Is the New York Giants’ season already on the brink after one game? That’s how it feels after a disheartening 28-6 loss to the Vikings in Sunday’s season opener.

Here’s a final look at yet another discouraging season opener:

Jones’ last stand?

Giants quarterback Daniel Jones made the first start of the second season since signing a four-year, $160 million contract on Sunday. He has only made seven starts since signing that deal and has only finished five games.

Yet, coach Brian Daboll fielded questions postgame Sunday and again during his Monday postmortem about whether he will bench Jones. Daboll affirmed that he is sticking with Jones.

It may seem wild that Daboll is fielding those questions so early in the season. But it’s wilder that the questions are completely legitimate.

It’s not just that Jones didn’t perform well in Sunday’s loss. It’s that he looked like a rattled, broken quarterback. He looked even worse than he did last season when serious concerns about his future were raised by poor performance and injuries.

Benching Jones after one ugly showing in his return from a torn ACL would be an overreaction. But it’s fair to wonder about the length of his leash.

Daboll had a quick hook for underperforming veterans in his first two seasons. Wide receiver Kenny Golladay was benched after one game in 2022, and guard Mark Glowinski got the same treatment last season.

But changing quarterbacks is a far more consequential decision, especially with no assurances that backup Drew Lock will be a significant upgrade. It would be much different if Giants general manager Joe Schoen had successfully traded up for a quarterback in this year’s draft. The calls to play the rookie would be deafening already. Think back to Jones’ rookie season in 2019 when he took over as the starter after franchise icon Eli Manning was benched in Week 3.

Even without a quarterback of the future waiting in the wings, Daboll’s patience will grow thin if Jones doesn’t turn things around quickly. A favorable matchup against a bad Commanders defense that allowed 37 points in a Week 1 loss to the Buccaneers could signal Jones’ last stand.

If Jones flops against the Commanders, a quarterback change should become a serious consideration next week.

GO DEEPER

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Not a concern

It’s obvious that Jones’ injury guarantee — the Giants will owe him $23 million if he suffers an injury and can’t pass a physical if the team cuts him next offseason — isn’t weighing on Daboll’s mind.

Daboll called three power runs for Jones, exposing the quarterback to additional hits in his first game back from a major injury. Jones needs to use his legs to be an effective quarterback, so Daboll can’t call plays with a fear of injury.

Trailing 28-6, Daboll called timeouts to get the ball back during Minnesota’s final possession. The Vikings punted to the Giants with 1:36 remaining, and Daboll kept Jones in the game.

The only explanation for keeping the quarterback and the rest of the starters in for a garbage-time drive is that Daboll was trying to give the offense a chance to end the game with some positive feelings. Instead, Jones took two more hits on a pathetic drive that resulted in a punt back to the Vikings with 29 seconds remaining.

GO DEEPER

The two decisions that look even worse for the Giants today

Outmatched

Brian Flores was a finalist for the Giants’ head coaching job that went to Daboll in 2022. Flores infamously didn’t get that job — and he still has a pending discrimination lawsuit against the Giants, Broncos, Texans and the NFL — so the Vikings defensive coordinator had extra motivation to make a statement on Sunday.

Flores certainly got the better of Daboll in the battle of former Bill Belichick assistants.

Daboll’s game plan was based on an expectation of a pressure-heavy attack from the ultra-aggressive Flores. But Flores threw a curveball, blitzing on just 22.4 percent of the snaps on Sunday, according to Next Gen Stats. Flores led the league with a 48.8 percent blitz rate last season.

The Giants leaned on heavy personnel with two and three tight ends in an attempt to minimize the exotic looks Flores could deploy on early downs. That was understandable in theory, but it didn’t play to the Giants’ strengths, which are at wide receiver. They don’t have dynamic receiving weapons at tight end, so getting the Vikings to put bigger defensive personnel on the field didn’t yield mismatches in the passing game.

ICYMI: Catch up with @DDuggan21 and I’s live room from yesterday. AKA a very nice therapy session for #giants fans. https://t.co/S4Ku1u0ucM

— Charlotte Carroll (@charlottecrrll) September 10, 2024

The Vikings electing not to send extra rushers against the Giants’ big personnel led to multiple max protect pass plays with seven or eight defenders in coverage. That helps explain the lack of a deep passing attack because the Vikings had plenty of defensive backs to cover two receivers running routes.

Conceivably, the bigger personnel would be a boost for the run game, but the Giants couldn’t get anything going on the ground. Devin Singletary, Eric Gray and Tyrone Tracy combined for 45 yards on 14 carries (3.2 yards per carry).

The inability to run the ball or pass effectively on early downs forced the Giants into a whopping 18 third downs. The Giants went 6-for-11 on third-and-7 and shorter and 1-for-7 on third-and-8 and longer. Obviously, getting into so many third-and-longs is not a recipe for success, especially because that allowed Flores to deploy the type of looks Daboll was aiming to avoid.

Getting conservative

Daboll appears to have lost his nerve as an aggressive coach. After conservatively calling a pair of Jones keepers, Daboll was faced with fourth-and-3 from the Vikings’ 49-yard line with four minutes left in the second quarter. Trailing 14-3, Daboll elected to punt. The lack of confidence in the offense was palpable on the two Jones runs and the decision to punt.

Trailing 28-6 late in the third quarter, the Giants had fourth-and-3 on their own 37-yard line. Daboll kept the offense on the field, but it was just so Jones could try to draw the Vikings offside with a hard count. That didn’t work, so the Giants took a delay of game penalty and punted. It probably wouldn’t have mattered if the Giants converted in that spot, but Daboll waved the white flag with the punt.

Strange choices

There were some head-scratching personnel decisions in the opener. Cor’Dale Flott, who worked exclusively at outside corner during the offseason, was the starting slot corner in the Giants’ nickel package. Rookie Dru Phillips, who had won the starting slot corner job in camp, was relegated to a reduced role in the dime package.

“Just getting ready to go here for the first game, we thought that that was the best thing for us,” Daboll said.

Phillips made an impact in limited action, forcing a fumble on his first career snap. Phillips took over as the slot cornerback in the second half after corner Nick McCloud left with a knee injury, and Flott shifted outside.

Daboll indicated Flott will probably play outside more going forward, especially with McCloud “day-to-day, maybe week-to-week.”

Linebacker Micah McFadden didn’t play despite not being listed as questionable on the injury report. McFadden had been dealing with a groin injury that limited him in practice last week. Daboll said McFadden was on a pitch count, but wasn’t used because rookie Darius Muasau played well. Muasau tallied six tackles and an interception while playing 82 percent of the snaps in his debut.

Returner Gunner Olszewski aggravated his groin injury in pregame warmups and will be out “weeks,” according to Daboll. While a pregame re-injury was impossible to predict, the Giants paid for not having a true backup punt returner active considering Olszewski clearly wasn’t 100 percent.

The Giants only had 51 players on the active roster for the opener in a cost-cutting move. That made it indefensible to not have a backup punt returner on the roster. Wide receiver Darius Slayton, who had no punt returns in his first five seasons, was forced to replace Olszewski. That was an adventure, as Slayton failed to field his first punt cleanly and then fumbled the return.

The Giants signed Ihmir Smith-Marsette to replace Olszewski after working out returners on Monday. A fifth-round pick by the Vikings in 2021, Smith-Marsette has been on four teams in three seasons. He averaged 8.7 yards on 37 punt returns for the Panthers last season. He was released by Carolina on Aug. 28.

Second-year wide receiver Jalin Hyatt played just 23 percent of the snaps, and even that total is misleading. Hyatt played just three snaps in the first half before getting most of his playing time when the game was decided in the fourth quarter.

The Giants gave Hyatt every opportunity to win the No. 2 receiver job in camp, but Slayton proved to be a better, more reliable option. Hyatt had a bad drop on his lone target on Sunday.

Daboll called Hyatt the team’s “third/fourth” receiver, so it seems like he has ground to make up. But he could get an opportunity this week because Slayton is in the concussion protocol.

Out for the year?

Carter Coughlin is likely out for the season after Daboll said the linebacker will be out for “months” with a pec injury. Coughlin was on the active roster before getting cut last Thursday and re-signed to the practice squad Friday. He was then elevated Sunday, playing 10 snaps on special teams before the injury.

The Giants juggled the roster for financial reasons, as Coughlin’s $1.1 million salary would have been guaranteed for the season if he was on the active roster for Week 1 because he’s a vested veteran. Making him a practice squad elevation provided the team more flexibility with Coughlin, although his injury will cut into the savings from the roster gymnastics. Coughlin will make $570,000 for the season, which is the minimum salary for a player with his experience on IR.

Formation notations

The Giants mostly played a base 3-4 defense and a nickel package with two defensive linemen, four linebackers and five defensive backs on Sunday. Defensive coordinator Shane Bowen used a dime package eight times on passing downs.

Deonte Banks and Adoree’ Jackson were the perimeter cornerbacks with Phillips or Flott in the slot in the dime package. Dane Belton was the third safety in the package, playing in the box at the “money” position. With Belton filling that role, Isaiah Simmons didn’t play a defensive snap.

The Giants added outside linebacker Azeez Ojulari to Brian Burns and Kayvon Thibodeaux on three third downs in the dime package in the second half. Burns lined up off the ball across from a guard on those three snaps. Like the rest of the game, the package with the three outside linebackers didn’t produce much of a pass rush.

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(Photo of Daniel Jones: Mitchell Leff / Getty Images)

By Hailey Salvian, Shayna Goldman and Sean Gentille

We waited more than a year for proper PWHL nicknames and logos. Now that we have them, courtesy of Monday’s official unveiling, we’re not going to waste any more time.

Which of the six new combos — the Boston Fleet, Minnesota Frost, Montréal Victoire, New York Sirens, Ottawa Charge and Toronto Sceptres — is our No. 1? How do the rest measure up?

The Athletic’s Hailey Salvian, Shayna Goldman and Sean Gentille teamed up for the definitive ranking.

1. Montréal Victoire

Hailey rank: 1
Sean rank: 3
Shayna rank: 1

Shayna: Everything about Montreal’s look and branding just clicks. Victoire just feels fresh relative to other names associated with Montreal hockey in the past (and present, really). It’s something that works for both French and English speakers, too. The maroon of the color scheme feels grand enough to match the energy that the name brings, and using cream over white adds a classic touch. The navy completes the look and accents the logo. I have nitpicks here or there with the rest of the teams, so the combination of the name and logo makes this an easy No. 1 for me.

Hailey: I was surprised at how much I liked Montreal, considering I wanted the league to go back to Les Canadiennes from the CWHL days. Regardless, Montreal has the best combination of name and logo, which is why it gets the edge over New York and Toronto for me. There’s more detail to appreciate in the Montreal logo specifically, with the fleur-de-lis and the hidden M toward the bottom. “Victoire” is also just a cool name to have for a team with the most clutch player in the history of the women’s game.

Sean: I almost feel bad having them at No. 3. Shayna and Hailey are correct about everything. I really appreciate the freshness of the package — if this one isn’t groundbreaking, it’s pretty close. Also, the logo looks like a diamond! Nobody else said that!

2. Toronto Sceptres

Hailey rank: 3
Sean rank: 2
Shayna rank: 2

Hailey: If you asked me immediately after the PWHL announcement, I’d probably have “Sceptres” lower than No. 3 and maybe I was just being a picky local because I can see Coca-Cola Coliseum from my apartment. But Toronto’s logo might be my favorite of the six and the name is really growing on me – if nothing else it’s certainly unique. The colors look great, and I do think a team like Toronto – with fans who dressed up as spoons and nurses last season – could have a lot of fun with this. Sarah Nurse literally has a brand with the motto “Queen Energy Only.”

Shayna: Absolutely yes to the logo and to the color scheme. The name just … I need some time with this one. The Toronto teaser tweeted out the other day made me think “Royals” or “Monarchs” was the direction here, and I think either of those would have slapped. Sceptres isn’t a bad name and it’s unique to a sports team, it just doesn’t roll off the tongue yet.

Sean: I didn’t like the nickname initially — like, at all — but it grew on me pretty quickly … if we’re grading on a curve. I don’t love a monarchy; Canadian money bothers me for this reason. Still, points for creativity, the originality of a navy-light blue-gold combo and the best logo of the bunch. It’ll sell well with Taylor Swift fans.

Hailey: I didn’t even consider that. Sean might be the biggest Swiftie of the group!

3. New York Sirens

Hailey rank: 2
Sean rank: 1
Shayna rank: 6

Sean: I’m hard to please when it comes to team names. I don’t like collective nouns (i.e., “Kraken”), but I’m also not looking for more Panthers or Vikings. That’s a small sweet spot, and nobody hit it more directly than the Sirens. The logo isn’t my favorite — something about the way the wordmark halves the Y — but I think it’ll pop as a center crest.

The main reason I have them in my top spot: I don’t think any name-logo combo is more cohesive. “Sirens” works as a reference to hockey, yes, but also Long Island Sound, and I continue to love that shade of teal, especially in concert with the New York Liberty and Gotham FC. It’s the total package.

Hailey: I was Team New York Sirens until my last-minute swerve to the Montreal bandwagon. I think the name Sirens is my favorite, but the Montreal logo was the tie-breaker in my ranking. The colors are great, and the synergy with women’s sports in the tri-state area is a nice touch. This team has a lot of potential with in-arena activations, too. Can we get a giant siren?

Shayna: I absolutely love New York leaning into teal to stay consistent with the Liberty and Gotham FC. But the name is a no from me. I know it’s probably a reference to the water, but my immediate thought was: “We get it, New York’s loud with a lot of sirens.” I actually would prefer the Sound, which was one of those original trademarks leaked last year. That made sense for a team that bounced among New York, Connecticut and New Jersey. As for the logo – remember the Superman S you probably sketched on your notebook in middle school? This feels like a dressed-up version of that.

4. Boston Fleet

Hailey rank: 4
Sean rank: 4
Shayna rank: 3

Sean: I had a pretty defined top three and bottom three — half the brands seem to be going for one thing, and half another — and Boston was the best of the second batch based largely on the logo. It helps that the letter ‘B’ looks so much like a fishhook, but credit where it’s due. I also spy a bit of a Hartford Whalers reference, if you look from the side. Is that me projecting? Perhaps. In any case, it’s fine. A little uninspired, but fine. As for the name, I don’t like “Fleet,” but I also dislike it less than the other (Anglo) collective nouns.

Hailey: While Boston is a tier below Montreal, New York and Toronto, it’s also the best of the rest for me. The logo is far superior to Ottawa and Minnesota – the details inside the B and the anchor shape – though I like the “Charge” name more than “Fleet.” I can’t imagine it’s easy developing a sports brand in a city with the Red Sox, Bruins and Celtics, but this is a nice entry.

Shayna: Boston may have one of the coolest logos here, which really boosts its ranking. The anchor-like B is just so sharp. If that W is an intentional reference to the Whalers, I like it even more as a way to celebrate New England hockey in the post-Connecticut Whale era. The name I was initially sour on, but it’s not that bad. It’s a nice nod to Boston’s history and overall being a major seaport.

5. Minnesota Frost

Hailey rank: 5
Sean rank: 5
Shayna rank: 5

Shayna: I was really rooting for the “Reign” here with the purple scheme as a nod to Prince, but this isn’t a bad direction. The Minnesota Frost is honestly a pretty sick name that makes a lot of sense for a hockey team without being too cheesy and literal. The reason they don’t rank higher isn’t because the other teams are all so incredible that it was a process of elimination. The logo just falls short and drags the entire branding down. The ‘F’ is a promising start, but feels so incomplete.

Sean: This feels more like a create-a-team template than any of the others. I guess the negative space creates a mountain, which … it’s something. Points for purple.

Hailey: More than the other teams, Minnesota feels like a victim to the legal process when it comes to naming sports teams in 2024. The Ontario Reign already exist in the AHL, and the league clearly wanted new names it could fully own. I honestly don’t dislike the Frost – or any of the names for that matter – and I love the colors, but I can’t stop thinking about the F being on a cartoon superhero. I thought it was Frozone, but he doesn’t wear purple.

6. Ottawa Charge

Hailey rank: 6
Sean rank: 6
Shayna rank: 4

Shayna: Ottawa is very middle-of-the-road for me. I think the more I look at it, the more I find flaws with it. The color scheme doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but red-yellow-white is bright and eye-catching on the ice which I can appreciate. But I second what Sean said earlier on collective nouns for team names. And the logo (plus the color scheme) is giving knock-off Calgary Flames. I do love the Flames look and logo, so it’s not necessarily a bad thing. It just isn’t my favorite!

Hailey: I honestly don’t have strong feelings about Ottawa: The name works well enough for me, and the logo is fine. The whole electric charge vibe would have been cool if Daryl Watts was still on the team. Too soon! I’m sorry!

Sean: “Go Charge Go” is going to be a great arena chant, but the rest of it looks way too close to a software company logo from, like, 1997 for my taste. Sorry.

(Images courtesy of PWHL)

James Earl Jones, who was 93 when he died Monday, will be remembered by baseball purists for the stirring, soul-reaching words he delivered in the 1989 film “Field of Dreams.”

Cast as a fictitious writer named Terence Mann, Jones is nominally speaking to Kevin Costner’s Ray Kinsella. But what he’s really doing is speaking to anyone in the audience who has long wondered whatever became of the baseball cards they collected growing up. He’s speaking to anyone who ponders what Babe Ruth would hit today, or what Shohei Ohtani would have hit yesterday. He’s speaking to anyone who’s ever held a baseball glove up to their nose just to smell the leather.

We know this to be true partly because of the staging. Mann is facing the camera while standing on the edge of a baseball field that’s been carved out of an Iowa cornfield. But the real magic comes from Jones, who uses his rich baritone voice in such a way that we want to go outside and build a ball field:

The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It’s been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and it could be again.

These words have become a baseball anthem without music, in much the same way Jones, accompanied by the Morgan State University choir, recited “The Star Spangled Banner” before the start of the 1993 All-Star Game at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

And yet Jones was not a baseball fan growing up. And he did not fall hopelessly in love with the game as a result of appearing in such baseball-themed movies as “The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings” (1976) and “The Sandlot”(1993), as well as the Phil Alden Robinson-directed “Field of Dreams.”

But neither was Marlon Brando a mafia boss before “The Godfather,” or Margaret Hamilton a witch, wicked or otherwise, before “The Wizard of Oz.” What we see from Jones in “Field of Dreams” is an actor who pulled all the necessary dramatic levers and pulleys inside him to become a baseball fan, or, in my case, the kind of baseball fan I remember as a kid growing up just two miles from Fenway Park.

In the scene in which Kinsella has somehow convinced Mann to attend a Boston Red Sox game at Fenway, we see Jones watching the action in a manner that jumped out at me when I first watched “Field of Dreams.” While Costner’s Kinsella is busily jotting down the name “Moonlight Graham” on his scorecard, Jones’ Terence Mann shows us a look of earnestness mixed with a dash of serenity as he watches the game action. In an era before mobile phones, before the wave, before beer decks, before walk-up music, that’s how people watched baseball. It’s such a small thing, but Jones figured it out.

Yes, it’s the “people will come” exhortation on the ballfield in Dyersville, Iowa, that transformed Jones into a baseball icon. But it’s what happens just before the speech that had me wanting to stand up and applaud when I first watched “Field of Dreams.” As Kinsella’s brother-in-law (played by Timothy Busfield, who happens to be a for-real baseball fan) charges into the scene to announce that Ray is bankrupt and must sell the farm, we see Mann with a copy of “The Baseball Encyclopedia.” In the pre-internet days, it was the baseball bible. And Mann treats it as one. It’s on his lap, open, perhaps to the page revealing the lifetime stats of Shoeless Joe Jackson, Eddie Cicotte, Buck Weaver or any one of those baseball-playing ghosts on the field.

That struck a note with Larry Cancro, a senior vice president with the Red Sox who has worked on the marketing side of things for nearly four decades. He told of a time when he was around 10 years old and his family was visiting relatives in Melrose, Mass. “I was sitting there with my three sisters,” he said, “and my father’s cousin had a copy of ‘The Baseball Encyclopedia.’ It was the first time I’d ever seen one. And I started poring through it. In the years to come, I ended up getting several copies. When you see that scene in ‘Field of Dreams,’ there’s James Earl Jones, proudly holding a copy. Only a real baseball fan sits there looking through ‘The Baseball Encyclopedia.’”

Cancro helped facilitate the Fenway Park scene in “Field of Dreams,” shot while the Red Sox were on the road. Costner and Jones are seated in Loge Box 157, Row PP, Seats 1 and 2.

Cancro is happy to report that the two actors were “gracious and friendly” to all Red Sox employees who were involved in the shoot. Even better, Cancro remembers the bond that formed between Jones and the late Joe Mooney, the longtime Fenway Park groundskeeper who was one of those old-timey curmudgeons with a way of being standoffish to strangers. He could also display exaggerated disinterest when dealing with celebrities whom he perceived as not being real fans, or not knowing the history of Fenway Park, or both.

“The way Joe operated, if you were there to show off or trying to be a big deal, he wanted nothing to do with you,” Cancro said. “Joe was a sweet guy, of course, if he knew you. But he and James Earl Jones really hit it off. Kevin Costner, too. But the thing with James Earl Jones, they were laughing and having a good time. Joe liked him, which is really all you need to know about James Earl Jones being at Fenway Park.”

Now, there are baseball purists who have their issues with “Field of Dreams.” There’s the late Ray Liotta’s Shoeless Joe Jackson batting right-handed. (Shoeless Joe was a left-handed hitter.) There’s Kinsella navigating his Volkswagen bus the wrong way on Lansdowne Street behind Fenway Park. But there can be no denying what Jones brought to the production, from his spoken baseball anthem to his very believable portrayal of Terence Mann, who, we learn, grew up loving the game and dreaming of playing alongside Jackie Robinson at Ebbets Field.

As Jones often said, he considered himself more of a stage actor than a film actor. He won three Tony Awards. Nor was “Field of Dreams” his most famous film role. Providing the voice of Darth Vader in the “Star Wars” films pretty much ends that discussion. In terms of honors, he earned an honorary Academy Award in 2011 and was nominated for best actor in “The Great White Hope” (1970).

He won Primetime Emmy Awards for “Heat Wave”(1990) and “Gabriel’s Fire” (1991), a Daytime Emmy for “Summer’s End” (2000) and a Grammy Award for “Best Spoken Word” in “Great American Documents” (2000). When joined with his three Tonys — “The Great White Hope” (1969), “Fences” (1987) and a Lifetime Achievement Award (2017) — and his honorary Oscar, he is in the rare company of actors who achieved EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) status. In “Fences,” he plays the role of Troy, a former baseball player in the Negro Leagues. Other notable film roles include “Coming to America” (1988), “Claudine” (1974), “Cry, the Beloved Country” (1995) and the voice of Mufasa in “The Lion King” (1994).

And yet in an interview for “Field of Dreams at 25,” he called the film “one of the very few movies I’ve done that I really cherish.”

Looking back on the film, Jones said, “Magic can happen if you just let it happen and don’t force it. And that was (director) Phil Robinson’s choice with ‘Field of Dreams.’”

The same could be said of his portrayal of Terence Mann. He just let it happen. He didn’t force it. In doing so, his voice marks the time.

(Photo: Kevin Winter / Getty Images for the American Film Institute)