The New York Giants are already in must-win territory when they visit the Cleveland Browns on Sunday.
The Giants (0-2) lost their first two games of the season to the Minnesota Vikings and Washington Commanders. If they lose to the Browns (1-1), things really get dicey. New York then has a short week before hosting the Dallas Cowboys next Thursday.
“I’m pissed because I hate losing with a passion,” Giants nose tackle Dexter Lawrence II said Wednesday. “I take that hard — losing. I really don’t like it. For me, it’s just something that I’m not going to keep accepting.”
The anxiety is growing as only two teams (out of 32) that started 0-2 over the past four seasons made the playoffs.
That 6.3 success rate raises the urgency. But Giants coach Brian Daboll said he doesn’t think desperation has set in.
“I want to see consistency like we talk about every week,” Daboll said. “Go in, prepare the right way, come out, play a good football game, do good in situations, play together. Each week is its own week, and we’ll just focus on the Browns this week.”
Cleveland split its first two games, getting routed by the Cowboys in its opener before posting an 18-13 road win over the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday.
“It wasn’t perfect, wasn’t always pretty, but it was gritty,” Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said of the victory. “And I thought the guys found a way there. And it’s certainly a learning experience. I think win, lose or draw, you gotta learn from these things.”
One area the Browns need to improve is penalties. Cleveland has committed a league-worst 24 penalties.
“I’m not going to ignore the fact that we have the most called penalties against us in the league,” Stefanski said. “We watched every single one of them as a team. We’re going to correct the ones that we can correct and we’re just going to play really clean with our technique, but it’s something that we’ll continue to address.”
The Browns averaged 17.5 points over their first two games, while New York is posting 12 per game.
Still, Stefanski is surprised the Giants are winless.
“That 0-2 is very misleading to me,” Stefanski said. “They lost at home in Week 1, which obviously we lost at home in Week 1. And then they go on the road, and they play good enough to win, and had some extenuating circumstances with the kicker.”
Veteran Graham Gano entered the game against Washington with a sore groin and then injured a hamstring while trying to chase down Austin Ekeler on a 98-yard opening kickoff return for touchdown that was negated by a Commanders’ penalty. Punter Jamie Gillan missed an extra point after New York’s first touchdown and the Giants later missed on two two-point conversion passes in the 21-18 loss.
The loss of Gano hurt the most when New York faced fourth-and-4 from the Washington 22-yard line with the score tied. The Giants went for it and failed to convert when rookie Malik Nabers dropped a pass that would have resulted in a first down. The Commanders took over with 2:04 left and won on Austin Seibert’s 30-yard field goal as time expired.
“Once you look back on the record, you are going to feel like one of those losses was mine,” said Nabers, who has 15 receptions in two games. “I’m going to continue to move forward, get better and work on how I cannot drop that pass again.”
Gano was placed on injured reserve on Tuesday and New York signed Greg Joseph off the Detroit Lions’ practice squad to handle the kicking.
The only Giants’ player to miss practice Wednesday was cornerback Nick McCloud (knee).
Cleveland tight end David Njoku (ankle) is expected to miss his second straight game. Others to miss practice Wednesday were star defensive end Myles Garrett (foot), offensive tackle Dawand Jones (knee), receiver Jamari Thrash (illness) and running back Pierre Strong (hamstring).
Browns standout cornerback Denzel Ward (shoulder) played just 11 snaps against Jacksonville. He was a limited practice participant on Wednesday.
In the most recent meeting, the Browns recorded a 20-6 road win over the Giants in 2020.
