn’t one group or one position or one player, there was enough spread around.’’

Yeah, there is enough to spread around.

The first week of the NFL season is the most over-analyzed and, often, the least indicative determinant of how the season will unfold. It is a week rife with overreaction and panic. The problem here for the Giants is their first game cannot be explained away as a one-game blip on the radar screen. This was the reappearance of their brutal offensive showing throughout the 2016 season. In many ways, it was game No. 18 — a continuation of the 2016 regular season and postseason — and not game No. 1.

This was actually regression from an offensive line that was shaky last season. Continuity, the coaches and players assured everyone, would combine with increased maturity and development to make this line more effective. Well, all the continuity produced was more of the same slop and ensures there cannot be any benefit of the doubt afforded to this bunch.

“We didn’t get the job done as an offense,’’ guard Justin Pugh said. “I’m sure we’ll hear it, because when you score three points everyone on the offense will hear it.’’

Oh, they will hear it, as will Jerry Reese, the general manager who parked so many of his luxury offen- sive weapons in a garage filled with the debris of a line that cannot back its way out of this one. When center Weston Richburg said, “It’s nice we have a long week this week, with the Monday night game [vs. the Lions], to fix some problems we might have had’’ his words offer no comfort, as this is a recurring nightmare, not an isolated bad dream. The guys up front were beaten, badly and repeatedly, by stunts and twists put together by a Cowboys defensive f ront that has to use deception to overcome a lack of pure talent. The Giants knew this was coming. “They always move,’’ Richburg shrugged.

This time, Pugh reported, there were a few new wrinkles. But, this disclaimer: “We knew what they were doing.’’

Yet they could not transfer those thoughts into action.

“We just need to get better technically,’’ McAdoo said, repeating a familiar theme. “We had some technical breakdowns. It’s not one guy, it’s enough to spread around. It’s not just the offensive line.’’

Wholesale changes are not possible but playing the waiting game with this offensive line cannot be McAdoo’s reaction. Perhaps moving Brett Jones in for John Jerry at right guard provides a spark. Maybe the move is D.J. Fluker for Jerry, although the coaching staff seems to prefer Jones’ awareness to Fluker’s girth. There are no other realistic options. The only offensive tackle on the roster behind starters Ereck Flowers and Bobby Hart, who is battling a sprained ankle, is rookie Chad Wheeler, undrafted out of USC.

“Yeah, we feel we’re confident in the guys that we have and confident in our depth and if we feel we need to make a change then we’ll make a change,’’ McAdoo said.

Something, or someone, has to change.

“Three points in the opening game of the season is definitely not how you draw it up,’’ Pugh said. “That’s unacceptable. We’re not going to put that back on film again, I can guarantee you that.’’

It will get better along this offensive line, but why should anyone believe it will rise to the level needed to take the Giants where they need to go? The evidence is building, and incriminating.