JV Giants booed again and Joe Judge challenges the heart of his team in 38-11 loss to Rams

EAST RUTHERFORD — Logan Ryan came into the post-game interview room still in full uniform, nearly 30 minutes after Sunday's 38-11 loss to the Los Angeles Rams. 

When asked why that was the case, the Giants' co-captain and safety said that as a leader of the team, he wanted to make sure he was the first player to address a performance best described by words associated with losing at any level of athletics.

Unacceptable. Embarrassing. Effort, or lack thereof, in far too many cases.

If the heart of a team is being questioned by the head coach at halftime, that's when you know things are not going well.  

Ryan and the Giants were booed off the field in the second quarter, into halftime and twice early in the third quarter. The displeasure voiced by those inside MetLife Stadium on Sunday would have been even louder by game's end — had most of the crowd minus those supporting the Rams not left for the North Jersey highways that surround the Meadowlands.

"It just hasn't been acceptable," Ryan said. "It's not good for the fans, it's not good for anybody outside the building, it's not good inside the building."

The Giants are 0-3 at home this season, and they have been outscored 82-38.

They are 9-26 at home since the start of the 2017, and the results have not changed despite having three different head coaches from Ben McAdoo to Pat Shurmur and now to Joe Judge. 

Judge represented hope when he was hired, and in some ways he still does for many in the organization. But the Giants have managed to turn his message into more of the same. You can't fix a culture and start winning games without leaving the past behind, and the Giants are stuck in an unforgivable time loop when it comes to losing.

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As the losses continue to mount, the Giants are looking more and more like the JV against varsity competition, and that's bad for business across the board.

Leonard Williams offered a candid answer after the game when he admitted that the boos from the home crowd bothered him. They should.

He's not solely responsible for what has transpired for the better part of the last decade, since the team the Giants honored at halftime won Super Bowl XLVI.

But by donning the jersey and the helmet of one of the NFL's most storied franchises, the organization that has four Vince Lombardi trophies on display in the lobby of its training facility, Williams and everyone else who does is also complicit in its failure.

Fans who pay good money and invest in the product with the expectation of winning football are desperate to be heard, venting to anyone without the promise of someone actually listening.

John Mara and Steve Tisch are responsible for this. They sign the checks.

Dave Gettleman made a promise when Shurmur was hired, stood behind Judge when he was hired and again made that promise to fix this. He's yet to fulfill those promises 22 games into the tenure of the second head coach brought here under his watch. 

Judge deserves the kind of patience Gettleman has been granted the past three-plus years, although with outside perception now creeping toward grouping the head coach and general manager together again, it's becoming more and more of a fight to see the forest through the trees. 

The Giants need to fix this with a scalpel, not a hatchet, but when the crowd in Rome at the Coliseum wants blood, it's much easier to craft a new reality with the latter.

"The only ones who can make an impact and change what we’re doing are all the men in that room — the coaches, the players, that’s it. We’re in that submarine right now," Judge said. "If something happens on that submarine, there’s got to be someone on that ship to step up and save that thing. You spring a leak, someone’s got to plug that thing for you. No one’s coming. It won’t get there in time to help you if you don’t fix it yourselves."

Defensive coordinator Patrick Graham essentially called this a "look in the mirror" game for his defense, and the unit allowed Matthew Stafford to throw for four touchdowns with Cooper Kupp and Robert Woods running free after rub routes that made the Giants look silly.

Judge challenged the Giants at halftime. He wanted to see their mettle and competitive spirit in the second half. Quite frankly, Judge needed to see who is still fighting for him and his coaches, and who is not.

That's what this has come down to: The players are letting down the coaches they claim to believe in. Graham returned to the Giants instead of hitting the head coaching tour last offseason, and the players who fell over themselves welcoming him back are destroying his defense and his coaching future beyond this season by the way they're performing.

The Giants (1-5) were outmanned against the Rams from the outset Sunday. Even if they had found a way to beat Washington and the Falcons, Big Blue was going to be underdogs in this one.

Then they lost Saquon Barkley and Kenny Golladay in Dallas, and Kadarius Toney (ankle) on the first drive Sunday, and Andrew Thomas (ankle/foot) in the second quarter.

Still, you can't go out and look like the JV when vintage Don Bosco and Bergen Catholic are running up and down the field doing whatever they want on the road to victory.

"There’s a lot of ball left to be played," Judge said. "We’re in Week 6, so to turn around and start tapping out now — I don’t know what kind of mentality other people have, I don’t quit things, these players don’t quit things. We’re not going to do that, so anyone who’s got that mentality of 'woe is me,' what did you think was going to happen? Did you just think you were going out there, roll the ball out and walk over every opponent? It’s the National Football League, teams are good. You’ve got to play better than them in those 60 minutes every Sunday to have success."

The Giants are still searching for success, and the longer they continue to wait, the louder demands of disapproval from the home crowd — and for blood — are going to get.

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