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Giants fans will be licking their wounds all week after Sunday's stupefying loss to the Broncos, the brief hope they held entering the game having dissipated. There will be calls for people's jobs, hoping someone pays for the disaster.
Mike Francesa has a surprisingly different takeaway from the gutting defeat.
"The Giants have now, without question, started their upward climb. Their ascent has begun," Francesa said on his eponymous podcast. "I have no doubt about that."
The longtime WFAN host acknowledged the sting of the defeat, the need to improve execution and personnel, and that this particular Giants season is going to feature more losing. But he believes that with rookies Jaxson Dart and Cam Skattebo, the dark days are done.
"[Dart] kept his composure and he drove them down the field and he got them the lead," Francesa said regarding the drive that put the Giants up 32-30 before the Broncos' game-winning field goal. "You can't take that away from this game. You can't take [away] all the good plays that the Giants made in this game. Yes, they're 2-5 -- and I hate to break this to you, they're not going anywhere this year -- but I have no problem with this right now, saying this: The bad cycle, which has surrounded, which has permeated, which has completely just tortured this franchise is over. It's over."
Dart and Skattebo "have completely transformed" the Giants, Francesa says, bringing energy and optimism.
The big question is whether head coach Brian Daboll is the right coach.
"I don't know if Daboll's good enough to take them to the promised land. I don't know that," Francesa said. "We'll see that. He's gonna get another shot with this team because they are not gonna break up him and Dart. They're not going to do it, not with Dart playing and leading and doing the things and energizing the way he is. Daboll has wrapped himself around Dart and they are a tandem right now. So he's not going anywhere, even if you have losses like this."