CHICAGO — A concussion cut Jaxson Dart’s explosive Sunday against the Bears short. The Giants collapsed in spectacular fashion again in a 24-20 loss at Soldier Field, setting a franchise record with 11 straight road defeats.
And head coach Brian Daboll is officially on firing watch Monday morning. GM Joe Schoen should be, too.
Even though Daboll claimed meekly to have the answers to still turn this 2-8 team around.
“Yeah, but it hasn’t been [turned around],” Daboll said after choking away a 10-point lead with 10 minutes to play. “That’s another tough loss… I believe in the guys we have in the room, coaches and players. But we lost another tough one, so we gotta start doing it.”
The Giants don’t know how to start doing it, though. Losing is in this regime’s DNA.
No one should be surprised that Dart got hurt in this offense, just as Daniel Jones, Tyrod Taylor, Tommy DeVito and Drew Lock all did.
The promising rookie quarterback completed 19 of 29 passes for 242 yards and carried the ball six times for 66 yards and two touchdowns in a stellar performance.
But Daboll continued calling designed QB runs, even though Dart is the team’s lone remaining bright spot that the Giants should be protecting at all costs with top receiver Malik Nabers and running back Cam Skattebo both out for the year.
Sunday marked Dart’s fourth concussion evaluation of his fledgling NFL career, including one in the preseason and three in the regular season.
His mobility is a weapon, but his aggressiveness and usage in Daboll’s offense makes him a frequent target of big hits. Daboll left him in the Giants’ last two losses late in the fourth quarter to score more points even though it put more hits on Dart’s body.
And on Sunday in Chicago, the recklessness caught up with the head coach when Dart lost a fumble with 5:05 remaining in the third quarter and took a huge hit from Bears defensive lineman Austin Booker from behind as he crumbled to the turf.
Daboll put Dart back on the field for the first two plays of the Giants’ next drive to end the third quarter. But when the fourth quarter started, Russell Wilson was under center for the Giants and Dart was soon ruled out.
Then the Giants (2-8) unraveled on all three sides of the ball.
The Bears’ Caleb Williams hit Rome Odunze for a 2-yard touchdown pass with 3:56 to play. Giants punter Jamie Gillan shanked one to give Chicago good field position.
Williams ran in the go-ahead touchdown himself from 17 yards with 1:47 remaining. And Wilson turned the ball over on downs for the Giants to end a fourth despicable loss.
Afterwards, Daboll was in damage control mode during a press conference that at times felt like a Marx Brothers or Abbott and Costello skit.
He claimed the Giants didn’t know which play Dart got injured on.
“I’m not sure exactly the play that it happened, so I’m just concerned for the kid,” Daboll said. “I don’t know the exact play that it happened for him relative to getting hurt or not getting hurt. I don’t know the play. I don’t know what it was.”
Daboll first claimed that he noticed Dart didn’t look right, so he told the trainers to check him out. But then later, when pressed on details, he mentioned that “coaches on the sideline” had identified Dart didn’t look right.
Daboll also couldn’t remember whether he had noticed Dart looking off in between offensive series or at the end of the quarter.
“It’s unfortunate he got hurt,” is all the coach could muster on running his quarterback into contact so often.
It’s also unfortunate that the Giants have a 3-19 record in their last 22 games, a 5-22 record in their last 27 games, a 5-17-1 record against NFC East opponents under Schoen and Daboll, a 2-14-0 record against the Eagles and Cowboys and 20-40-1 in their four regular seasons.
Numerous Giants players were asked if they still backed Daboll. None of them threw the coach under the bus. Their consistent message was that the losses were on the players, no one else.
“The coaches are not on the field,” left tackle Andrew Thomas said. “We’re out there. We have to make the plays. The coaches can only call the play. We have to execute.”
But there is a larger problem here than missed tackles, dropped passes and penalties, as the Giants’ collapses against the Dallas Cowboys and Denver Broncos this season reinforced.
No one has the answer to how to fix this, even if no one will actually say it.
“I think winning is a habit,” veteran tight end Chris Manhertz said. “With that comes the ability to finish when it’s what we call nut-cuttin’ time, for us to finish the game and punch it through. We have to find ways to finish, and that’s collectively. That’s not to shift any blame on any phase. Collectively we have to learn how to finish games.”
Manhertz was asked if the locker room is losing faith in the coaching staff.
“I don’t think it’s a matter of losing faith in the coaching staff,” he said. “I feel like we all have responsibilities as a coaching staff, as players, to execute. And it’s really a collective thing. Losing faith? We don’t have time for that. We have a game in seven days and whoever we play in seven days 00 i don’t even know who we play — they don’t care that we just gave up a lead and lost.
“I don’t want to feed into the fragmentation of whose fault it is,” he added. “We win together and lose together at the same time.”
Bears safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson forced the Dart fumble just when the Giants were leading, 17-7, and driving into the red zone to stretch their lead to 17 points.
Bears corner Nahshon Wright recovered the giveaway, and the game flipped on the turnover and Dart’s injury.
Giants running back Devin Singletary did spring a 41-yard catch and run on a pass from Wilson on the veteran’s first drive. But Daboll inexplicably settled for a 19-yard Younghoe Koo field goal rather than going for a 4th and goal from the 1-yard line with 10:19 to play.
That gave the Giants a two-score lead, up 20-10. But it was an ignorant decision knowing that field goals are not going to win games the way that Daboll’s team collapses in fourth quarters.
Dart had given the Giants the 17-7 lead with 12:17 remaining in the third quarter on a 24-yard touchdown run, his second of the game, after a Tyrone Tracy 16-yard gallop set it up.
They’ll fly home and host the Green Bay Packers next Sunday at MetLife Stadium. Then they’ll have two more road games at the Detroit Lions and New England Patriots before a Week 14 bye in December.
The Giants led, 10-7, at halftime after Koo made a 32-yard field goal with three seconds remaining in the second quarter.
Dart, who threw for 199 yards in the first half, hit tight end Theo Johnson with two completions for 46 yards to set up Koo’s go-ahead kick.
Bears corner Nahshon Wright should have intercepted Dart in the end zone on the drive, but Giants receiver Gunner Olszewski knocked the ball out of Wright’s hands to preserve New York’s three points.
The Giants were moving the ball even though they had lost leading receiver Darius Slayton temporarily to a hamstring injury midway through the second quarter.
Slayton had made three catches for 85 yards in the first 20 minutes of the game.
In his absence, the Giants’ receiving corps was Wan’Dale Robinson, their top slot receiver, Olszewski, a special teamer, and recent free agent signing Ray-Ray McCloud.
Dart still was cutting up the Bears’ defense, though, delivering six catches for 71 yards to Johnson along with 21 rushing yards and a Dart rushing touchdown in the first half alone.
Slayton was responsible for waking the offense up late in the first quarter after a sluggish start.
The Bears scored first on an 8-yard touchdown run by rookie Kyle Monangai with 5:40 remaining in the first quarter to take a 7-0 lead.
Dexter Lawrence looked like he had recorded a drive-ending sack on the Bears’ second drive. But a holding penalty on Cor’Dale Flott kept Chicago’s offense on the field to score the game’s first touchdown.
The Bears had outgained the Giants 93 yards to 12 through the game’s first 14 minutes. But Slayton made a crazy one-handed catch down the right sideline for a 31-yard gain on the final play of the first quarter.
Then Dart hit Slayton for another 38-yard completion on the first play of the second quarter down to the Bears’ 11 yard line. That set up Dart’s first rushing touchdown from three yards out with 13:06 remaining to tie the game at seven apiece.
The Giants had zero net yards rushing after their first three offensive possessions and the game was still tied, 7-7.
Johnson and the Bears offense, meanwhile, did not commit to running the ball against one of the NFL’s worst rushing defenses. That allowed the Giants pass rush to hassle Williams and force some punts and allow Dart to go to work.
Until Dart wasn’t able to anymore. And the Giants collapsed — again.
Now the question is who will be the Giants’ head coach on Tuesday morning.