The Giants have said all the right things in the aftermath of their season-opening loss to the Cowboys. They vowed they weren’t panicking, that they would practice harder, study harder and take nothing for granted.
Most of all, they said they had faced adversity before in their careers and responded, and see no reason why they can’t do the same now. They point to 2007, when they started 0-2 and won their third Super Bowl. They also point to last season, when they were 7-7 and on the brink of elimination from the playoffs and wound up beating the Patriots, again, in Super Bowl XLVI.
But there can be a fine line between relying on past results, to the point when complacency sits in. That’s where they will be tested Sunday when they face the Buccaneers at MetLife Stadium.
Is it a must-win? Not yet. But we will learn something about the Giants today. We will learn about their resolve and their desperation to repeat as world champions. The Giants always have been at their best when they’re a desperate team. A 0-1 start might not qualify, but a home loss to a division rival like the Cowboys is not how you want to start a season. Going 0-2 at home would be virtually catastrophic.
The Giants haven’t flinched this week, and it begs the question whether they’re a confident team or a team in denial.
“We talked all week about practicing better, about having better energy, about a sense of urgency and about getting our football right, right now,” coach Tom Coughlin said. “I think they got the message.”
The Bucs would be a dangerous team to overlook. The have a new coach in Greg Schiano, renewed confidence after a 16-10 win over the Panthers last week, and an impressive defense. Yet, they should be no match for the Giants, unless the Giants once again don’t play like the Giants.
They insist the mistakes they made against the Cowboys are correctable — the dropped passes, the defensive breakdowns, and the lack of focus. They have promised to be better today.
“I think we’ll come out with a lot of energy and be excited to play football and correct some of the mistakes that popped up,” DE Justin Tuck said. “I tweeted that in building a bridge, who said it’s going to be easy? We’ve still got a lot of work cut out for us. We know what we need to do, but there’s always setbacks in construction. Hopefully, we can keep those to a minimum and get this bridge built.”
“Build a bridge” is a slogan on the Giants T-shirt, the bridge from last year’s Super Bowl run into this season. But the Giants didn’t show up for work last week. They say they have learned their lesson.
“We know we have to win games,” OT Kevin Boothe said. “We don’t like to lose any games. In order to accomplish anything we have to start winning. There’s a big sense of urgency right now. Granted we’ve faced adversity before. The reason why we’ve been able to achieve success through that is because of our sense of urgency. So we have to get it going and realize we’re a lot better team than we’ve shown.”
It’s what you would expect the Giants to say, given their history.
“If you overcome adversity, you’ve been there before, so you know how to handle it,” LB Michael Boley said. “We’ve got a lot of good veterans, and good leadership. We know how to handle tough situations. Everything we did was small. It’s just little things that hurt us [against Cowboys], and the little things can be corrected.”
The Giants didn’t expect to have their backs against the wall this early in the season. But at least it’s a familiar feeling. Still, it’s something they shouldn’t get comfortable with.
george.willis@nypost.com