5 Questions with Big Blue View: Can the Giants stop the Bears’ thumping ground attack?

The Bears continue their gauntlet of NFL bottom-dwellers this week with an exciting trip to New York City Nowhere, New Jersey to face the also-rebuilding New York Giants. We got a chance to sit down with Big Blue View’s Edward Valentine for some questions about this weekend’s scrimmage friends.

1. The Giants and Bears both came into the season with relatively low expectations—at least from a national media perspective. They also both have 2 wins and 1 loss to an obnoxious division rival. Despite a strong start, the Bears still feel like a team with a 9 win ceiling. How do you see the Giants prospects for this season?

BBV: I see the Giants the same way. They are teams in very similar places. New GMs. New head coaches. Trying to determine if the quarterback they have is the one they can go forward with long term. Rebuilding rosters that have plenty of holes. Nine wins for the Giants would be an outstanding season.

2. Daniel Jones has had an up and down career so far, and Brian Daboll has not instantly transformed him into Josh Allen. What does he need to do this year to convince the Giants he’s their long term guy?

BBV: Brian Daboll is not going to transform Daniel Jones into Josh Allen. Because Daniel Jones is not Josh Allen. No one else is Josh Allen. I’m not sure Jones can convince the Giants he is their long term guy — I have steadfastly taken the position that odds are against that.

Now, how could he do that? He has to convince Daboll and GM Joe Schoen that he is a quarterback they can win “because of,” not a guy they can win with or have to work around. Both he and Saquon Barkley are eligible for the franchise tag next year, and it would cost the Giants almost $20 million less to tag Barkley.

Jones has to convince the Giants he is worth a new contract, even if it’s a lower-tier one for starting quarterbacks. I still think odds are the Giants spin the quarterback wheel in the offseason and try to build around a QB on a rookie deal for the next few years.

3. Speaking of Daboll, he was one of my top choices when the Bears started their coaching search. How has the experience been with him so far? Is he as good of a head coach as he was a play caller/OC?

BBV: Three games into his first-ever season as a head coach is far too small a sample size to make a definitive judgment about Daboll. He has, though, been impressive thus far. Heis a breath of fresh air personality-wise after Joe Judge. He hired a terrific coaching staff, and he’s letting them do their jobs. It is significant that he is allowing Mike Kafka to call the offensive plays. Players are buying in and believing what he tells them. So far, so good.

4. The Giants run defense was underwhelming against the Cowboys, no doubt in part because star defensive tackle Leonard Williams was on the sidelines. Do you think the Giants can turn it around before facing the Bears surprisingly-effective run game this Sunday?

BBV: No one on the Giants wanted to point to the loss of Williams on Monday. But, I’m sorry, D.J. Davidson and Henry Mondeaux are not Leonard Williams. I think Wink Martindale is an outstanding defensive coordinator. The personnel can’t really change at this point, but how they are deployed can. I think Martindale will have a creative, aggressive plan geared toward bottling up Chicago’s run game and forcing Justin Fields into uncomfortable passing situations. We’ll see if the players can execute it.

5. Draftkings Sportsbook has the Giants as 3-point favorites for this game, which is basically the normal adjustment for home-field advantage if two teams are equally matched. They also have the over/under set at a slightly insulting 39 points. Do you think this follows expectations as a close, low-scoring game, or does one or both of these offenses break out?

BBV: Well, I hope to see the Giants’ offense break out. Still, seeing is believing. If I was a betting man — and I’m not — I would be taking the under.

Sounds like Giants fans aren’t believing the hype on their dominant 2 and 1 start. Or more likely, they are trying to lull us into a false sense of security so we won’t cheer loud enough. Nice try, Big Blue View, we’ll be yelling at our TVs as loud as ever.

And if you want to yell with your wallet...our friends over at DraftKings Sportsbook have you covered for this game and all the week’s NFL action.