MUNICH – John Mara has said he will not make any changes with general manager Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll during this season and that he did not “anticipate’’ making any moves with them for 2025.
Well, the co-owner of the Giants surely did not anticipate the Giants being a laughingstock. He did not anticipate loss after loss after loss and disappointment almost every weekend. And he certainly did not anticipate his team taking an international stage and stinking up the joint in a foreign country, somehow looking like the inferior side to a team that was, based on most statistical metrics, the worst in the NFL.
In a season filled with lousy football, the Giants saved their lousiest for a showcase game in the Bavarian capital. They could not stand up to the usually docile Panthers, going down 20-17 in overtime in an embarrassing performance at Allianz Arena.
The Giants trailed 10-0 at halftime and 17-7 in the third quarter but tied it at 17 on Graham Gano’s 42-yard field goal with five seconds left in regulation. When Daniel Jones called tails and it came up tails, the Giants got the ball first in OT with a chance to win it.
Instead, they lost it. Rookie Tyrone Tracy on the first snap in overtime lost the ball on a fumble and Panthers linebacker Josey Jewell recovered it on the Giants’ 23-yard line. Eddy Pineiro’s 36-yard field goal moments later ended it. Finito.
The hits keep coming for the Giants – make that the hits keep bludgeoning the Giants – as they lost their fifth consecutive game. They limp into their bye week with an unsightly record of 2-8.
It might be the definition of insanity for the Giants to keep on keeping on. Daniel Jones was abysmal from the start and at halftime he was 6 of 14 for 54 yards and an interception deep in Panthers territory on a pass that was tipped up into the air by Jadeveon Clowney and picked off by safety Xavier Woods. The Giants trailed 10-0 and had no points against the league’s most porous defense — the Panthers came in allowing 32.6 points a game. Yet the Giants made them look like the ‘85 Bears.
Jones finished 22 of 37 for 190 yards and two interceptions, plus one rushing touchdown. Chuba Hubbard ripped the Giants for 153 yards and one touchdown on 28 carries.
The Giants trailed 10-0 at halftime but they had a shot, down by three points, when rookie Dru Phillips forced a fumble on Hubbard and D.J. Davidson recovered it on the Carolina 22-yard line with 8:01 remaining. The Giants got to the 6-yard line and then melted away. Malik Nabers was dropped for a 2-yard loss and then disaster struck. On third-and-7 on the 8-yards line, Jones threw a 1-yard pass that hit rookie Tyrone Tracy in the hands but linebacker Josey Jewell ripped it out for a killer interception with 5:56 to go.
The Giants got the ball back but went three-and-out. They got it back again with 2:30 left, with no timeouts to work with. Jones completed eight short passes to set Gano for a 42-yard field goal. Gano, playing for the first time since Week 2, missed earlier in the game on a 43-yard attempt. He hit this one to send the game into overtime.
Jones was not benched at halftime and the Giants scored on their first possession of the third quarter – thanks to a 32-yard touchdown run by Tracy. Down 10-7, the Giants could not establish a foothold in the game, as Hubbard ran through them on an 80-yard drive finished off with Hubbard’s 1-yard run.
The Giants received an early break when on their first snap on offense, cornerback Mike Jackson was called for a 43-yard pass interference penalty on a deep route by Jalin Hyatt. That gift did not produce a present, as Jones on third down had Nabers open on the right side for a first down and sailed the throw so high that Nabers did not even bother to jump for it.
Backed up on their 10-yard line, the Panthers — the league’s 29th-ranked offense — looked like a dynamo with a 90-yard drive, started with Bryce Young’s 23-yard strike to rookie Xavier Legette and ended with Young faking a run and then hitting wide-open tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders for an easy 5-yard touchdown flip.
On the next series, Jones on third down was painfully late and slow on a pass to Wan’Dale Robinson, allowing Jackson the time needed to break up the play.
Back came the suddenly potent Panthers. Jalen Coker got behind linebacker Micah McFadden for a 24-yard pickup and before long, Eddie Pineiro’s 53-yard field goal made it 10-0.
Jones was 1-for-6 for three yards early in the second quarter when he finally moved the ball through the air with a 19-yard completion to Hyatt – only his second catch of the season. The drive fizzled and then so did Graham Gano, who in his first game since Week 2 missed wide right on a 43-yard field goal attempt.
