Giants players trying to look at ‘big picture’ as fans turn to John Mara to fix mess

It looks and seems hopeless — thoughts that can turn an already lost season into something worse, as those feelings can linger and take root and spill into 2025 and continue a cycle that needs to end.

Loss No. 11 for the Giants was novel only for the way it went down and the abruptness of the way it ended, with Graham Gano’s 35-yard field goal attempt blocked with eight seconds remaining, assuring that instead of overtime it would be Saints 14, Giants 11 and stunned disbelief with the way this latest debacle unfolded.

“Your first reaction is almost unbelievable,” tight end Daniel Bellinger said. “We were fighting to get back in this and for it to end like that, just a brutal feeling.”

Brutal feelings are everywhere — on the sideline, inside the locker room, out there in the seats occupied by paying customers and even up there in the sky, where a banner pulled by a small airplane 90 minutes before the game implored Giants’ co-owner John Mara to do something to fix this mess.

Down on the ground, players who are here and unquestionably part of the team moving forward need to deal with a record of 2-11, an eight-game losing streak and the danger that a whatever-can-go-wrong mindset will occupy space in the heads of those expected to be on the scene next season.

“There’s always a bigger picture,” outside linebacker Brian Burns said. “I’m trying to get the guys to understand there’s a bigger picture than what we got going on right now. Obviously it’s just falling in love with the process of getting better, especially these young guys. We got a lot of young guys playing on this defense and they need to evolve. And it’s not just for themselves, but also for the future, next year.”

Next year cannot come soon enough.

Daniel Jones has already been benched and then released as the starting quarterback and there is no doubt the Giants are hot on the trail for the next quarterback — the present-day collection of Drew Lock and Tommy DeVito is not it.

Currently sitting with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, Cam Ward and Shedeur Sanders are already on the Giants’ radar.

Both quarterbacks have been studied; the investigation and evaluations are ongoing and will carry deep into the offseason.

The natives are getting restless.

The message carried by the plane that flew overhead MetLife Stadium on Sunday did not implore Mara to sell the team — that is an always-popular (and almost never successful) demand at times like this.

It did not insist on wiping the slate clean with the firing of general manager Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll.

It was more of a plea than a threat and it was actually respectful in the wording: “MR. MARA ENOUGH — PLZ FIX THIS DUMPSTER FIRE.”

It was a passionate request for Mara to do something.

No doubt, he has received harsher and more emotionally charged letters and emails as this season has spiraled out of control.

Putting it out there on an airborne banner is a public display, of course, and that is more embarrassing.

On and on it goes. Daboll said, “Unfortunately, I have been,” when asked Monday if he had ever been a part of a losing streak of this duration.

“I think you are part of a lot of different things when you do it for as long as I have,” he said. “I’ve been part of a few of them where we started out and had a fair amount of losses, finished strong. Again, every season’s different, every game’s different.”

Two weeks ago, after the Giants were clobbered 30-7 by the Buccaneers, receiver Darius Slayton — who, along with Dexter Lawrence, is the longest-tenured Giants player — said it was “exhausting” to go through so much losing.

That was two losses ago.

“I’ll speak from my perspective of being here for six years and just a lot has transpired in that time frame and so I made a statement after that game,” Slayton said. “I would say that was probably somewhat unique to me and my experience. Obviously Sunday’s loss was particularly rough, seeing how we fought and got ourselves in position to have a chance to win the game and we obviously still came up short. That’s a rough way to lose, no matter what your record is.’’

The record is what it is, indicating this has not been a banner year, other than that banner flying overhead the other day.