00:00All right. Another rough week for the New York Giants. They fall to the Washington Commanders 29 to 21 at MetLife Stadium. It was cold. It was frigid. Some Giants fans were out there. One Giants fan we're going to talk to about this. She was not out there. She decided to stay warm and watch this from home. The Giants who are now 2 and 12 on the season.
00:21And joining me to talk about the Giants is that fan who decided to stay at home and watch, but always plugged in. Adriana Ayafala joins us here. Adriana, how are you doing?
00:29I'm good. How are you? Thanks for having me.
00:31Always a pleasure to talk some Giants football with you. And glad we both got to stay warm at home today and watch some football.
00:38And Adriana, tough loss for the Giants once again. And I want to try to start with some positives here for the Giants who are now 2 and 12 on the season, right?
00:46Jackson Dart, let's talk about him, because threw for two scores. Threw that, I would say, very costly pick at the end of the first half.
00:55I would say brutal, if you want to use that word. He played much better in the second half. I think the Giants did overall as well, too.
01:01He's got three games left now in this season. What have you made of his development thus far as we're now 14 games in?
01:08And what do you want to see from him the rest of the way?
01:11I will say, I think today he did a much better job of sliding and diving. And that's one of the things that I really wanted to see him focus on.
01:21And, you know, I agree with him and I agree with Mike Kafka. You don't want to take away the aggressiveness factor that he has because it's part of who he is and it's what makes him a good quarterback.
01:30But you got to be smart about it. And we saw a lot more of that today, which I was thrilled with, that I do think he's learning when to take the hits and kind of how to be smart about it.
01:41Like I noticed today when he took some hits, you know, he wasn't headfirst into the ground and sometimes you just get lucky.
01:47But I really feel like he did a better job with that.
01:50One of the other things that I wanted to see him do was trust his wide receivers a little bit and give them an opportunity to make a play.
01:56I mean, as I felt like there were some instances where there were players who were wide open and for whatever reason, he wouldn't pull the trigger.
02:02Instead, he would take off and run. So I know the wide receiver core is not great without Malik neighbors.
02:08I understand there's some, you know, frustrations there and he's dealing with some guys who are not exactly reliable, which we saw today with the Darius Slayton drops.
02:17You know, I get it from his perspective, but when the guys open and give them an opportunity to make a play and we saw Wanda Robinson with that beautiful touchdown catch,
02:25you know, Theo Johnson made a nice grab. So he did do that in some instances, which I thought were great.
02:30So I think he's done a nice job of improving. I think there are still things he needs to improve upon, but I, I do think it's important that he continues to play.
02:39And I really believe that with better coaching, we're going to see a much better Jackson Dart next year, but I I've been happy with what I've seen.
02:46I do think that he is learning and improving faster than the rate that I expected him to.
02:51Yeah. I think a lot of Giants fans would agree with that. The rate of his learning has been a lot faster.
02:56And even when he makes a mistake, seems to bounce back. Saw that today with the interception late in the first half and played much better in the second half.
03:03And I do think good points about you. I know you don't want to see him take any more hits.
03:06So sliding and diving, you know, a little bit better than we've seen with him before.
03:11I also want to talk to you about Abdul Carter because there was talk this week.
03:15Okay. So you're ready. You're ready to talk about Abdul Carter.
03:18There was talk this week about him having his best week of practice.
03:21And look, Adriana, when I hear that sometimes I'm just like, okay, everybody says this, this is like at the start of the season when everybody's in the best shape they've ever been in before.
03:30Right. So, so we know that I think when we look at Abdul Carter, I think most of us, you know, media content creators will say, Hey, it's fair to say he had at the least a rough rookie season with everything that's gone on around him.
03:44But today, seven tackles, five solo. He also had a sack. Three of those tackles were for loss. He got the QB hit and recovered a fumble.
03:55Would you say this was his best game in a giant uniform? And then I guess also seeing this after this best week of practice, are you encouraged by what he can bring to this giant's defense going forward?
04:07Yes. You know, I have made jokes about when Dable would come on after the post games, after they lose in all of these different ways. And I would just be like, we all know what Dable's going to say. They had a great week of practice.
04:19So whenever I hear stuff like that, it's in one ear and out the other, because all I, all I think to myself is what on earth were you doing in practice that led you to lose these games the way that you've lost them.
04:29But, you know, I've been at Abdul Carter defender when the Giants drafted him. I loved him coming out of Penn State. Could not wait to see him in a Giants uniform.
04:36And I have been defending him week after week when I hear Giants fans say he's a bust because he doesn't have the sacks, blah, blah, blah. And you look at the stats and I don't, I don't like to say that the stats are the most important thing, but the stats back up the fact that he is having a good season.
04:53He is a big reason as to why Brian Burns has as many sacks as he has, because Abdul Carter is number one in the NFL at pressure rate. He has, he, or pressure time. He's getting there faster than Nick Benito. He's getting faster there than Chris Jones. So he needs some help closing, whatever.
05:12But today was a day where I was like, this, this is the Abdul Carter that we've all been waiting for. The impact player, the Micah Parsons type player that we all, all thought we were going to see, you know, for the 15 weeks prior or whatever, 14 weeks prior to this week that we haven't really seen.
05:29And, you know, the frustrating thing for me has been, you know, I know these guys are young. I know they're in a bad situation. You know, it's been a rough year for the Giants, the defense, especially.
05:41But the second cave on getting got injured, I said, this is an opportunity for Abdul Carter. You know, I know you're not getting the starting snaps every week. It's very obvious. This defensive scheme does not have a good plan for Abdul Carter. You hear guys like Carl Banks talk about it weekend and week out. And when you don't have a plan like that for a player like that, it was drafted three overall. He can't make as much of an impact as you would like. So I'm really happy with the way that he played today.
06:07I think as a Giants fan, you look at a game like that and you say, you know, if we don't keep Brian cave on Thibodeau past the fifth year option or whatever, you got to be optimistic going into next year and saying with one good week of practice and one week where he is watching more film, he's in the building more.
06:25He apologized to his teammates and took accountability. Look, these guys are young and sometimes they have to learn the hard way. And unfortunately, it took him twice.
06:33But I think when you see the production on the field, it gives you confidence. So I think for someone like Carter, too, it's also a confidence booster saying, wow, the effort that I put in this week, look at what I was able to do on the field.
06:45And even though it didn't result in a win, it's a great opportunity for him and the players around him to say, I can trust and believe in this guy because he's a good football player and he just has to put the work in and look what he was able to do in one week.
06:57I'd be inclined to agree. It can not only just help him, like you said, it can also help the team believe in him and he sees the process of what happened this week and hopefully he can turn things around.
07:06I think the frustrating thing with Carter, right? And you kind of mentioned it there, Adriana, is early in the season, you saw the process of him getting there, getting close to the quarterback and not just being able to finish.
07:16And I just thought if he stuck with it, it would come in, you know, today. I know there's one week. I don't want to go too crazy, but we are seeing some results.
07:23And so that does bode well, but let's go to the game here because the Giants did not win the game.
07:28They lost for the 12th time this season. They fall to the commanders, as I mentioned, 29 to 21.
07:33They also had a chance to be on the right side of a fourth quarter comeback, which I know you've probably been waiting to see this year.
07:39But when you look at this game, a lot of times we've talked about the defense and you and I have talked about that this season.
07:45Do you hang this loss on the defense? I know there was also a special teams miscue in this one, or is it the offense who had a slow start?
07:52Who's to blame for this loss here to the commanders in week here in this week where they lost and felt for the 12th time this season?
07:59You know, I think a lot of the time when it comes to the Giants, it's a lack of complimentary football.
08:05You know, last or the Patriots was a lot of special teams. That was the big issue, but no one else did their job.
08:12And I think this week I would put more of the blame on the offense.
08:16You know, this is a commander's team that gave up 31 points to J.J. McCarthy and the Vikings, who J.J. McCarthy was having the worst year of a quarterback in years.
08:28So, you know, for them to go in there and put up 31 points against this commander's team and hold them to zero points.
08:34And then our defense gives up 29, which obviously was part of the problem.
08:39But I just really thought the offense was going to be more productive.
08:43The commanders have one of the worst passing defenses in the NFL.
08:48And when I talked about what the Giants should do, open up the pass game.
08:53I mean, they did a good job of running the ball with Tyrone Tracy, which is great.
08:56But, you know, Isaiah Hodgins didn't have his first target until the middle or the end of the fourth quarter.
09:03Daniel Bellinger is productive the second he got the ball in his hands, which, again, was towards the end of the game.
09:08I felt like Wanda Robinson did not have nearly enough targets.
09:12Jalen Hyatt had just, you know, like there's better opportunities there.
09:19So I didn't love the game plan from the offensive side of the ball.
09:23You know, I think Dart was 20 for 35.
09:26So you've got receivers who I felt like there were miscommunications.
09:28I felt like, you know, a couple of the throws to Wanda towards the end of the game, either he was in the wrong place or Dart was throwing the ball in the wrong spot.
09:36So I just I expected more from this offense.
09:38When Jermaine Illuminor is getting penalties, I just I really felt like the offense should have been the dominant side of the ball this week.
09:46And I was disappointed that they weren't.
09:49Yeah, no, I think that's fair.
09:50We will see if the offense can improve, if the defense can also improve.
09:54There are three more games left in the season for the New York Giants.
09:57I know it's been a long and rough season, Adriana.
10:00And I know you're you're ready to get on to the next phase, which is what's the head coaching search going to be the draft?
10:06Unfortunately, we have to talk about that already in December.
10:09But the Giants lose to the commanders here.
10:11Twenty nine to twenty one.
10:13That is Adriana.
10:13I follow check her out.
10:15Also known to everybody as New York Giants fan girl.
10:17Check out the great work she does with the YouTube channel and everything else there.
10:21Adriana, always a pleasure.
10:22And we will talk hopefully happier times coming soon for us to talk about some Giants football.
10:26But I appreciate you.
10:28Hopefully soon.
10:29Thank you so much.
10:30Anytime.
10:43Bye.
10:44Bye.
10:44Bye.
10:44Bye.
10:46Bye.
10:46Bye.
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