I predicted the Giants to beat the Bears at Soldier Field this past Thursday. True, that was a misguided prediction, although I would prefer it being described as bold, but just a wee bit off.
The fact of the matter is, I have never seen the Giants get off to such a poor start before, and I have now been following this team since 1981 - well over thirty years now!
They got off to an 0-5 start in 1987, but three of those five losses were with scab players. The regulars lost their first two games, but finally ended the skid with a convincing victory over the then St. Louis Cardinals in the very first game when regulars took the field again.
But these Giants? Yeesh! They don't have the excuse of scab players during a strike shortened season. They don't have many, if any, excuses at all for how poorly they are playing. Admittedly, I did not have overly high expectations for the season. I predicted them coming in second place in the NFC East, and possibly making a playoff run, although I do not believe my predictions included them qualifying.
Still, I did not think that they would be quite this bad at this point in time. They literally have the worst record in the league at the moment, having lost more games than any other team. That might change (probably will) with the Broncos, of all people, taking on the Jacksonville Jaguars. It is hard to imagine the Jags even making a game of it, let alone avoiding that horrendous 0-6 start. But one way or the other, the Giants are already there.
The Giants turned the ball over again quite a bit last night, which helped contribute to yet another loss. the turnovers just keep piling up for the Giants this season and as a result, not surprisingly, so do the losses. This is the first time since 1976 that the Giants have started off 0-6. That is the better part of thirty years!
One of my coworkers told me that if they lose their next game, this Giants squad would establish a new record for ineptitude. I did a little bit of research, and found out that that isn't actually true.
According to "New York Giants Season Shaping Up to Be Historically Bad 0-4 Start Team’s First in More Than a Quarter Century, Just Fourth Ever" by Phil Watson of yahoo! Sports.
The Giants actually started 0-9 in 1976, en route to a 3-11 finish, and in their first four games they were outscored 90-55 and were minus-5 in turnovers ... 2013 is still worse.
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/york-giants-season-shaping-historically-bad-210200798--nfl.html;_ylt=A2KJ3CepJ1hStSkAouhNbK5_
So, now you know. But that is certainly no cause for celebration, that these Giants have not yet matched the very worst start in franchise history.
They have a long time to recoup and prepare for their next game, which will also be against another NFC North team. This time, their opponent will be the Minnesota Vikings. Also, it will be at the Meadowlands.
I keep crossing my fingers. At this point, I just want to at least get that first win out of the way, so they are no longer threatening to be historically one of the worst teams in history, only two years after winning the Super Bowl (and boy, isn't that beginning to feel like a very long time ago?). I know it will come (at least, I think I know), but when will it come?
It had better come soon, before the comparisons with worst start ever are no longer restricted to jist within the Giants franchise history, but perhaps, NFL history. I know the 2008 Lions fairly recently went 0-16, but they were fairly competitive in almost all of their games. They just happened to lose them all.
So far, the Giants have been competitive in most of their games, although they had allowed four straight losses to be by blowouts, at least in terms of the scoreboard. The loss to Denver was bad, but those were the Broncos, who look historically good. But it got particularly bad for the G-Men ever since that disastrous and humiliating loss to the Panthers, the Giants have looked just horrendous.
Give them this much credit, though: they played a little better yesterday. Soldier Field is never an easy place to play, but the Giants kept it from spiraling out of control. They were in this game, even in the fourth quarter! And, for the first time all season, they kept an opponent to under thirty points.
Also, they have managed to score some points in all but two games. Offensively, they are hardly a powerhouse. But they had two really bad games, where opposing defenses largely kept them off the scoring board - the Carolina Panthers with the shutout, and the Kansas City Chiefs, who kept the G-Men to one touchdown total. Those two games came consecutively, to boot! The Giants are scoring points otherwise, even with all the turnovers. It feels like if the defense turns it up a notch or two, the Giants can start winning some games again, as unthinkable as that seems right at the moment.
But I remember in 1991 and into 1992, when the Giants, also recent Super Bowl champs back then, could not seemingly muster points, and failed to reach so much as thirty points once that entire 1991 season. They opened the season having scored over thirty, so that is one monkey off their back, at least.
Hey, at this point, as a fan of the G-Men, I'll take what I can get!
Some Giants fans are starting to express their unhappiness about the season, even saying they are embarrassed to be Giants fans. But they must have a short term memory. As I mentioned earlier, I have been a fan of theirs since 1981. During that time, I have seen them make the playoffs fifteen times. They won the division title seven times, have gotten a strong enough record to qualify for a playoff bye four times. They won at least one playoff game in nine different seasons, which included some truly memorable rivalries against storied franchises like the 49ers and the Patriots. Most importantly, they have made it divisional round of the playoffs eleven times, and to the NFC Championship Game five times, and in the process, compiling a 5-0 record in NFC Championships! That means I have seen them go to five Super Bowls, and they won four of them! That is second during that period of time to only the San Francisco 49ers, who were the team of the decade in the eighties, and the winningest team in the nineties.
So, I am not losing sight of all that! I have felt, and still feel, blessed to be a Giants fan! They have rewarded me, and their other fans, like few teams have during that time, and despite a few bad seasons (even historically bad seasons), there is still plenty to be proud of in the past (and the recent past, at that). More importantly, I still believe that there is something to look forward to in the future!
Maybe just not this particular year.
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