“We have to earn their cheers,” head Ccoach Joe Judge said when talking about the fans after the team’s first loss against the Denver Broncos on Sunday. “We got to play better for them.”

They did play better, but it did not change the result. After their second loss in less than a week, this is now the fourth consecutive year they have begun the season with an 0-2 record. 

Having struggled for years now, the Giants organization decided to put all their chips into QB Daniel Jones this season. They added multiple receivers, revamped the defense, and improved the offensive line. These moves showed that if Jones is indeed their guy, he was going to prove it by leading a winning football team this year. But the fans are not content, they do not feel like the Giants have met expectations up to this point.

“That was a bad game between two bad teams, and we found a way to lose,” said Timothy Guerrero, a diehard fan from Essex County, New Jersey . “I think Chris Canty (ex Giants player) tweeted we “snatched defeat from the jaws of victory” and bad teams find a way to lose those games.”

Just a week ago, there were tremendous expectations for Giants fans coming into the season. Just like the organization, there were many believers in the potential of Daniel Jones, and where he could lead this team. This also came with the excitement of the return of star RB Saquon Barkley, who missed almost all of last year with a torn ACL. 

“I thought we had a good chance of making the playoffs going into this game,” said Anthony Aliberti, a fan who was at Bar Texas Arizona in Hoboken, New Jersey . “This was a divisional game, so I thought this was a big one to win, and it was a tough loss.”

Coming into the game, Daniel Jones was 4-0 in his career against the Washington Football Team, while being 4-19 against every other team. He had clearly shown that his best performances came against their division rival, but even a great performance from him last night was not enough to push them over the top. 

Fan Thomas Defrancesco, from Passaic County, was adamant that Jones is not the answer for this franchise.

“He only plays well against The (Washington) Football Team, so I would say another quarterback for the future,” DeFrancesco said.

But From the Giants’ point of view, they still have 15 games left this season and they still have a chance to turn the season around. 

In last night’s postgame press conference,  Jones said they have to move forward as a team.

“We’ve got to get past that and get to work,” Jones said. “Put our heads back down and focus on what we need to do to improve as a team and make sure that we’re in a better position to win games.”

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After starting the season 1-7, and losing to their divisional rival Philadelphia Eagles, fans of the New York Giants are becoming uneasy about the current state of their favorite team.   

“They don’t have a winning mindset” said Daniel Medina of Mexico City. “They shouldn’t be afraid of going against any team.”

Losing seven out of the first eight games of the season ends all playoff hopes for the franchise that hasn’t won a playoff game since 2011. Even with the star power of wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr and first round draft pick, running back Saquon Barkley, the Giants still can’t find ways to win in crucial games.

“It’s just annoying to watch how we can’t finish games, especially divisional games that matter most,” Medina added.

The Giants looked strong heading into the second half with a 19-11 lead. Their offense, which has struggled this season could not manage to score a touchdown and failed to convert on meaningful third downs in the second half to keep drives alive. Many of the offensive struggles has been pointed to quarterback Eli Manning, who is in his 14th season and won two Superbowls with the Giants.

“He’s trash, he’s old and he’s not winning us games” said Angel Cruz of the Lower East Side. “We should let him (Eli) go and let Saquon and Odell be the face of the team.”

Angel Cruz of the Lower East Side and his son are loyal New York Giants fans. They hope their team can find a way and finish the season strong. Photo by Chinedu Onyemaobi

According to Pro Football Reference, the New York Giants are ranked 22nd out of 32 teams in points per game, 20th in total yards per game, 29th in rushing yards per game and 12th in passing yards per game.

Playing to their strength, Manning threw the ball 37 times and targeted receiver Odell Beckham Jr nine times. Beckham Jr, who is the active leader in yards per reception, caught five of the nine targets for 85 yards, but failed to reach the end zone, something he hasn’t done much this season. The Philadelphia Eagles were missing six starters, three from their secondary, but managed to put Manning and the offense in precarious situations.

“Knowing they were struggling with injuries in the secondary, personally I would’ve loved to attack them. But that wasn’t in our game plan,” said Odell Beckham Jr to ESPN after Sunday’s game.

Blame is being pointed toward their offense, but defensively the Giants are ranked 25th in scoring defense and have the 4th worst 3rd down defense in the NFL. With teams such as the Indianapolis Colts and Chicago Bears coming up on the schedule, who are ranked in the top ten offensively, some fans are worried about the holes on defense.  

“Defensively they need to get better, their pass rush is bad, and they don’t tackle” Cruz said. “If arm tackling is the new way to tackle, they better get it straightened out. ”

The Giants have five  games left in the regular season, with two more divisional games against the Washington Redskins and the Dallas Cowboys. With a 3-8 record, the playoffs seem very unlikely.  Since the start of the 2017 season, the Giants have a 6-21 record, the second lowest total win percentage of teams in the NFL.

Although many bash Manning for his underachievement, some fans still feel Eli has some magic left in the tank.

“I’m with Eli all the way,” said Jesus DeLacruz of Highbridge, Bronx. “I think it’s the coaches fault for not managing the play calling well enough.”

The Giants can look forward to the upcoming 2019 NFL Draft, where  a large  pool of talented quarterbacks will be up for grabs. Front office executives and draft experts believe the Giants should look towards University of Oregon’s Justin Herbert or University of Missouri’s Drew Locke.

“Next year we should go all out for a quarterback, draft him and stash him,” said DeLacruz. “ It’s time to look forward to the future.”  

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David Gomez and his daughter, 9-year-old Melinda, look on during Tuesday's Giants Super Bowl parade. Photo by Louie Lazar.

With a blue “NY” painted on her face and grinning as if she was awaiting entry into Willie Wonka’s chocolate factory, Melinda Gomez, 9, had a single word to describe how she felt about missing school in favor of the Giants’ Super Bowl parade.

“Happy,” the fourth-grader said.

“Happy is an understatement,” added her father, David Gomez, who’d brought the family in from Long Island for the occasion.

Melinda was one of countless pint-sized Giants fans who’d been excused from school to help pack the championship procession route along Broadway in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday.

In Thomas Paine Park, father-child piggyback rides were a common sight and kids, seeking better views, perched themselves in trees like oversized pigeons. In one of those trees, about 15 feet above ground, were 10-year-old twins Eric and Chris Schneider, who wore matching Giants Super Bowl shirts. They’d taken the Long Island Railroad here with their father, David Schneider, who sat underneath the tree like a spotter at an Olympic gymnastics event.

“These guys never miss school,” the elder Schneider said. “But this is worth it.”

Schneider said he had no misgivings about removing his kids from school, since they’re both straight A students.

Plus, “their mom said it was okay,” he said.

Twin brothers Chris and Eric Schneider, 10, climbed a tree to get a better look at the parade route. The straight A students missed their first day of school all year. Photo by Louie Lazar.

Across Worth Street, where tour buses lined the curb and passing fans barked out expletive-filled chants, a group of eager elementary school children stood on steps outside the City Clerk Office. Some were giggling, others had missing teeth, but nearly all held up signs that read “Go Giants!,” “PS1 Loves U,” or “PS1 Mrs. Curry’s Class.”

An adult identifying herself as their teacher, Mrs. Curry, denied that the kids were skipping class.

“They’re not missing school,” she insisted, noting that their building was just down the street and that the event was a cultural experience.

“It’s their lunch,” she also made clear.

Back in the park, with anticipation and raucousness building as floats neared the vicinity,
Mario Gomez of Hasbrouck Heights, N.J., stood on a bench alongside his children, Mario, 10 and Odaliana, 7. Immediately after the Giants had clinched the title Sunday night, Gomez said he’d obtained permission from each of his kids’ teachers with regard to their absence on Tuesday.

He stressed that he’d attached a condition to his kids attending the parade.

“I made sure they did their homework,” Gomez said, with much seriousness. “I don’t want them to get penalized.”

Jubilant third grade students from PS1 attend the Giants parade during their lunch break on Tuesday. Photo by Louie Lazar.

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Dave Cutolo used a plastic red horn to inspire fans at the Giants Super Bowl parade to cheer. Photo by Chris Palmer.

Thousands of Giants’ fans traveled from all over the New York metro region to attend today’s Super Bowl victory parade in Lower Manhattan, but one boisterous group of supporters on Cortlandt Street only had to walk a few blocks to catch the action.

“We do whatever we want, we’re stock brokers!” said Dave Cutolo, 44, oozing with bravado.

Cutolo, of Murray Hill, was standing with a group of work associates who all worked “down the street,” he said, without identifying the company they worked for. Wearing a black coat over his brown suit and patterned yellow tie, he held a plastic red horn that he bought from a street vendor in one hand, a coffee cup half-filled with beer in the other.

Cutolo and pals all wore suits and overcoats, standing out in a sea of people clad in Giants’ blue. But their attire didn’t prevent them from mixing in with the crowd: they hooted, hollered, laughed and screamed at passerby, passing the horn around and joining in the various “Let’s Go Giants!” chants that arose out of the massive crowd bordering Broadway.

Elvin Lopez, left, and Ron McClintock are stock brokers who were enjoying themselves at the Giants' Super Bowl parade. Photo by Chris Palmer

Ron McClintock, 32, a member of this stock-broking entourage, brushed off the idea that they were sacrificing time at work for a day of partying, saying that they could easily enjoy themselves while being productive.

“We’ll go back and forth,” he said, confidence dripping out of his pores. “We’ll go back (to the office), make some calls, make some money, and then come back.”

And the celebration would last all night, he said.

“See all these women?” he said, motioning to the enormous crowd. “I’m going to be like a fish net, scooping up everything.”

McClintock and Elvin Lopez, 31, were eager to express their love of this season’s Giants’ team, and Lopez said the way the team fought through the playoffs was representative of the city’s attitude.

“It’s such a New York story,” he said. “Everyone’s walking a little taller today, a little prouder.”

“It’s the greatest thing,” McClintock said. “No one stops (the Patriots) but New York.”

But Cutolo, despite being a Giants fan, wasn’t totally thrilled with the game’s outcome.

“I had money on the game,” he said, explaining that he needed the final score to end with the numbers five and three in order to take home the cash.

He wasn’t letting his lost wager depress him too much, though: while he and his friends attempted to whip the surrounding crowd into a frenzy, he cast an optimistic lens on the rest of his afternoon.

“I’ve got to go inside and make $2,000,” he said with a smile. “Then we can go back (here) and have fun.”

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