The New York Giants won four games in 2021 under Joe Judge. Through five games of the Brian Daboll era, Big Blue has already matched that win total, moving to 4-1 after Sunday's comeback upset over the Green Bay Packers in London.
The 2022 Giants have proven well-coached, with Daboll and offensive coordinator Mike Kafka dialing up calls to put players in a position to perform -- despite injuries that have decimated the WR room. And defensive coordinator Wink Martindale has his unit battling despite a defensive backfield that, on paper, looked like Aaron Rodgers should have shredded it.
While the football world has mostly been waiting for the Giants to fall back down to earth after wins over Tennessee, Carolina, and Chicago (with a loss to Dallas) to open the season, Sunday's 27-22 victory over the favored Packers shows they have some staying power.
"We've been for real since Day 1, man," outside linebacker Oshane Ximines said after the win, .
"We've got a lot of good players -- and it showed today," added safety Xavier McKinney. "We knew what we had before. We didn't really need anybody to tell us what we had or didn't have."
Obviously, players need to be confident going into a season. They can't play this physical game otherwise. But it's another thing for a rebuilding team like the Giants to get off to a hot start despite questions littered throughout the roster.
"For sure," McKinney said. "And we're proving it."
With the offense coming to life in the second half Sunday and the defense not allowing a point after halftime to Rodgers and the Packers, the Giants showed mettle in London. Big Blue is now 4-1 or better through five games for the first time since 2009. That '09 team can be a lesson for the current crew; those Giants finished 8-8 and missed the playoffs.
Saquon Barkley took a more measured stance in the 4-1 start, knowing 12 games remain in the long season.
"Yeah, it's a great start. 4-1. It's where you want to be," he said. "But like I said, you can't get too caught up in it, you've just got to keep working and there's a reason why we're 4-1 and that's because of the process. That's because we've got guys coming in and working and believing in the system, setting the culture, setting the standard and following it. That's what it means. We've got to continue to do that, and if we continue to do that, continue to believe in each other, when we look back at this thing, we'll be pretty excited."
The best compliment we can give the Giants at this stage is that they clearly hired the right head coach in Daboll, who brought an excellent staff that prepares its players well each week. That's more than can be said about a lot of NFL teams.
