Did Eli Manning hint at some locker room unhappiness during his post-game remarks on Sunday night following the New York Giants’ 20-13 loss to the Dallas Cowboys?
“Obviously guys are disappointed, some guys are getting frustrated as we should, but we can’t let that affect our preparation or our practices, so we’ve got to bounce back and come back,” Manning said. “Nothing is going to get fixed by complaining, we just need to step it up, make a difference and fix some things.”
The Giants are now 0-2. What was expected to be an explosive offense has been pedestrian, at best, averaging 14.0 points through two games. Sunday, the offense was reduced mostly to checkdowns to Saquon Barkley, who caught an astounding 14 passes.
The offensive line hasn’t been good. There haven’t been enough big plays. Mostly, there has been a pair of season-opening losses.
A year ago, a season that went sour was marked by locker room issues. Mostly by what seemed like a division between the players and the coaching staff. With a new coach and 30 new players the Giants hope to have put all of that behind them.
“When you have new players, a new scheme, a new coach sometimes it takes a little bit of time, especially for your first game on the road. It can take a little bit to get your rhythm and get things going, so we just have to keep working and make sure everyone can figure it out with the coaches to do better, and do differently to put us in a better position,” Manning said.
The Giants, though, are rapidly running out of time. They need answers — and victories — soon.