NEW ORLEANS — The obvious assumption became crystal clear for the Giants on Sunday: Life without Malik Nabers will be daunting for Jaxson Dart.
Especially if the Giants — and Dart — keep making far too many self-inflicted mistakes, as they did in Sunday’s 26-14 loss in New Orleans, where they turned the ball over on five straight possessions (three fumbles and then two interceptions) and blew a 14-3 lead.
The Saints scored 23 unanswered points to put the game away, as the Giants lost the ball on their first four second-half drives — an absolutely bonkers run of ineptitude against a winless opponent.
Those sort of mistakes have typified the Brian Daboll era since 2023. If Dart and Daboll don’t find a way to fix them in the final 12 games of Dart’s rookie year, Daboll is finished.
For now, the Giants — who went 3-14 and 6-11 the past two years — are 1-4, having blown the good will from Dart’s epic starting debut last week.
So the pressure again increases on Daboll, as the Giants’ gauntlet resumes — Thursday night versus the Eagles, at Denver, at Philadelphia.
The Saints game looked like the Giants’ most winnable matchup — by far — early in the season. Naturally, they failed to win it.
Dart’s final stat line Sunday, when the Giants’ offense wilted after scoring touchdowns on its first two drives: 26-of-40 passing, 202 yards, two touchdowns, two picks and a 73.1 rating. He ran seven times for 55 yards. Dart also lost a fumble during that brutal five-turnover stretch.
The Giants led 14-3 until 7:41 remained in the second quarter, but then gave it all back, and the Saints were up 16-14 entering halftime. Darius Slayton, the Giants’ new top receiver, struggled in the first half. His late fumble led to the Saints’ field goal drive on which they took the lead.
How would Dart respond in the second half without Nabers to lean on?
The Giants badly needed him to answer, to show the same resilience he flashed in last week’s second half, after Nabers tore his ACL.
Instead, Cam Skattebo fumbled the ball away at the Saints’ 12-yard line — the Giants’ third lost fumble of the game — and the Saints returned it 86 yards for a touchdown and a 26-14 lead.
At that point, with 14:47 left in the game, New Orleans had scored 23 unanswered points — a monumental collapse by Daboll’s team.
Dart wrapped up Sunday’s dud in fitting fashion on his next two drives, with a pair of picks.
The Giants came to New Orleans riding high off Dart’s starting debut last week — a stunning home win over the Chargers.
Sunday presented a winnable matchup against the 0-4 Saints, whose quarterback, Spencer Rattler, was trying to avoid becoming the fifth starter since 1950 to open his career with an 0-11 record. Plus, the Saints entered Sunday 29th in Pro Football Focus’ defensive ratings.
Yet how would Dart and the Giants’ offense handle last week’s devastating loss of Nabers?
As Dart sought answers this week, he also carried an edge — because the quarterback-needy Saints passed on him at No. 9 in this year’s draft. (The Giants traded up to get him at No. 25.)
“There’s always a chip on your shoulder any time something like that happens,” Dart said leading up to the New Orleans trip.
In the bigger picture, Dart was trying to deliver the Giants’ first winning streak since a three-game run in November and December 2023. Already, last week, he wowed Giants fans by becoming the first NFL quarterback in 20 years to win his starting debut against a 3-0 or better team.
So much for that winning streak. Without Nabers — and with those five straight turnovers — the Giants never stood a chance of sniffing it.
Here are our other takeaways from Week 5:
• Jaxson Dart’s rookie mistake: With the Giants down 16-14 on their opening drive of the second half, Dart made a brutal mistake, when he dropped the ball while scrambling — a rare non-contact fumble. The Saints took over at their own 46-yard line and converted the turnover into a field goal and 19-14 lead. This was Dart’s largest error so far in 2025.
• Missed deep shots: The Giants punted on their third and fourth drives but could’ve kept scoring. On the third drive, Dart was victimized by two drops (short to Devin Singletary, deep to Slayton). On the fourth drive, Dart had Slayton wide open for a third-down flea flicker. This would’ve been a sure-thing touchdown, but Dart under threw the pass.
Still, as Dart’s shots to Slayton on those drives showed, the deep-ball opportunities were there for the Giants, even without Nabers.
• Another big play allowed: The Giants’ defense has been prone to giving up long scoring gains lately. Last week, the Chargers threw for a 36-yard touchdown and ran for a 54-yard score.
Late in the second quarter Sunday, the Saints cut the Giants’ lead to 14-13 with an 87-yard catch-and-run touchdown pass — on a drive’s opening play — as Tyler Nubin got turned around in coverage and Rashid Shaheed blew past him. A really bad bust there by Nubin.
• Second straight encouraging start: Last week, Dart scored on his first possession — a nine-play, 89-yard touchdown march that he capped with a 15-yard run, providing hope that he could fix the Giants’ red-zone woes.
On Sunday, Dart again picked up a touchdown on his first drive, which covered eight plays and 59 yards and ended with another red-zone score — Dart’s 1-yard pass to Theo Johnson.
This is the sort of early game production and red-zone efficiency the Giants need on a consistent basis from Dart.
He kept it going on his second drive, pushing 70 yards for a touchdown (a nicely threaded 15-yard pass to Johnson on third-and-8). At that point, with the Giants up 14-3, Dart had completed 8 of 9 passes for 83 yards, two touchdowns and a 144.7 rating — plus 27 rushing yards.
Before Sunday, the Giants hadn’t scored a touchdown on back-to-back drives to open a game since November 2020.
But ultimately, they couldn’t sustain their early success.
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