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00:05All right, it's time to break down the Giants Monday night football loss to the Rams with our
00:11New York Post Sports Giants beat writer Paul Schwartz. Paul, I mean, 24-hour rule isn't in
00:18effect yet, so I haven't been able to flush this, but the injuries, lack of production,
00:23and they lost the battle of the trenches. That night was a Debbie Downer, a buzz kill,
00:28and a head scratcher. Let's just get your overall thoughts before we get into the injuries
00:34and really break this thing down from what we saw. Yeah, look, the land of Hollywood,
00:41Brandon, is known for many things, right? Romantic comedies, dramas, you know, all kinds of,
00:48you know, full-length features. This was a horror film. You know, this was a horror film for the
00:52Giants. There's no question about it. Starting right away, you know, the vibe wasn't great the
00:57way they were protecting Jackson Dart, and then seven plays in, he goes down, and they avoided
01:03the worst, it looks like, but they're going to be out, you know, he'll be out for some time. He
01:08was
01:08out that whole game, so, you know, for that whole Monday night football experience, coming off that
01:13rousing week one Sunday night victory over the Cowboys was, as you said, was a real downer.
01:19Bad play. I was really disappointed in the offensive and defensive lines. Some more injuries
01:25to tack on, so, yeah, as great as week one was. Week two was, I'm not saying the absolute worst,
01:32because they didn't lose Jackson Dart for the season, but it was bad stuff.
01:37And to come off of that high of the week one, I think that's what makes everyone so frustrated when
01:43it comes to the way they lost this football game. And someone asked me, like, how you feel?
01:48Like, after the game, I'm like, the night sucked. Like, it sucked. And I'm not saying the Giants
01:53sucked. Just the unfortunate string of events, it just made you feel like, oh, no, not this again.
02:02Like, not this again. And now we have to see if the Harbaugh effect can overcome, you know, winning
02:10games despite not having your QB won for X amount of time. So let's get into some of these injuries.
02:17We won't go into details, because today's a weird day with them flying back from the West Coast, guys.
02:22So Coach Harbaugh's availability is going to be a little bit later than what it normally is on a Monday
02:27or Tuesday, the day after a game. So what are you hearing initially about some of the injuries
02:32that the Giants faced on Monday night, Paul? Well, look, when your quarterback goes down, now Jackson
02:39was hit on the outside of his left knee, right? So that the outside is like the MCL, you know,
02:45medial collateral ligament territory. I'm certainly not a doctor, but I've seen enough. Unfortunately,
02:50you know, we all have, right? We've seen a lot of guys go down with Achilles and ACLs. And it's
02:55like,
02:55you can kind of high ankle sprains, you can kind of diagnose it a little bit just watching it. So
03:01it
03:02didn't look like an ACL to me. Apparently, it's not an ACL. You know, John Harbaugh kind of said
03:08it's in that neighborhood of an MCL. And look, an MCL sprain is going to be probably three to five
03:17weeks. I mean, that's just what it is. Usually, you can write the guy off for a month. Maybe he's
03:21a quick healer, and it's three weeks. It's definitely going to be two or three games, I would
03:27think. That's what it is. And it's an odd thing, right? Because when the guy goes down, everyone's
03:31like, oh, no, that's our season is flashing in front of us, right? You know, he's going down,
03:38you know, and we've seen guys walk off the field with their own power, and they're still out for the
03:42year. So it's not that. So afterwards, you know, John Harbaugh says, well, we, you know, not that
03:47they dodged a bullet, but you say, okay, he's not out for the year. And then if you're a Giants
03:51fan,
03:51you say, holy smokes, we're not going to be without Jackson Dart for maybe a month here. That's
03:56devastating. So not good, but certainly not season ending. Malik Nabors, the shoulder popped
04:03out. He popped it back in. Very painful from what I hear. I've never had that. Now, I've heard a
04:10lot
04:10of times you can go back in the game, which he did, right? He was not effective, but he went
04:16back
04:16in the game. And then the next day, you're sore as heck. So I'm sure he's going to be really
04:21sore.
04:21They have to test that to see, you know, when it pops out, and then you pop it back in,
04:26you know, things tend to stretch in there. And so how stretched, how stable is it? We'll have to see.
04:32He could play this week. He could be out. We'll see, but it will be pain. Brian Burns, low ankle
04:37sprain, left the stadium at SoFi in a walking boot. That's standard operating procedure, not a
04:47high ankle sprain, which you're going to definitely miss weeks. Low ankle sprain. Can he play this week?
04:53Maybe, maybe not. You know, not great, but not lingering in long term, but not great.
04:59And Andrew Thomas left the field after the last series, some sort of a groin strain or something
05:05like that. I have no idea of the severity of that. So, you know, it is amazing, right? You think
05:10of
05:10a who's who of, you give me a list of the five most important giants. Burns is on it. Dart
05:16certainly is on
05:17it. Andrew Thomas certainly is on it. Neighbors certainly is on it. One, two, three, four. They all
05:24leave Inglewood, California with issues. So, as we said, horror film.
05:30Now, the most important giant on this football team right now goes by the name of Jameis Winston
05:37has his own YouTube show. He's been on show, grew all these shows and Fox Sports and does
05:43a great job with his media career. But now coming out of Hollywood and the script is now a movie
05:52called, can Jameis handle a starter role? Can Jameis Winston, 11 for 27, 111 yards, one interception,
06:02didn't look, missed some throws, didn't look as comfortable as we've seen Jameis in the past.
06:08Do you feel as though, I mean, you have a stretch of the Titans at home, the Cardinals at home,
06:14then you go on the road to the Commanders, and I believe it's the Saints at home as well, right
06:19after
06:19that. Let's say you have to have Jameis for four weeks. Can Jameis Winston handle that starting role
06:27for, let's say, those four weeks while Jackson Dart could potentially be out?
06:32Right. If they were going to Seattle next week and then playing, you know, all the Eagles or
06:37something, you say, wow, that's a tall order. Even Jackson Dart at his best, those are tough games.
06:42You're right. The schedule softens up here. Look, if he can't handle it, then the Giants made a mistake
06:48for giving him a contract extension. You know, right. They didn't sign him for their videos on,
06:55you know, and their entertaining stuff on their website. And they didn't sign him up to be at
07:00the Kentucky Derby and to be an engaging guy and a good locker room guy. I mean, that helps you,
07:07you know, helps your cred in the locker room and in the front office. But they signed him to be
07:12the
07:12backup quarterback, which means you're one play away from being the starting quarterback. And,
07:16you know, shame on the Giants and shame on Jameis if he is not up to this.
07:21You know, what John Harbaugh said, he thinks, you know, he's one of the best backups in the league,
07:25right? Something like that. He's been a starter in the league. Now, a lot of times, look, he did not
07:30look ready to play. And I think the coaching staff, the offensive staff did not look ready to turn on
07:37a
07:37dime and make that adjustment. Jackson is so multi-dimensional that you have so many things,
07:44you know, down at the goal line, you can do a zone read out of shotgun with dart and the
07:52Rams don't
07:52know if he's going to hand it to Najee Harris or if he's going to keep it. What does Jameis
07:56do?
07:56Jameis gets that look and he just hands it to Najee Harris and he gets stopped for a loss of
08:01three.
08:02The Rams had no respect for Jameis keeping the ball because he wasn't going to keep the ball.
08:06So that's an adjustment they have to make this week. And I'm sure they will because they're very
08:11different players. But yeah, Jameis was, you know, he missed a lot of throws. Now he was also,
08:17you need to help your backup quarterback with a run game and with pass protection.
08:22They got little and none of both of those, which is a big problem. It's a big problem. And they
08:28got
08:28behind, as Jameis said, and they had to throw the ball. They had to, you know, with 21-3, you
08:33have to
08:33junk the run for the most part. So, you know, it was kind of a confluence of a lot of
08:39bad things.
08:39And I think there is a body blow, gut punch mentality when your quarterback goes down.
08:45But this is not some rookie walking on the field. It's Jameis Winston, former first pick in the
08:50draft. So he was disappointing in this sub role. And now, like I said, I don't expect him to be
08:56great. But if Jameis Winston cannot, and with the whole team around him playing better, and how about
09:02the defense? We'll get into this. The defense needs to pick it up big time. With them playing a sound
09:08game, they don't need Jameis to be great to beat the Titans at home. They need him to be good
09:13and
09:13efficient. And if he can't be, then he's certainly not one of the best backups in the league.
09:18You're going to have to be able to run the football, especially when this is your identity.
09:22This is what your head coach wants to do. This is what your offensive coordinator knows what he
09:26signed up for when it comes to how many plays or how many plays called are going to be designated
09:33runs
09:34or some sort of version of it. Scat, 12 carries, 36 yards. Singletary, three for nine. Najee Harris,
09:40four for six. Jameis Winston, two for one. And then Tyrone Tracy Jr. didn't even get a carry
09:46that game. That's not that. Those numbers wouldn't help Jackson Dart, even if he was healthy,
09:53because that means you would be going back to rookie year Jackson Dart, where he would have to put
09:58an entire offense on his back. Then the Rams showed what the blueprint could be for the next
10:04three to five weeks. And that's rush four, drop seven, because there were times where the pocket,
10:11you know, a gap opened up. Jackson Dart's taken off on there. He's going to get you that six to
10:17eight.
10:18Jameis doesn't have that same ability in terms of escapability as a Jackson Dart. So it's going to be
10:25interesting to see, like you said, how he handles this starter role, how Matt Nagy now calls some of
10:33these plays, because I don't think you're going to be able to take that many shots with, you know,
10:38because because you're going to want to keep everything in front of you, especially if they're
10:44not running the football, stay too high safeties, keep everything in front of you, eliminate the big
10:48plays. So it's going to be a very interesting, these next four games. And it's just, it's unfortunate
10:56right away. Let's flip and talk about the pass rush, because only Abdul Carter had a sack last
11:05night. And there were times and points of the football game where it looks like Matt Stafford was
11:11just back there, just patting the football like it was seven on seven. And that's not something I
11:16expected to see at any point of this season, Paul. Two quarterback hits yesterday, last night
11:25against Matt Stafford, one sack, right? It's just not good enough. You know, Brian Burns, before he
11:30got hurt, had really not done anything of impact in the first two games. And we all love Brian Burns.
11:36He was their best player, you know, on both sides of the ball last year, I would say. But he
11:40has not
11:40come out of the gates, you know, flying certainly this year. Abdul Carter had a bunch of pressures last
11:45week against the Cowboys. But I think they only hit Dak three times. I mean, pressures, I know, there's
11:50all kinds of metrics for pressures, I get it. And, you know, winning pass rush rate and all that other
11:55stuff. But, you know, to me, I'm kind of old school, sacks and quarterback hits are more valued in my
12:00mind. And I think they only had three last week of Dak and no sacks and two this week, against
12:06Stafford
12:07and one sack. It's just not good enough. It's not good enough. You know, I didn't buy into the whole,
12:13you know, they're one of the, they're the best, you know, trio. Yeah, on paper, Burns is a first
12:19round pick. Abdul Carter is the third pick in a draft. Kayvon Thibodeau is the fifth pick in the
12:23draft. And then you can have Arbel Reese, the fifth pick in the draft. You can have him as an
12:28edge guy,
12:29which they really haven't done at all in the first two games. So, you know, that's a lot of firepower,
12:34a lot of draft equity. Wow, that's a lot of big names. But, you know, Kayvon has not been that
12:39kind
12:39of a pass rusher in his career. Abdul Carter is in the, you know, the early stages of his career.
12:45And he was very much of a close guy as a rookie. I think he's going to, you know, I
12:50think he has a
12:51chance to get double digit sacks. He's a tough guy. You know, he split a double team last night. It
12:56was
12:56a nice thing to see. It's just not enough. And there's not, you know, Denard Wilson is not a big
13:02blitzer. He just isn't, you know, he plays man. I thought he played a little too much zone last night.
13:07You know, the Rams had one big time receiver. How about this, Brandon? Devontae Adams had what?
13:14He had more yards receiving than the Giants had total yards, right? 195 receiving yards. The
13:22Giants had 182 total yards on offense. You can't have one player have more yards than your whole team.
13:29You know, a lot of zone, you know, Tyler Newman wasn't great in coverage. You know, Arvel Reese got,
13:35you know, he was out for a play. Zaire Barnes comes in, you know, Stafford is as smart as they
13:39come, throws right at him, touchdown. So they have issues on defense. Yes. Pass rush is one of them.
13:45And look, ask me a question about the run defense. Okay. Ask me that question and then I'll give you
13:51something. Well, the run defense looked good against the Cowboys, but again, they were playing
13:54with the lead. So now when the run defense was under a microscope and needed to make some stops,
14:01do you feel like the bullies of last week got bullied in week two?
14:07Yes, that is a good line. You know, it's a good line. Yes, they did get bullied and,
14:12you know, I'm just not sold on the run defense, you know, I mean, Dexter Lawrence, you know,
14:16he didn't do this. He didn't do that. You know, he's a better player than DJ Reader. He just is.
14:21And, you know, we'll see DJ Reader does some things. Shelby Harris does some things, but
14:26you know, I, you know, Edmonds and Arvel Reese did not make their presences felt and Kyron Williams
14:32averaged 7.1 yards on his 12 carries. Okay. So 7.1, that's the highest average per carry in the
14:42NFL
14:43per next gen stats. Okay. The highest average 7.1 yards in the league. And he did that against
14:5358% eight men in the box by the Giants. That was the highest percentage any running back saw of
15:01an
15:01eight man box in the league. So he had the highest percentage of run defense capability, eight men in
15:10the box and had the highest rushing average that is cannot happen, should not happen. Missed tackles,
15:16not winning the line of scrimmage. So, you know, the Giants through two games. Yes. I mean, I mean,
15:22they played great against the Cowboys, but we have to remember the Cowboys had two possessions in the
15:28second half last week and scored touchdowns on both of those possessions. The Giants didn't so much
15:34stop the Cowboys as the Giants played keep away from the Cowboys and didn't let them get the ball.
15:40I fully expect that the Cowboys had a third possession in the second half last week. They might've
15:45scored a touchdown or kicked a field goal. The Giants weren't stopping them like that. So
15:50that's an issue. You know, you're not going to have the time of possession and go nine out of 11
15:55in
15:55third down conversions and go four for four in the red zone like they did last week. That was like
16:00an
16:01unbalanced game to the Giants benefit and to their credit. But, you know, as Jermaine Illuminor said,
16:08you know, the right tackle, you know, we were behind and had to, you know, give up the run and
16:13we had a
16:13pass block. And so when you're one dimensional, it's really tough. It was really tough at Jameis
16:17Winston, but sometimes you're going to have to be behind and you're going to have to do that.
16:22The Giants didn't handle any of that. Well, you know, this second time around when you said the
16:26Kyron Williams stat of him averaging 7.1 yards per carry that made me go online just now and look
16:33up
16:33three of the Giants top five tacklers were from the secondary. Tyler Newbin and Javon Holland both had
16:42eight and then Greg Newsome had five. Arvell Reese had seven. Jermaine Edmonds had five, which is
16:47expected. But anytime you're secondary, three guys are up there. That means that that running back or
16:54receiver, whatever, is getting up to that third level and you never want your third level guys
16:59having to make the bulk of your tackles. So I saw where Brian Burns said it was a humbling loss
17:07or something or last night was humbling in a sense to where it's like, that's, you know,
17:13when everybody's like, everybody's got a plan until you, you know, you get punched in the mouth.
17:17Well, the Giants went and punched somebody in the mouth week one. And then that's like the bully
17:22on the playground walking around with this chest out because it's like, yeah, I punched somebody in
17:28the mouth. And then here comes somebody else to punch them right back in the mouth. And it's like,
17:33oh, well now I got to be in a dogfight for the rest of this season because, you know,
17:37with your quarterback going down, who knows what can happen the next three to five weeks with him
17:42potentially being out. So let's end on some good notes, some positives, Paul, throughout from the
17:50night. I thought Javon Holland had his best game as a, as a giant back-to-back weeks with an
17:55interception. He's perfected the peanut punch, forced two fumbles, had a fumble recovery where he was
18:02digging in there on his own, like went and got it on his own. And you even see after the
18:07interception, he went, ran and gave the ball to Denard Wilson. Like I, I, I'm the guy I can do
18:12this. I'm your guy. And I saw a lot of that throughout the course of his time down in, uh,
18:17in West Virginia during training camp, he was drawing a lot to scat in the offense and you,
18:22but you could see his energy. You could see, you know, the defense kind of rallying behind
18:26Vaughn, they call him Vaughn, uh, rallying behind him. So that was pretty fun, you know,
18:32to watch and to see him make plays out there. Any other silver lining or anyone from this game
18:38that you feel as though deserves some flowers? Well, yes. One thing about Holland is, you know,
18:43the punch out was great, but I thought his most impressive play was recovering that fumble.
18:47Yeah. I mean that, you know, he's not, he's the, he's not the biggest guy in that pile. And
18:51when it's out, he's not the first guy, like, you know, you, sometimes it's, it's a natural,
18:57you know what I mean? It's almost like, you know, like, like when you miss a shot in basketball,
19:00it's a natural for you to get your own rebound. You know, you just have a feel for where the
19:04ball's
19:04going. Um, you didn't miss many shots. Right. But I mean, you know, if, if you, if you miss some
19:09shots, you can get your own right. I know you, you follow the ball, follow the ball, follow the ball,
19:13follow the ball. And, but Holland, you know, when, when it first happened, I said, okay,
19:18I think that's going to be Rams ball. And then, you know, the waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting. And,
19:21you know, giants are pointing, which doesn't mean anything. And then Holland did. So that was
19:24really impressive sticking his nose in it. Look, you can't look at games and say, well, this didn't
19:30matter, right? Holland's play matters, even though it was 28 to six. Um, what did John Harbaugh come in
19:36and not really say, but do he was a former special teams coordinator. He didn't say, I'm going to make
19:41the special teams. Great. He just said, we're going to make the changes to personnel. And that was the
19:47plan. He brought in Jordan Stout from Baltimore as his punter. And he, he trusted a rookie Dominic
19:55Zavada as a rookie place kicker. And it's like, okay, we'll see. Um, you know, they had very little
20:01to do in the first game, right? Stout had one punt and, and Zavada had, um, four extra points,
20:06no field goals. Okay. Great. Great. You know, we don't need them to be the stars. So you have to
20:11get
20:11it, you know, maybe the giants can play some close games. They're going to need punter.
20:16They're going to need their kicker. And those guys were great last night. I mean, Stout had
20:20six punts. He averaged, uh, um, Oh, 52.5 yards per punt. And that's he hit that 70 yard. He
20:28was,
20:28his heels were in the back of the end zone and he hit the ball that put the returner back,
20:34back, back, back. Like he was, you know, Willie Mays catching a ball over his shoulder to the 25 yard
20:39line. I mean, that was a, you know, a dynamic punt and so Stout looked great. And Zavada hit a
20:4624 yard
20:47field goal. I mean, you know, our old blue rush buddy and co-host Lawrence Tynes always yelled at
20:52me when I called it a 24 yard chip shot field goal. He hated the term chip shot field goal.
20:58I get it.
20:59It's a short field goal. Okay. A field goal he should make. I'm not calling it chip shot minimizes it.
21:04I get it. It sounds like I could go out there and hit a chip shot field goal. So I
21:07won't call it a
21:08chip shot, but he had a 52 yarder bang straight down the middle. The only points for the Giants
21:13two field goals. So after two games, it looks like the Giants have two excellent kickers that can be
21:20weapons. And as these games, you know, they really haven't played a close game, right? Eight point
21:24win the first game and, you know, big, big, you know, you know, three, three score loss in the
21:29second game, these games get close kicking come becomes more important. You know, maybe these guys,
21:35maybe they have an edge, which they've had the opposite of an edge the past several years.
21:40Yeah. You think of the three things that have plagued the Giants over the past, what decade
21:45injuries, bad run defense and inconsistent kicking. At least they got one of it. One of
21:51it's fixed right now. One of it's fixed. And I didn't, I didn't think much of, of, of
21:57Zavada, Zavada, like when they signed him and watching him throughout the spring, cause he
22:03struggled during the spring, but something happened over the summer where that kid just
22:07turned it on and he's been automatic since the start of training camp. So yeah, that's one of
22:13those, my bad, I was wrong about the kid and he's been nothing but great so far. But yeah, I
22:19can't
22:19wait to see him in that high pressure moment. Like, can you kick the Giants? And it could happen this
22:23weekend, this, this Sunday, who knows? You might have to kick them to a game winner this
22:27Sunday, you know, just because of everything that's going on with the injuries and Jackson
22:31not playing and defense may be a little banged up. Like that's, that's going to be interesting
22:35if that can happen this particular weekend. All right, Paul, I could finish this off. We
22:39can put, we can flush this one and then start looking ahead because Brian Dable, Daniel
22:45Bellinger, Cordell Flott, and Wondell Robinson are all coming to town this weekend.
22:53Yeah, look, they're one and one right now. I'm not going to go down that road. Oh, if
22:57you told Giant fans after two weeks, they'd be one and one, they'd be thrilled. Yeah, probably.
23:02But when you're one and oh, you want to be two and oh, that's all there is to it. Look,
23:06the Rams were garbage in week one, right? In Australia, oh, and one, they lost by 20 points.
23:11They look great. Like the Browns looked terrible in week one. The Patriots look bad in week one,
23:18you know, good teams, we think bad teams, we think, and you know, the bunch of teams are one
23:22and one. Giants are in that boat. I think we'll learn a lot about them this next month.
23:27We did not want to learn to see how they would play without Jackson Dart. Jameis Winston said
23:31something interesting last night after, you know, talking about the injury said we're a resilient
23:36team. And I thought for a second, it's like, we have no idea. You know, Jameis has no idea.
23:41That's a nice thing to say. And we have no idea. We don't know anything about this team right
23:45now. We're two games in, you know, 2025 has nothing to do with 2026. We don't know what
23:50this team is. You know, it's two games into the John Harbaugh era. Are they resilient? We'll see.
23:56We don't know. You know, they had a great win and then they had a bad loss. So there was
23:59nothing
24:00to be resilient from after one week. They have to, you know, man up and rally behind a backup
24:05quarterback. That would be resilient. Can they do it? I have no idea. Can they stop the run? We'll see.
24:11You know, are guys going to come back from injury? I don't know. Do they have capable backups? If
24:16Brian Burns doesn't play, you're putting in the number five pick in the draft, Kayvon Thibodeau to
24:20start. He's on a contract year. That should be an enviable position for the Giants if they can't
24:27have Burns. Is it? I don't know. So I think there's a lot we don't know. We don't know if
24:31they're
24:31resilient. We don't know how tough they are or how much of a bully ball team they are. One week
24:36in,
24:36one week yay, one week nay, and on we go. All right. Now they got a full week to answer
24:42some question marks, get as healthy as they can, try and get back in that W column on Sunday
24:48against the Tennessee Titans. Thank you guys for watching another episode of Blue Rush.
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