The 0-5 New York Giants have been the most underwhelming team in the NFL this season. Even before the rash of injuries hit last weekend, Ben McAdoo had been on the hot stove due to continuous mistakes made by him and his offense. And New York’s defense, which held the team up many times last year, has been a liability.
Now Odell Beckham Jr. is done following surgery, free agent bust Brandon Marshall had surgery, too, along with Dwayne Harris — all three of them out for the year. Big Blue has no running game, either, features a turnstile offensive line and an aging quarterback whose best days are clearly behind him.
McAdoo knows his team is seen as an underdog these days, to say the least. Especially heading into Denver, which will likely eat New York’s offense for breakfast. But he’s not giving into all that.
“We’ve got a great opportunity. There’s nobody giving us a chance in hell to go win this ball game,” McAdoo said, via The Record and NorthJersey.com.
Whether due to an unwavering sense of confidence or due to an exceptional job of acting, McAdoo still thinks his team has what it takes to play at a high level.
“People don’t think we can score without 13 [Odell Beckham]. They think our defense has lost its stinger. Special teams isn’t important in the whole locker room. So we’re gonna find out what we’re made out of on a big stage. And I think we have a good football team.”
The thing is, the Giants couldn’t score, even with OBJ. And the team’s defense left its stinger in 2016. Stats aren’t everything all the time, but in these two cases they tell a very compelling story: New York has the NFL’s fifth-worst scoring offense (16.4 points per game) and the league’s sixth-worth total defense.
That’s the very definition of “not good.”
It’s hard to imagine Big Blue turning its season around. Especially this weekend. The Broncos feature the league’s top-ranked defense, are coming off a bye and are at home. Nobody’s giving the Giants a “chance in hell” to win this one, because they don’t have one.