Kafka wants the Giants to start fast vs. Seahawks (and everyone else, too)

It can get late early as the NFL calendar turns.

In what could be considered a must-win game for the Giants, they were again without Saquon Barkley against the Seahawks on Monday night.

Barkley remained sidelined by a high ankle sprain. The original diagnosis called for him to miss three games.

As of Monday night, he will miss his second  game.

Barkley sustained the injury against the Cardinals in Arizona. That game was the Giants’ lone win in their first three games. Barkley was on the field for 66 of a possible 68 snaps in that game. The Giants would not have won it without him.

He hasn’t played since.

“I feel like I’m further along. But it’s frustrating because, obviously, I’m healing fast, but you want it to be faster,” Barkley said on Saturday. 

Will he be ready to play Sunday in Miami? That isn’t known yet.

But it’s pretty clear so far this season that the Giants are in for a battle in the NFC East and in the conference. The Giants were a playoff team last season. This year?

That remains to be seen. The teams around them in their division — the Eagles, Cowboys and Commanders — have all generated respectable starts to their seasons.

Where last year’s Giants had a hot start, winning six of their first seven games, this year’s edition has not. With one win in their first three games, the 2023 Giants can see that everything is still ahead of them.

In the locker room when the media have been present, the Giants have suggested they still have plenty of time to turn around their fortunes.

Monday night against the Seahawks would seem to be a very good place to start.

Offensive coordinator Mike Kafka talked this offseason about getting off to fast starts this season. Those have not materialized yet.

“I think we evaluate that every week and those are things we’re looking to improve on,” Kafka said. “I mean, we talk about it, schemes, the fundamentals, the techniques, the sequencing, and those things. So, we evaluate that and we’re critical of that as an offensive staff, as players, as coaches, collectively. So, we want to have an emphasis on that, and we obviously want to start a lot faster and that’s what we’re working this week to do.”

Missing in the Giants’ most recent game, at San Francisco on Sept. 21, was the threat of Daniel Jones using his legs, as he usually does, to make plays.

“We had those plays in the game plan, just didn’t end up getting to them based on the situations,” Kafka said. “He wasn’t instructed not to run.”

It remains more of a mystery why rookie receiver Jalin Hyatt hasn’t been on the field more and wasn’t targeted at all against San Francisco. Hyatt was on the field for 16 snaps in that game.

Hyatt’s speed is unmatched on the Giants’ roster.

“Jalin’s doing everything we’re asking him,” Kafka said. “He’s doing a great job. Obviously, he’s another one of those young players that are continuing to grow and develop in the role that he’s in right now, and he’ll continue to expand and grow. He’s handled it like a pro, which has been great. Like I said, every week’s kind of a new week to see where these guys fit based on the schemes that we’re seeing and put together the best game plan.

Hyatt created mismatches on the practice field during training camp. It seems curious that he has only been targeted three times this season.

Perhaps there have been plays called for Hyatt and Jones has not gotten the ball to him, for whatever reason.

“On offense, there’s an 11-man operation, there’s one football and obviously you want to get players involved as much as you possibly can, but you have to make sure that you have certain things set up for certain plays, situations come up,” Kafka said. “So, I think we want to get everyone the ball, absolutely. There’s one football, right? So, at the end of the day, you’ve got to understand that. We’re working to improve in that area and get everyone involved in the offense.”

This much is fairly certain for the Giants. They are trying to recapture the second half against Arizona, where they played winning football.

Kafka suggested the offense is looking for “a spark.”

“We’re looking for something where you kind of get on a roll and you’re grooving,” Kafka said. “Then sometimes, something doesn’t happen, and you’ve got to find a way to kind of get out of that rut. We’re going to keep on working on it, keep on bringing energy and enthusiasm, and I’m excited about the guys and how they approached it this week.”

Kimberly Jones covers the Giants for Newsday, a beat she first worked in the early 2000s before joining the YES Network to cover the Yankees. She worked for the NFL Network for more than a decade and has been heard semi-regularly on WFAN.