State of the Giants entering bye week: How this team became a true contender
Halloween will have come and gone by the time the Giants hit the field again.Thanksgiving arrives before you know it, and the Giants will be in it.
And, based on what we know and suspect about the NFC East, this is a team that should be in the thick of the division race at Christmas and on into New Year’s. These holidays on the calendar so often were depressing landmarks for a franchise that won a total of 13 games the past three seasons.Down in last place by Halloween.
Out of realistic playoff contention by Thanksgiving.Dealing with possible coaching changes for Christmas and well into the upcoming draft before the new year rolled in. Get texts from Paul Schwartz with all the latest Giants news and insights, exclusive to Sports+ subscribers.
Not this season.Not this year.
The John Harbaugh impact is real, and it has spread its wings quicker and more forcefully than anticipated.The Giants are 4-2-1 at their bye week and in sole possession of first place in a division where none of the other three teams is at .500.
This has been achieved despite the crushing loss of emerging quarterback Jaxson Dart, top defender Brian Burns and, more recently, leading tackler Tremaine Edmunds. With Dart, most of the forward-thinking predictions had the Giants somewhere about the break-even point (8-9, 9-8) in Harbaugh’s first season, as he weeded out the roster and instilled his demanding culture into the building.The postseason was considered too much, too soon for this group. Those prognostications are in need of revamping.
This team and its fanbase are reaching for higher goals. “I’m happy where we are,’’ general manager Joe Schoen said.“I really like the team.
I like the makeup of the players, the grit.Just the resilience of the players, the way we performed late in games in the fourth quarter and overtime.’’ Resilience is the key here.
Losing a young, vibrant starting quarterback with 15 games remaining in a season can wobble and drop many tea...