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How many more losses on big stages will Giants’ John Mara tolerate?
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How many more losses on big stages will Giants’ John Mara tolerate?

MUNICH — The Giants get another standalone game on a big stage this week, even if it isn’t in primetime and isn’t particularly interesting (except for 2025 NFL Draft purposes).

It’s the 2-7 Giants against the 2-7 Panthers on Sunday afternoon – Sunday morning in New Jersey – at Bayern Munich’s football stadium.

If the Giants lose this game, it will be sad no matter how you slice it. But specifically, it would be another loss in a standalone game with the rest of the NFL watching. Losing to the Panthers would be nothing short of humiliating for co-owner John Mara – on multiple levels.

And it may well change his stated expectation (after a 2-5 start) that coach Brian Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen will return expecting them to be ready.

Mara’s team has already lost to the Cowboys on Thursday night, the Bengals on Sunday night and the Steelers on Monday night this season. Sunday in Munich marks the Giants’ third standalone game in five weeks (following the Bengals-Steelers games) – and fourth in seven weeks (when you throw in the Week 4 loss to Dallas).

So not only have the Giants lost four games in a row – losing another season well before Thanksgiving – but they’ve also lost two in an isolated situation.

After Sunday in Munich, the Giants have only one more standalone game scheduled in the final seven games: on Thanksgiving in Dallas.

Losing standalone/primetime games is nothing new for the Giants. Last season they did that in four of their first six games. (Daniel Jones is now 1-15 in career primetime after Monday night’s loss at Pittsburgh. That’s part of the reason he’s a goner after this season.)

After the first six weeks of last season, the Giants played only two independent games the rest of the time. Both came after Jones tore his ACL: Tommy DeVito’s stunning Monday night win over the Packers and a Monday afternoon Christmas loss at the Eagles.

Of course, DeVito’s win over the Packers — the Giants’ third straight win after a 2-8 start — played a major role in them missing out on the opportunity to draft Jayden Daniels or Drake Maye to replace Jones. So even if Mara’s team wins an isolated game, it doesn’t actually win.

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Darryl Slater can be reached at [email protected].