First things first
Eli & Co. must figure out how to score early in the game
THIS has the makings of a Perfect Storm: an 0-4 Giants team reuniting Sunday at 1 against the Chargers with a fan base that bought into the Super Bowl hype. “We gotta go out and start fast for ’ em, give ’ em something to cheer about. ... I wouldn’t be surprised if we heard it from them if we didn’t go do something in the first quarter,” Justin Pugh told The Post. “I’m ready for that either way. We’re gonna go out there and play our game. We’re gonna go play hard for the fans, give ’ em something to cheer about.” The 2017 Giants have not scored in the first quarter. “Like I said before, we’re testing their fanhood this year for sure,” Pugh said. “And Giants fans have proved to me time and time again their resiliency. Everyone’s been around since 1925 — their grandfather, their uncle or someone has had the tickets and passed them down. I got no doubt they’re gonna be there, they’re gonna have our back no matter what, and I’m excited for them.” It is understandable for Pugh to prefer wishful thinking to the alternative. “We’re not gonna let it get there, we can’t let it get there,” he said. “Let’s just go score some points and get everyone something to cheer about.”
It is mind-boggling that a team with 36-year-old Eli Manning, playing better than anyone expected him to, Odell Beckham Jr., healthy the past two weeks, and matchup weapon Evan Engram has yet to find the end zone in the first quarter. General manager Jerry Reese owns the early offensive line foibles and Ben McAdoo the play calling and strategy.
Alarming stat: The McAdoo Giants went scoreless in the first quarter in six of their first seven games last season. But they were 4-3 anyway because Big Blue showed up as a feared band of brothers. That defense is Missing In Action this year.
“You always want to start fast, that’s always a goal,” Manning said. “I think that’d be beneficial to the team, to the morale, to fans, to everybody.”
The Giants are 0-4 for a litany of reasons. There is no margin for error when you can’t run the ball, when you can’t stop the run, and when you press and become so paralyzed that you forget how to play fast and smart. “I guess everybody’s different, but, yeah, you hear the boos, it is what it is,” Orleans Darkwa said. “I’m not listening to all that, I’m just trying to make sure we go out there and do what we’re supposed to do, so hopefully minimize that.”
McAdoo and offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan poohpoohed the notion the offense is as predictable as Buccaneers cornerback Vernon Hargreaves thought it was last Sunday.
“The games that went down to the wire, we found a way to win a couple of those games early last year, but I don’t feel our team is really too different than it was through the first four games of last year,” McAdoo said. “The difference is we found a way to win a couple games that were tight early in the season last year. We haven’t done that yet, so that doesn’t mean we are lesser of a football team at this point. But that’s where we are, that’s where we find ourselves.”
The 2016 Giants won their last six home games following a 29-27 Week 3 loss to the Redskins. The 2017 Giants lost to the Lions in their home opener and return home following agonizing losses in Philadelphia and Tampa on walkoff field goals at the end of choking defense.
“Weeks 1 and 2, everyone was all over the O-Line,” Pugh said. “Now everyone’s over the whole team, so it’s coming together and being close.”
And the 1992 Chargers are the only team in history to make the playoffs after an 0-4 start.
“But it’s happened right? So it can happen again,” Pugh said.
First things first. First quarter first. First points in the first quarter first. Or get your earplugs ready.