Giants must prove they are better than 0-3 against the Saints

The Giants are who their record says they are, which is 0-3, one of the five remaining winless teams in the NFL.

But, are they as bad as 0-3 suggests?

Are the Giants the sad sacks they’ve been described since their last rambling loss, last week’s 17-14 loss to a mediocre Falcons team on a day Eli Manning’s number was retired?

Or is it a team bitten by snakes with back-to-back defeats that were decided in the last part of the game?

Half full or pinned on empty?

That’s the question the Giants must answer for themselves as they prepare to travel to New Orleans to face the Saints (2-1) on Sunday.

Another question: do the Giants feel like a 0-3 team?

“Oh-and-three doesn’t define us,” Giants cornerback Logan Ryan said after practice Friday. “I’ve never played a season where we’ve only played three games. Right now, in the NFL standings, teams that are 3-0 may not make the Super Bowl at the end. I never had a defined team in September.

“Obviously I want a better record, but I can’t control that anymore. I can only control what happens in this New Orleans game. We all know football is the way you play towards the end of the year. But you have to stay in the race and that’s what it is. ”

The only way the Giants can hold up in any race – even mediocre NFC East – is to show the Saints and, most importantly, themselves that they aren’t as bad as the 0- record. 3 they brought to the Big Easy. .

Behind closed doors, Giants head coach Joe Judge and his players must be wondering: what if Dexter Lawrence hadn’t been called up for that offside penalty and that kicker failed 48-yard field goal attempt? Washington Dustin Hopkins had ended the game … before Hopkins received a 43-yard overhaul that he, of course, made?

They have to wonder: what if the defense hadn’t allowed the Falcons to score 10 points in the 4:13 final, marching onto the field of MetLife Stadium in the dying moments to set up the 40-yard-winning goal of Younghoe Koo on the last game in the game?

” And if ? Is a loser’s lament that can turn into a dangerous game if you allow yourself to coat dung in something he’s not.

But Judge and the Giants, whose season has been on the brink for just a month, need to seize something positive. So, maybe believing they’re so close to being 2-1 instead of 0-3 is a healthy thing for the Giants’ sabotaged psyche.

“I’m not the type to look for excuses,” the judge said on Friday. “The players are not the makers of excuses. We don’t sit here and say, “If this, then that. What we are looking at is very simply, what do we have to do on the ground to correct and how is that going to give us a greater chance to be successful?

“I am very happy with the way the guys reacted. Our guys have a lot of mental toughness. Our guys come every week, they answer. It doesn’t matter what the result of the previous week is. ”

What Judge preaches may be true, but the point is, his teams have been passive in endgame storylines since his arrival. The Giants are 3-5 in games decided by three points or less since the start of 2020.

Is this a trend or an anomaly?

We’ll know a lot more about these Giants after Sunday at the Superdome, which is sure to be a hornet’s nest, with the Saints playing their first home game of the season after being displaced by Hurricane Ida last month.

The Superdome is a handful for the road team. This Sunday will certainly be a supercharged version of normal madness as it will be the first time the stadium has been filled with fans since 2019, before COVID-19. It could rival the atmosphere of football’s return to 2006 after devastating Hurricane Katrina.

That’s what Judge tried to prepare his players for this week.

“It will be in one of the best atmospheres we will ever have the opportunity to be as a coach or a player,” said Judge. “This is something that we have to prepare and adopt. The best look you can really have for what we’re going to see on Sunday is to step back in time to that Katrina game. ”

The Saints tore the Falcons 23-3 in that game on September 25, 2006. It is widely regarded as the most emotionally charged game ever played in this building, which just weeks before had essentially become a morgue for the Saints. victims of Katrina.

As if the Giants weren’t faced enough trying to figure out who and what they are, that extra degree of difficulty is intimidating.