The New York Giants are 3-1, but the number that really tells the story is a lot less flattering: plus-3.
That’s where the Giants land in NFC standings ordered by point differential through Week 4, and it’s a reminder that a winning record can hide plenty. New York has survived an early injury avalanche and kept stacking wins, yet the margin has been razor thin the whole way.
Head coach John Harbaugh deserves plenty of credit for steering the ship in his first season and getting the group to buy in quickly. Still, with Jaxson Dart out after season-ending knee surgery, the question hanging over this start is whether it can hold up.
Point differential tends to cut through the noise, and in this case it puts the Giants in a shaky spot. They sit eighth in the NFC behind six different 2-2 teams, including the Dallas Cowboys, who are two places ahead of them. That’s not exactly the profile of a team that’s been cruising.
The full picture makes the concern even clearer. San Francisco leads the way at 4-0 with a plus-58 differential, followed by the Chicago Bears at 3-1 and plus-47.
Minnesota is also 4-0 at plus-35, while Seattle checks in at 3-1 and plus-32. New York, meanwhile, is tucked into a cluster of teams that have all looked more convincing in different ways.
Some of that can be explained by the schedule. Softer matchups against the Tennessee Titans and Arizona Cardinals have helped the Giants survive without Dart.
But needing back-to-back last-second goal-line stands to escape cellar dwellers is not the kind of thing that inspires a ton of confidence. Other teams dealing with quarterback losses, like Chicago and Seattle, have looked far more comfortable navigating the same kind of disruption.
Even the NFC South has flashed more punch. Atlanta has multiple three-touchdown wins, and Carolina - despite getting hammered 59-37 by the Bears in Week 1 - still ranks ahead of New York.
If there’s any comfort for Giants fans, it’s that this territory feels familiar. The franchise has been here before.
In 2022, the Giants opened 6-1, but every one of those wins came by one score, and the point differential told a much colder story at minus-six. The skepticism around that team wasn’t baseless.
Daniel Jones was still a question mark, and the defense wasn’t carrying anyone. Even so, New York found a way to reach the playoffs and then stunned the Minnesota Vikings in a Wild Card road upset while plenty of people were pumping the brakes.
That history doesn’t guarantee anything now, but it does give this start some context. The Giants have shown they can make noise when the numbers don’t love them.
They’re doing it again, just with a much thinner cushion. Dart’s injury and Brian Burns’ torn right ACL and lateral meniscus are real problems, but the early returns have at least made the case that New York can keep fighting above its weight.
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