The 3-1 Miami Dolphins are hosting the 1-3 New York Giants at Hard Rock Stadium for Miami’s second home game of the 2023 season.
Miami is looking to get back into the win column after a disappointing loss to the Buffalo Bills in Week 4, and the Giants are attempting to do the same, after back-to-back losses to the San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks.
Buy Dolphins TicketsAs we continue our previews for this weekend’s game, we spoke to Giants Wire managing editor Dan Benton to learn some things about New York.
Things aren't going great in Giants Country right now. Has Brian Daboll lost control of the situation?
I have little doubt that Giants players still love and respect Brian Daboll, but that certainly doesn’t mean he’s maintained control. There’s been in-fighting, finger-pointing, blame deflection and, most recently, players taking aim at the fans who pay their salaries. It’s hard to argue even with the brightest blue goggles on that things are stable in East Rutherford. They aren’t and it does seem as if the coaching staff has lost some control. If things continue to spiral the way they have been, everything in East Rutherford is going to come completely unglued and then John Mara and Steve Tisch will have to decide on Daboll’s future.
Daniel Jones seemed to turn a corner last season, but he's fallen off again in 2023. What's the biggest reason for the struggles?
Having a turnstile offensive line made of Swiss cheese certainly doesn’t help but the excuses for Daniel Jones need to come to an end. At some point or another, he has to make chicken salad out of chicken…you know what. The team around him may be a dumpster fire but he’s no longer weathering the storm. Rather, Jones has started to hurt the team himself. He’s struggling to process what he’s seeing on the field because his internal clock is completely thrown off — and not just in one direction. He’s holding onto the ball too long at times, leaving the pocket too early at others. He’s missing open receivers, failing to anticipate and throw his guys open, and he’s essentially stopped scrambling, which is his greatest strength.
If Saquon Barkley isn't able to go, how do the Giants attack Miami's defense?
Saquon being out isn’t even the Giants’ biggest problem. If they are without Andrew Thomas, John Michael Schmitz and Shane Lemieux (Evan Neal also banged up), your guess on how they attack the defense is as good as mine. They can’t run block, they can’t pass protect, they can’t pick up blitzes, the receivers can’t get open, no one can catch and as mentioned earlier, DJ isn’t running as much recently. Even if Saquon were in the game, he’d likely be running up the backs of his offensive linemen and having passes deflect off his hands and into the waiting arms of Dolphins defenders.
If you could add any former Giant to this unit to give them the best chance to win on Sunday, who would you choose?
Sadly, there’s no active former Giant in the league I can look at and say, “This guy could fix things!” The Giants have been so unbelievably bad for such a long period of time that not only is their personnel pool empty, but their former personnel pool is equally as empty. Now, if I had the opportunity to take it further back, the obvious answer is Lawrence Taylor because with him on the field, at least the Giants would generate a pass rush and stand a chance at scoring some points on defense. Crazy to think that’s where we are but LT in his prime might put up more points than the current Giants offense does.
Prediction time. Who's winning this week and why?
I hate that we even have to ask/answer this question. There is absolutely zero percent chance the Giants win this game and the only hope fans cling to is that they aren’t drubbed by 50-plus. Dolphins 41, Giants 16.
