There is very little that any of the stunned members of the 0-3 New York Giants can say that is helpful following Sunday's 38-0 embarrassment at the hands of the previously winless Carolina Panthers.
The Giants are simply not a good football team right now. If fact, they aren't a competitive one. They have lost five of six regular-season games, and were only competitive in one of those losses -- this year's season-opening 36-31 loss to the Dallas Cowboys. They have been outscored 115-54 this season.
"I'm looking for answers," said defensive end Justin Tuck. "I want to stand up here and say we're better than the 0-3 team that we are, but the facts are the facts. We're 0-3 and we've got a huge hill to climb."
No team has started a season 0-3 and made the playoffs since the Buffalo Bills did it in 1998. The Giants haven't started 0-3 since doing so in both 1995 and 1996.
"There's something missing right now. We gotta look ourselves in the mirror and figure out what that is because if it isn't ugly now it definitely can get uglier," Tuck said. "None of us want that.
"Our offense is struggling right now, our defense is struggling right now. This team is struggling right now. We've gotta have somebody step up and create a spark. "
The Giants thought they might get that from their passing game Sunday. The Giants, though, gave up seven sacks and could not take advantage of injury-riddled Carolina secondary. The Giants ran 50 plays with 25 going for no gain or negative yardage, and two plays resulting in interceptions. Thus, only 23 of their 50 snaps resulted in positive yardage.
"Too many times we were going backwards instead of moving the ball forward," said quarterback Eli Manning. "They were able to get great pressure just bringing four guys. That's tough."