DETROIT — In his second game as interim head coach, Mike Kafka won’t have Jaxson Dart as his starting quarterback yet.
For game No. 2 since the succession of the fired Brian Daboll, Kafka will indeed have Shane Bowen as defensive coordinator.
If ever there was a time to throw out the phrase “that’s just the way it is,” this is it.
With Dart, at least Kafka had a chance to continue to develop the rookie quarterback during another lost season.
Without him, Kafka must rely for the second week in a row on veteran Jameis Winston to lead the offense that Kafka called with Daboll and now without him.
That means the Giants head to Ford Field to face the talented and desperate Lions without the player Giants fans want to see more than anything.
Since coming to power, Kafka has advocated aggression on both sides of the ball.
He threw four times on fourth down in his head coaching debut, a 27-20 loss to the Packers.
The offense converted three times.
On defense, Kafka urged Bowen to turn up the pressure more often.
The Giants were 2-8 this season with Daboll at the helm and 0-1 with Kafka as his replacement.
Much of that failure can be attributed to a defense that kept them from winning in close losses in Dallas, Denver and Chicago.
Not much can change if Bowen’s unit continues to play among the bottom five levels and shows a catastrophic aversion to retaining leads.
The defense did it again in Week 11.
Winston drove the Giants 85 yards in 15 plays and scored on a quarterback hit to give his team a 20-19 lead with 7:22 remaining.
It took a long time and a razor-thin lead, but one defense was allowed to finish the job.
The Packers had no trouble gaining 65 yards in just seven plays, with Jordan Love hitting Christian Watson for the game-winning touchdown with 4:02 left.
Bowen blitzed nearly 43 percent of the time against the Packers, 17 percent more than the season average.
These blitzes haven’t been very effective – players haven’t managed to win their individual matchups – and it remains to be seen if Bowen can engineer something exotic to create some sort of chaos.
At least he heard Kafka’s call for aggression.
“Yeah, I mean, don’t hold anything back,” Bowen said of Kafka’s message. “Put these guys in positions to make plays. Understand, obviously, this week is going to be played aggressively on their side of the football as well, just with what they did on fourth downs. Understanding that, and something we look at every week, how we’re able to attack.”
The final six games were supposed to provide another proving ground for Dart.
He won’t get all of these final six games, as he was out of concussion protocol over the past week after being diagnosed Nov. 9 during the 24-20 loss to the Bears.
Maybe he’ll get the final five – even though he made the trip with the team and will be on the sideline Sunday.
This subjects the defense to even more intense scrutiny.
Bowen will once again be without his best cornerback, Paulson Adebo (knee), nor one of his starting outside linebackers, Kayvon Thibodeaux (shoulder).
The Lions endured a poor offense last week in Philadelphia, losing to the Eagles 16-9, but they can light up the scoreboard, scoring 52 points on the Bears, 38 on the Ravens, 34 on the Browns, 37 on the Bengals and 44 on the Commanders.
Only the Colts, Cowboys and Seahawks average more than the Lions’ 29.2 points per game.
Kafka will call the plays for Winston and hope for the best.
Kafka also hopes Bowen can get the most out of a defense that has contributed far too little this season.
For Kafka to be seriously considered for the head coaching job in 2026, he needs a lot more than what he received from the Giants defense.
“A lot of the things I saw when he was offensive coordinator, just from afar, getting the whole team involved, with the defensive unit involved now, the leadership,” Bowen said. “I think the attention to detail, the way he’s adjusted some meetings, has been good for us, good for the guys, but he has relationships with all the players. Offensive, defensive, he wants to be involved, he wants to know what’s going on, so he can have those conversations with our guys as well and be able to hold them accountable for certain things. So, I think he’s doing a really good job, and hopefully we can get some wins here.”
