Giants hope to leave cloud of chaos behind

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The feelings Ben McAdoo wants the Giants to ignore are not only internal. The feelings spread out into the lives of every player responsible for and burdened with the weight pressing down on a team that is 1-7 and seemingly, if not actually, ripping apart at the seams.

“It’s very hard … it ain’t just your feelings, it’s what people are saying around you,’’ linebacker Jonathan Casillas said. “And it’s your close ones, your loved ones, your kids. They hear it when they go to school.’’

Yeah, it is a family affair, in good times and bad, and these are bad, bad times for the Giants. They have gone from punching bags to punch lines, with Sunday’s “battle’’ with the 49ers a lightweight affair, with the teams lining up at Levi’s Stadium a combined 1-16. The 49ers are the NFL’s only 0-9 team (the Browns are 0-8).

When Casillas said, “We got two teams going in this week with one win combined, so something has to give,’’ he was not making an attempt at humor, but it sounded funny nonetheless.

In the past few weeks, McAdoo has suspended two of his best players, cornerbacks Dominique RodgersCromartie and Janoris Jenkins, for violating team rules. The Giants entered their bye with a humdrum 24-7 loss to the Seahawks and came out of their bye with a humiliating 51-17 beatdown by the Rams. On cue, the anonymous rips of McAdoo surfaced, via ESPN, stating McAdoo has lost the team, and several of the most prominent Giants — Landon Collins, Justin Pugh, Damon Harrison and, yes, Rodgers-Cromartie — decried the unnamed players as “rats’’ and “cowards’’ as they emphatically insisted McAdoo has not been tuned out.

McAdoo is in survival mode. The secondyear head coach is pulling out all the stops, including pulling out a quote from Old Hickory himself, the seventh U.S. president.

“Andrew Jackson said, ‘I was born for a storm, and a calm does not suit me,’’’ McAdoo said. “I think players need to be comfortable being uncomfortable, and that’s where we are right now.’’

Two defensive starters, Casillas and Olivier Vernon, are expected to return, which should help, as will Jenkins, who sat out his suspension last week as the Rams danced around the Giants defensive backfield. Pugh, who missed the game with a back injury, also returns.

“We’re gonna find out the type of character in this room by how people go out there and play,’’ Pugh said. “I’m excited for that.’’

McAdoo needs his team to live up to another of Andrew Jackson’s calls-to-arms: “Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in.’’