Giants coach Brian Daboll is going to have a tough time surviving this

CHICAGO

You play to win the game, right? But the Giants rarely do so, failing at that most fundamental of objectives.

It’s not about starting well or trying hard or coming close. At this level, it’s about winning, and all the Giants do is lose.

That is on every person in the organization, as those who spoke to reporters after Sunday’s 24-20 loss to the Bears at Soldier Field said repeatedly.

But as anyone who has followed sports for more than a month or two understands, there inevitably is one person assigned more responsibility than any other for wins and losses.

It is what head coaches and managers sign up for and why they get paid well. And it is why after three consecutive 2-8 starts, Brian Daboll’s job is and should be in big trouble.

There are asterisks, of course, none more important than the fact that Daboll seems to have a good relationship with rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart, the most important Giant of all.

And there also was a key, Dart-related asterisk in Sunday’s loss, because Dart did not play in the fourth quarter after suffering a concussion.

Fair enough. If he finishes the game, the Giants probably finish off the Bears.

But there always are reasons and explanations and nuances in the Giants’ failures. That works when you are a good or middling team and have an occasional bad day, but the Giants are neither good nor middling. They are a bad football team, and bad teams usually find a way to mess up in the end. It is an immutable law of sports.

So when Daboll eschewed a chance to go up by two touchdowns early in the fourth quarter, passing up an attempt on fourth-and-goal from inside the 1-yard line and instead kicking a field goal that made it 20-10, it was not an illogical decision.

I agreed with it in real time. And if Dart had been in the game rather than Russell Wilson, Daboll probably would have run a play and probably would have scored a touchdown.

But the field goal plan did not work out, because things never work out for these Giants.

The defense suddenly stopped stopping Caleb Williams’ Bears, Wilson’s offense suddenly became dysfunctional, and that was that.

Daboll appears to be at a loss about what to do or say.

“I believe in the guys we have, the people in the room, coaches and players,” he said. “But we’ve lost a lot of tough ones, so we’ve got to start doing it.”

If Dart has to miss more playing time, it will further complicate Daboll’s case to stick around for the quarterback’s second year and beyond.

The fact that Dart is hurt at all is on Daboll’s resume, too. Fans and pundits have been fretting for weeks over the beating Dart takes on designed runs and other plays.

On Sunday, it seemed to finally catch up with him. Dart was jarred on a run on which he fumbled late in the third quarter. He went back into the game, but Daboll sensed something was amiss, asked the medical staff to take a look, and that was that for Dart.

Daboll’s players say they are sticking by him, because that is what players say.

“As long as he’s in this building, I believe in him,” Brian Burns said, by which he meant the Giants’ building, not Soldier Field. “Any of my other coaches, I’m going to believe in them.

“That’s the way I stand. I don’t switch up.”

Dexter Lawrence said, “It doesn’t matter what anyone else’s opinion is outside this facility. Whatever they say doesn’t really matter.”

Of course, Giants ownership is inside the facility, and those opinions matter very much, so we shall see.

The fourth quarter was not nearly as dramatic as the season-changing collapse against the Broncos on Oct. 19, the first of what has become four consecutive losses.

But it was bad enough. The Bears, now a surprising 6-3, looked out of hope. Then the Giants breathed new life into them. Williams’ 17-yard run down the left sideline with 1:47 left, plus the extra point kick, made it 24-20.

“It’s really hard to put into words,” Darius Slayton said, “but the bottom line is we’ve got to find a way to close the door and keep it shut when we have the opportunity to.”

Said Burns, “I wish I had the answer, but it’s like the fourth game we done beat ourselves in the fourth quarter, putting together three great quarters and not finishing.”

It’s true, but it’s also true what that signifies: They are not good enough.

If Daboll does not get the opportunity to lead Dart further into what is shaping up to be an excellent career, it will be a painful personal blow. But it will have been earned.

“I ain’t really focused on anything related to the future,” Burns said of the coaching drama. “I’m really just focused on trying to get a win, trying to finish out these damn games.”

There are seven of them left, for the 2025 Giants and probably for Daboll, too.

By Neil Best

neil.best@newsday.com@sportswatch

Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.