Will Giants Ownership Show Patience With Coach Brian Daboll And GM Joe Schoen Despite Bad Season?

It's not just all about losing anymore for Brian Daboll and his New York Giants. It's about the embarrassment.

The team trailed the Dallas Cowboys by 35 points late in the third quarter Sunday before eventually losing, 49-17. Embarrassing.

The Cowboys outgained the Giants, 368-27 in the first half and outscored them 28-0 to start the game. By the time it was over, the Cowboys had over 640 total yards -- 640!- on offense. Embarrassing.

The Giants averaged 1.2 yards per play on offense in the first half which speaks to how poorly they opened the game. Embarrassing.

Dak Prescott of the Dallas Cowboys throws a pass against the New York Giants. (Photo by Sam Hodde/Getty Images)

Giants Couldn't Stop Cowboys

The Cowboys sat starting quarterback Dak Prescott with 8 minutes left in the game after he threw for 404 yards and 4 TD passes and replaced him with Cooper Rush. And Rush enjoyed a better rating than Giants starting quarterback Tommy DeVito.

Embarrassing.

The Cowboys thus swept the Giants and outscored their division rivals by a total of 89-17 this season.

Embarrassing!

"Yes," coach Brian Daboll said. "It's no fun to lose. No fun to lose."

It's also not a barrel of monkeys that the question now becomes how much embarrassment Giants ownership will absorb and still stand with Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen?

Because the Giants are 2-8 and there are signs the wheels seem to be wobbling off.

Last week there were headlines when safety Xavier McKinney complained after the Raiders game, another blowout loss, that the team's leaders were "not really being heard" by coaches.

Dak Prescott celebrates with Michael Gallup during the third quarter against the New York Giants. (Photo by Sam Hodde/Getty Images)

Daboll Has Addressed Sideline Antics

The comment was very surprising, probably unfair, but apparently painful to coaches, especially defensive coordinator Wink Martindale. That's because McKinney is one of the defensive captains and leaders.

Martindale admitted the comments hurt.

"It did," he told reporters.

McKinney declined to speak with reporters after this game. So did Dexter Lawrence.

And that comes after we've seen coaches and players have little sideline tiffs with each other at times this season.

"Yeah, no, I've talked to all those guys," Daboll said. "Not the results you want. But get back to work."

The latest was Sunday when receiver Darius Slayton was captured by FOX cameras upset about something or other that he discussed in animated manner with receiver coach Mike Groh. Teammate Sterling Shepard was later seen trying to talk Slayton off some ledge.

"They weren't getting into it," Daboll confirmed. "Little stuff during the game. Not a big deal."

It was a big enough deal that Daboll followed Slayton as the receiver walked away to make sure order prevailed. And all of this -- right or wrong, fair or not -- is a bad look for the Giants.

The optics hurt.

New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll during the second quarter against the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium. (Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images)

Report Raises Possibility Of Giants Change

Then there's this:

New York Daily News reported on Sunday club co-owners John Mara and Steve Tisch have finite patience. And another embarrassing performance against the Cowboys would "turn up the heat inside the building where it's already getting uncomfortable."

The article did not say a loss to Dallas would cause anyone's firing. It said continued struggles would build to where "there's no telling what the Week 13 bye and the Giants' January breakup day could bring."

This is logical. It's the NFL. Winning fathers security and losing breeds the dismantling of teams.

But it feels premature to make decisions on either or both Daboll and Schoen after this season. It definitely feels like the disappointment and regression of 2023 after an encouraging 2022 merit closer scrutiny in the future.

But it doesn't feel like the future should or will go only as far as this season's finale.

Giants owners that endured two years of Joe Judge being 13 games under .500 and two years of Pat Shurmur being 14 games under .500 seem unlikely to change course after two years of Daboll and Schoen rebuilding the mess.

New York's coach and general manager overperformed and got the team to the playoffs last year. This year they may have been guilty of overselling what the roster was capable of doing.

And when the roster suffered setbacks -- including multiple injuries at quarterback and offensive tackle -- the season started to collapse.

What is more likely is that ownership will set and rightly expect significant progress next season.

"Not the results we want, not the record we want," Daboll growled. "But everybody's a pro. Get back to work and do everything we can do to be better.

"We all can do better starting with me."

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