Giants-Patriots ‘Kudos & Wet Willies’: Embarrassing night for New York

The New York Giants continued to find unique ways to embarrass themselves in Monday’s 33-15 loss to the New England Patriots. The Giants’ seventh straight loss saw them fall to 2-11. Let’s get to the ‘Kudos & Wet Willies’ review.

‘Kudos’ to …

Darius Slayton — The veteran wide receiver had a 30-yard catch-and-run touchdown in the first half and a 2-point conversion grab on a wild play by Jaxson Dart in the second half.

Devin Singletary — This was by far Singletary’s most productive game of the season, highlighted by a 22-yard touchdown run on a fake reverse out of the ‘Wildcat’ formation. Singletary finished with 12 carries for 68 yards (5.7 yards per carry) and three receptions for 34 yards to give him 102 yards from scrimmage. He also had two kickoff returns for 54 yards (27.0 yards per return), giving him 156 total yards on the night.

Zaire Barnes — The backup to the backup to the backup inside linebacker (that makes him the fourth option behind Micah McFadden, Darius Muasau and Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles had the game of his life. Entering Monday, Barnes had 15 tackles in 10 career NFL games. Against the Patriots, he had 11 tackles, his first career sack, a quarterback hit, and a tackle for loss. He made the most of an unlikely opportunity.

‘Wet Willies’ to …

Giants special teams — I would say the special teams display by the Giants on Monday night was a comedy of errors, except there wasn’t anything funny about it.

• The Giants gave up a 94-yard punt return touchdown to Marcus Jones. Jones finished the night with 124 yards on three punt returns, a 41.3 yard average.

• Placekicker Younghoe Koo failed to even get off a kick when he stubbed his toe in the turf on what should have been a 47-yard field goal attempt. Holder Jamie Gillan appeared to bobble the snap, throwing off Koo’s approach to the ball. That led to a New England touchdown.

• Gunner Olszewski fumbled a kickoff return when he was concussed by a massive hit. That led to a New England field goal.

• The Giants gave up a 39-yard kickoff return to Terrell Jennings on the game’s first play.

Maybe the Giants can go for the trifecta and replace Michael Ghobrial with an interim special teams coordinator.

Mike Kafka — The Giants’ interim head coach raised the white flag and might have tossed away any hope of getting the full-time head coaching job when he refused to go for the first down on fourth-and-1 at the Giants’ 40-yard line down 20 points with 1:13 left in the first half. Your team is 2-10, you have pounded away at the idea of being aggressive and you hand the Patriots another scoring opportunity? Which they, of course, took advantage of. Kafka also did not go for the first down on fourth-and-8 from the Giants’ 27-yard line down 30-15 with less than eight minutes to play.

At some point, Kafka clearly chose to play to try and keep the score from becoming too embarrassing. That isn’t the way to convince anyone you are the right choice to become the next full-time head coach.

The way the Giants played early in the game was embarrassing. Horrific special teams. Typically porous, if slightly more aggressive, defense. A stubborn quarterback who seems determined to get himself badly hurt. An offense that tries hard but isn’t good enough to cover up the rest of the things wrong with this team. Not a good look for anyone, Kafka included.

Kafka’s post-game press conference, during which he refused to give any details on the reasoning for Carter’s first-quarter benching, was also not an impressive performance.

Giants’ defense — The Giants were more aggressive on defense in Charlie Bullen’s first game as defensive coordinator. They weren’t any better. The Giants allowed 30 points in the first half for the first time since Week 17 of the 2009 season when they allowed 31 to the Minnesota Vikings.

The defense played with some effort in the second half. It just clearly is not good enough.

‘Kwillies’ to …

Abdul Carter — Carter was benched for the second time in three weeks, this again being a “coach’s decision” by interim head coach Mike Kafka. The first time, two weeks ago, against the Green Bay Packers, was for missing a walk-through practice. Whatever the reason for this one is, it is not a good thing for a player the Giants selected with the third overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.

The Giants expected Carter to be a problem for opposing defenses. Right now, though, he appears to be a problem for the Giants.

Carter, at least, was a force once he entered the game in the second quarter. He got his first official career sack on a third-and-1 stop of New England quarterback Drake Maye, was credited with four hurries and was the Giants’ highest-graded defender in the live Pro Football Focus grades.

Jaxson Dart — The rookie quarterback played decently in his return after missing two games with a concussion. He completed 17 of 24 passes for 139 yards and a touchdown without turning the ball over. But, geez, the kid has got to learn not to subject himself to hits like the one he took at the sideline early in the game.

Here is Dart on taking big hits:

Theo Johnson — This is mostly because deserves some props for being the first Giant to come to Dart’s defense after the big hit the quarterback took from New England’s Christian Elliss. Johnson had three catches for 29 yards, but missed a chance for a big touchdown on a long pass from Dart in the second quarter that would have pulled the Giants within one score. Instead, we got the Younghoe Koo stubbed toe fiasco.