EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Coach Brian Daboll understood the boos during the New York Giants‘ home opener Sunday night against the Kansas City Chiefs. He would’ve booed too as the Giants lost 22-9 and had another uninspiring offensive performance.
“I’d be booing too, to be honest with you, in terms of not being good enough, not scoring, not finishing. I understand that. That’s the nature of it,” Daboll said. “We got to be better.”
After a 3-14 season, the Giants (0-3) were supposed to be improved. Veteran Russell Wilson was brought in to avoid this situation, a bad start that incited an uneasy fan base.
The Giants produced 281 yards in a disappointing performance that had the home crowd booing before the end of the first half. There were even some “We Want Dart!” chants, in reference to rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart permanently replacing Wilson.
Dart played three snaps in place of Wilson as part of a special package designed to help in the red zone or short-yardage situations. When Wilson came back onto the field, there was even a smattering of boos.
“Yeah, there are highs and lows and always tough moments. You know, you got to have thick skin, you know what I mean?” Wilson said. “You got to be able to know who you are, the player that you are, know what you’re capable of.
“Obviously, I’ve been able to show that throughout my career and obviously last week and everything else, too, what we’re capable of as an offense. I think they made a couple more plays than us [Sunday night]. I think it was a 9-6 game for most of the game. Pretty tight. We needed one or two big plays. Unfortunately, didn’t come our way.”
Wilson finished 18-of-32 passing for 160 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions. It was a far cry from one week ago when he threw for 450 yards and three touchdowns in a shootout loss to the Dallas Cowboys.
The chants for Dart came after Wilson’s second interception with the score tied 6-6 and less than a minute remaining in the first half.
“I’m just trying to be a really good teammate,” Dart said. “Any time he’s coming off on the sideline, I like to just kind of listen to know what he has to say, to know what his perspective is on things. To get the coaching points from the coaches and try to do my best to encourage the guys around me. I’ve said this all before. This is all kind of new to me. I’ve tried to just take a different perspective. It’s hard when the offense isn’t playing up to standard.”
Daboll wouldn’t say if Wilson will start next week when the Giants host the Los Angeles Chargers. Daboll has avoided answering questions about players’ starting statuses after games, and this was no different.
But the Giants created this uncertain situation at quarterback the moment they drafted Dart and made him the backup. It’s even more noticeable after the team’s winless start.
“Hey, man, fans are going to be fans,” outside linebacker Brian Burns said. “I love the fans. I appreciate the fans. But it’s an emotional thing. You know what I’m saying? Like, I don’t blame them or anything of that nature. But it’s an emotional thing, and the emotions can be high and low, depending on what happens. Everybody loves Russ when he threw that bomb to [wide receiver] Malik [Nabers] to win the game. But it’s week by week. It can flip on him. But I didn’t hear any of that.”
The Giants players, including Dart, insist they did not hear the chant to play the rookie. But they felt the early unrest.
“I don’t know if I heard that chant, necessarily,” defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence II said. “I heard a lot of other stuff that I’m not a fan of. That doesn’t help, for real. But people are [entitled] to their opinions. I think we’re close in here. We just have to make the plays, make the plays when we need them. The critical plays. We haven’t done that yet. When we do that, we’ll take off.”
