CHICAGO — Almost every game has a moment. A pressure point. An event that defines the day.
For the Giants, in their hopeless 29-3 loss to the Bears on Sunday at frigid Soldier Field, that moment came rather rapidly.
Like … on the first play from scrimmage.
That’s when Bears linebacker Trevis Gipson, unblocked with the Giants in an empty-backfield set, sacked quarterback Mike Glennon and separated him from the ball, which was scooped up by defensive tackle Bilal Nichols and returned to the Giants’ 2-yard line.
Fifteen seconds into the game the Giants were already in crisis.
On the next play, Bears running back David Montgomery, with little resistance from the defense, waltzed in for a touchdown.
Eighteen seconds into the game the Giants were trailing 7-0.
That’s about as bad as it gets — even for a 4-12 team that’s lost its past five games by a total of 92 points.
So, too, was the interception Glennon threw on the next Giants’ possession that led to a second Chicago touchdown, an Andy Dalton scoring pass to Darnell Mooney, for a 14-0 lead.
Given that the Giants have scored the fewest offensive TDs in the NFL (22 in 16 games), the 14-point deficit was a virtual guarantee that they had no chance to come back and win this game. The Giants are the only team in the NFL for which a 14-point deficit with more than three quarters of the game still remaining is insurmountable.
The strip-sack on the first play could be counted as this game’s moment because it was one of the things that put it out of reach for the inexcusably-inept Giants’ offense.
But it was a play midway through the second quarter that — for me — was the moment.
Trailing 14-0, the Giants faced a third-and-10 from the Chicago 24-yard line, already well within field-goal range for kicker Graham Gano … and they ran a draw play to Saquon Barkley for yards to settle for the field goal.
The Giants didn’t even try to get a first down. They ran a give-up draw play that’s usually reserved in the playbook for third-and-forever from poor field position.
They gave up, curled up into a pathetic ball on offense.
It was a hopeless moment that didn’t as much just define this game as it defined this entire season.
Somewhere, if he was even bothering to pay attention, Jason Garrett, fired from his offensive coordinator post in November, must have been shaking his head and snickering.
The Giants have scored five offensive TDs in the six games since Garrett was fired. Three of those have come in garbage time with the team completely out of the game and the opposing defenses having already checked out.
What must have been going through the head of Giants general manager Dave Gettleman as he sat quietly in the second row of the press box alongside his assistant, Kevin Abrams, on Sunday?
Glennon as the Giants backup quarterback is on Gettleman, who’s fancied himself as some sort of personnel guru (just ask him and he’ll tell you).
Glennon is not an NFL quarterback. He never has been. He has a 6-25 record as a starter and he’s lost his past 10 starts, including all four he’s made for the Giants this season. He hasn’t won a start since 2017.
On what planet was Gettleman residing when he thought signing Glennon as a proper safety net in case starter Daniel Jones was injured (which he has been in each of his three NFL seasons)?
Glennon finished the game 4 of 11 for 24 passing yards with two INTs, two lost fumbles and was sacked four times for 34 yards in losses. That’s simply not NFL-quality quarterbacking.
It’s all become sickeningly difficult to watch for Giants fans.
With 7:21 remaining in the game, Gettleman, having seen enough, quietly got up from his seat and departed the press box. With the Giants an unimaginable 19-45 on his watch, Gettleman is running out of Sundays.
He’s got one more left thanks to the new 17-game season.
The question now is how many more Sundays head coach Joe Judge has remaining with the Giants?
“There’s a number of things going in the right direction that we know that are foundational things, things you got to put in place for the team to have success — on and off the field,’’ Judge said after the game as part of a prolific, impassioned 11-minute answer to one question that ran just under 2,700 words once transcribed. “I know we have some players in key positions who are guys that you can build with and keep carrying on.
“The toughest thing to turn over in a program, the toughest to change, is how people think. And we got guys that are wired the right way.’’
The question for all Giant fans and — more importantly — Giants ownership and the next general manager they hire is whether they believe in what Judge said in that emotional filibuster.