Forget the smoke: Joe Judge's NY Giants must look in the mirror to turn this around

EAST RUTHERFORD — Joe Judge has no time for the smoke that currently engulfs the Giants when it comes to his job of trying to build them into winners.

It's all about mirrors.

The Giants can't hide from the team they are right now. They can't hide from 0-2.

Judge knows that. He has to know that.

The reality is what the Giants have put on tape, as Judge likes to say, and right now, the plays preventing this team from winning games are counterintuitive to the discipline and fundamentals the franchise's foundation is supposed to be built on.

"The truth is the truth," Judge said in the aftermath of last Thursday night's heart-wrenching 30-29 defeat on the road against the Washington Football Team.

And the truth is, the Giants are making the kind of mistakes that undermine the head coach and everything for which he stands. Judge preaches attention to detail, but when the game is there for the taking, the Giants have unraveled.

They've managed to create the perception that they are a dumb, careless and selfish team - and that is a strike to the heart of the team tenets Judge believes in.

A dropped touchdown pass by Darius Slayton that would have put the game away.

Consecutive false start penalties by tackles Nate Solder and Andrew Thomas in the fourth quarter, only overcome by a 55-yard field goal from Graham Gano.

A disputed offsides penalty by Dexter Lawrence on a missed game-winning field goal by the Washington Football Team, only to give Dustin Hopkins another chance to send the Giants home with a loss, and he did.

Frustrations boiling over on the sideline with Kenny Golladay - no matter who he was yelling at, it's a bad look - and Kadarius Toney posting passive-aggressive messages on social media that generate more questions than answers from the first-round pick.

The focus should be on the winless Atlanta Falcons, who visit MetLife Stadium on Sunday on a day reserved to also celebrate Eli Manning. It's an opportunity to change the narrative, which right now is not kind to the Giants, and they've brought this upon themselves.

"Regardless of the outcome, you’ve got to come in and really view it objectively," Judge said. "The truth is not found on Twitter. The truth is not found in the articles you read outside the building. The truth is found on the film and the coaching you’re receiving and how you execute as a player when you’re on the field. That’s what the truth is. And if we understand and we stick to the truth of what it is, then all of a sudden we’ll be a better team."

The truth: This isn't what the Joe Judge Giants are supposed to be about.

But right now, it is who they are. That's a hard sell for a team that must find a way to advance beyond the goal of showing weekly progress. The Giants need to break free from the ties that bind them to the failures of the past.

Ben McAdoo's shortcomings became Pat Shurmur's reality and now, the missteps that cost the previous two head coaches continue to cast a shadow over what Judge is trying to accomplish. Maybe not internally, but everything Judge's teams do now is being framed by the losing the Giants have done.

Is that fair to the head coach? No, not really. But that's the business they have chosen.

Daniel Jones deserved so much better last Thursday night. He was dominant on the ground and, as Slayton said, he made every throw necessary to win the game and finally emerge as the quarterback the Giants believe he is.

The NFC East is still there for the taking, even with the Cowboys' impressive win in Los Angeles on Sunday - albeit somewhat controversial. Dallas and Philadelphia, both 1-1, play next Monday night, while 1-1 Washington travels to Buffalo, which crushed Miami on Sunday to get back its swagger.

"When you want to get those results, it ain’t about being frustrated to get results," Judge said. "It’s about working to get results."

Nothing else matters until the Giants take care of the business of winning themselves.

Art Stapleton is the Giants beat writer for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to all Giants analysis, news, trades and more, please subscribe today and sign up for our NFC East newsletter.  

Email: stapleton@northjersey.com 

Twitter: @art_stapleton