The Chicago Bears are coming off winning one of the wildest NFL games of the year last Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals. The win brought their record to 5-3, and they have a chance to push their record to 6-3, which would be the first time the Bears are 3 games over .500 since 2020, when they started 5-1.
To get you set for this Sunday’s match-up against the New York Giants, we sat down with Ed Valentine from Big Blue View (SB Nation’s NY Giants site) to get you the Giants’ side of things. Here’s
that Q&A.
1. Let’s start with the regime, Brian Daboll and Joe Schoen. Are there fans who want them to return? I didn’t think they should have been retained for 2025, but now that they are here, as Bears fans, we’ve seen too many regime changes in year two of a quarterback, and it rarely goes well.
I think you have to treat them separately, because co-owner John Mara has said he can do that — even though they came in as more or less a package deal.
Most people want Daboll gone. The playoff year of 2022 looks like an anomaly. There has been too much losing, too much poor in-game decision-making and questionable game-day roster management, too many players underachieving. Daboll will play the Dart card in hopes of keeping his job, but that can’t be enough. I’m leery of putting Dart through that kind of change, but there is too much mounting evidence that Daboll is not a head coach.
As for the Year 2 regime change, it is working pretty well for the Bears this time. I do, though, agree that as a general rule it’s not a good thing. Generally, if you are going to draft a guy you hope will be a franchise quarterback, you would like to think you have the coaching staff in place to bring him along.
As for Joe Schoen, there are also a lot of fans who want him gone. I think that is much more complicated because of the amount of change that it brings to an organization, and because of John Mara’s health, as he is currently battling cancer.
2. Let’s talk about the quarterback, Jaxson Dart. What have you seen from him at this point, and what has impressed you the most, and what has you the most concerned at this point about becoming the Giants QB moving forward?
Jaxson Dart IS the quarterback of the future for the Giants. As long as he stays healthy enough, of course. The most impressive thing about Dart is his attitude, his moxie, his willingness to try and lift everyone around him and not accept that the Giants will continue to be bad.
There’s some magic in his play-making ability, and his toughness will make the players around him better. There is a Baker Mayfield comparison there for me. Closer to home for you guys, there is a little Jim McMahon in terms of toughness.
3. The Giants sit at 2-7, which I don’t think would be too surprising based on preseason expectations, but I have to wonder if they were healthy, perhaps they would be surprising people this year. Would things look different if the Giants were healthier?
It honestly has nothing to do with health. They lost a game in Week against the Dallas Cowboys, where they gave up a three-point lead with 25 seconds to play and lost in OT. They lost to a New Orleans Saints team that they are better than after taking a 14-0 lead, and then gifting the Saints with turnovers on five straight possessions. They lost a game to the Denver Broncos, who led 19-0 after three quarters. In that one, they lost a three-point lead with 37 seconds to play and became the first NFL team in more than 1,600 games to play an 18-point lead with less than six minutes to play.
The defense has been atrocious, and it shouldn’t be because there’s enough talent. The game management has been typically suspect. The injuries have mounted over the last couple of weeks, but the Giants should be 5-4. They have no one to blame but themselves, coaches and players, for the fact that they aren’t.
4. What do you make of the Giants’ defense? The statistics look rough in most categories, but there is certainly some individual talent.
As I said above, there is far too much talent for the defense to be as bad as it has been. Now, maybe safety Jevon Holland and cornerback Paulson Adebo aren’t the game changers they were brought in to be, but they are good players.
Brian Burns, Abdul Carter, Kayvon Thibodeaux, and Dexter Lawrence are, on paper, comparable to any four players across a front seven in football. Yet, the pass rush has been sporadic. Lawrence has not played up to the level he established over the last couple of years. The run defense has been embarrassing. The pass coverage hasn’t been very good, either.
So, yeah. Let’s just say the group is underachieving.
5. How do you think this one plays out on Sunday?
The Giants have beaten a Los Angeles Chargers team that was 3-0, and the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles. They are capable of beating any team on any day, even without Malik Nabers and Cam Skattebo.
It is, though, impossible to have any faith that they can win games the way they have played since the fourth quarter of the Denver game, when they somehow gave up 33 points.
Sadly, I just expect more of the same disappointing football from the Giants on what looks like it is becoming an inevitable march toward Brian Daboll getting fired.
