Almost no one is happy with the New York Giants at this point in the season. After Daniel Jones briefly gave the team hope following their 0-2 start and Eli Manning’s benching, the Giants have returned to the ways of last season and have looked less competitive with each game. The team’s loss against the Patriots was forgivable, sure, but the Giants’ performance against the Cardinals, who entered the game as the worst team in their division, didn’t do much to inspire confidence in fans.
The recent string of three straight losses also hasn’t sat well with all of the players on the team – Golden Tate was one of the team’s biggest offseason additions, but according to Tate, he didn’t come here to lose… Which is exactly what the Giants have been doing since his week five return from a four game suspension.
“I didn’t come here to lose, I came here to help get things turned around and help us win a bunch of games,” Tate said on Monday.
Tate did offer a positive take also, however, stating that he doesn’t believe the Giants are too far off in terms of progress to bounce back. “Looking at it, I don’t think we’re light years away from being a really, really, good team. I just think we’re a few plays. Just do a few things a little bit better, and I think we’re in a better situation late in the game.”
One can hope that the Giants only need to do a few things to get better – the Cardinals game seemed to expose some major flaws such as pass blocking and defense against the run, and it looks like fans may just have to wait another year for the team to make offseason adjustments before they can be reliably counted on to win again.
Last season, too, plenty of players were confident in the team making a few tweaks and bouncing back… But that comeback was something that didn’t come, and with the Giants going into week eight with only two wins, the team only seems marginally better than it was last season – perhaps with more potential, but so far, the Giants haven’t done a lot to capitalize on that potential.
Tate has 195 yards in 3 games so far, making him one of the leading receivers for the Giants – but thanks to his suspension and Sterling Shepard’s continual struggles this season with concussions, neither of the Giants’ top receivers have the kind of numbers that they could have at this point in the season if their luck was better.
With Tate showing his competitiveness with statements like this, though, fans can at least put their faith in getting a full effort out of the team’s new edition as the Giants fight to get a win going into the season’s halfway mark.