It’s one of those themes that needs to be regurgitated at times like these.

Even though there are no signs of breakage, questions start to surface as to whether this could be happening. Are the frustrations growing? Are there signs of a division?

The offense is playing losing football. The defense plays winning football. It’s one team with two different identities.

This isn’t exactly new territory for the Giants. A surging defense and a lackluster offense have been standard operating procedure for this franchise more often than not over the years. This season has such extensive coverage that it seems almost impossible to keep the tension from building in the building. The way the Giants lost 17-7 to the Bengals on Sunday night in yet another primetime setback was all the proof needed to establish that this is a split-personality operation.

That’s why head coach Brian Daboll kept repeating a version of “that starts with me” immediately afterward. He is the creator of this offense and this season he took over the play-calling on game days and nights. He hasn’t yet figured out how to get his team into the end zone with any semblance of consistency.

In the first four games, Daboll had wide receiver Malik Nabers setting all kinds of rookie records and the offense scored six points on the Vikings, 18 points on the Commanders, 21 points on the Browns and 15 points (on five field goals) on the Cowboys. Take Nabers and start running back Devin Singletary off the field with injuries the past two games and it was 29 points (23 from offense) on the Seahawks and the seven points on a Bengals defense that allowed 29 points per game in the first five games. games before coming to MetLife Stadium looking like a dominant unit. Daniel Jones was as unsatisfactory as soggy oatmeal after four solid – but hardly spectacular – outings in a row. He threw 41 passes, completed only 22, and his longest connections were just 15 yards. In addition, there was an interception of bad old-fashioned memories late in the first quarter.

Meanwhile, in new coordinator Shane Bowen’s defense, the Giants haven’t allowed more than 21 points in any game — there was a Pick Six interception return by the Vikings in the opener. Loss No. 4 of the season was especially painful for a defense that held a Bengals offense that averaged 28 points to just 17, never played with a lead and actually gave up just two damaging plays — Joe Burrow’s 47-yard scoring streak in the first quarter and Chase Brown’s 30-yard scoring run with 1:52 left.

The Giants, with Azeez Ojulari starting in place of Kayvon Thibodeaux (on injured reserve after wrist surgery), sacked Burrow four times to increase their NFL-leading sack production to 26. The Bengals were impressed.

“They’re leading the league,” Burrow said. “They’re the real deal and they didn’t have one of their guys. They have good games (up front). They have good players. They’re making it difficult for us and their secondary continued to cover all day. It’s a good defense.

“Missing throws that I normally make. I felt like I let the pressure get to me a little bit. In the second half I was able to settle in there and find a bit of a rhythm, but the first half I didn’t feel like I was in the rhythm at all. I felt like I was getting a happy foot in the bag. It just didn’t feel like everything was going in the right direction.”

Bengals head coach Zac Taylor can normally run a much more efficient offense than the one he orchestrated on Sunday night.

“They (Giants) did a good job up front,” Taylor said. “They bring pressure. They can win one-on-one. They’ve really invested in that front, and it shows. They did a good job at the back, just mixing it up.”

Will this discrepancy divide the room?

Members of the Giants defense haven’t said anything to indicate a problem is brewing, but human nature is what it is. The defense cannot be expected to be a top-five unit; the secondary is too young for such an exalted status. It’s hard for players to discuss losses when they know they deserved better. With Thibodeaux missing his first game of the season, Brian Burns had his best game yet for his new team, with one sack, eight tackles, two tackles for loss and two quarterback hits. He was a disruptive force. After so many lost years with the Panthers, Burns is getting more of the same with the Giants.

“Like I said, it’s frustrating and there are more actions we can take and more things we can do to change the game,” Burns said. “If we want to be an elite defense and live up to who we say we are, we have to take those actions.”

One of those plays that got away had 1:58 remaining. The Giants trailed 10-7 when linebacker Micah McFadden reached his base and forced a fumble on Brown. The ball was right there on the right side, but safety Jason Pinnock couldn’t secure it. The ball rolled out of bounds and the Giants’ last chance was gone. On the next play, Brown ripped through a gaping hole in the defense for a 30-yard touchdown.

“That’s a ball we have to get,” Burns said. “It’s that simple. We had the chance. It was on the ground.”

Missed opportunity, but the contribution cannot be rejected. The defense did enough to win. How long does it take for the players on that side of the ball to be abandoned by their teammates when fouled?

Here are a few more that came out of loss No. 4 to the Giants:

– It’s uncanny how Jones presents himself to the NFL viewing community. Not only is he now 1-15 in career primetime games, he hasn’t thrown a touchdown pass in his last seven nationally televised night starts. He has 12 touchdown passes and 20 interceptions in primetime. Co-owner John Mara must petition the league to keep his team off the field after dark.

– There’s a decision to be made when you’re facing not one, but two elite wide receivers, and that’s what the Bengals have in Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. Playing both players straight isn’t enough unless a team has two elite cornerbacks and that’s not common. What Bowen put in place was a design to avoid big plays whenever possible. Deonte Banks, the No. 1 cornerback, traveled with Higgins throughout the game. Cor’Dale Flott stayed with Chase, with help from another cornerback or a safety.

“They clouded me,” Chase said, “so it was a different kind of cloud. I don’t know exactly what kind of cloud it was. I looked at it a little bit on the iPad, but it was still a cloud.”

It worked. Higgins caught seven passes for 77 yards. Chase caught five passes for 72 yards. Neither receiver got a touchdown. They weren’t completely eliminated, but they didn’t destroy the game.

— Someone is going to pay Ojulari. It most likely won’t be the Giants, who have invested heavily in Burns and will have to figure out if they want to make a long-term investment in Thibodeaux. Ojulari couldn’t stay healthy in 2022 or 2023, and the 2021 second-round pick will come off the bench this season. He made his first start against the Bengals and came away with two sacks, four tackles, two tackles for loss and two quarterback hits. This is the last year of his contract and he is only 24 years old. He has 19 career sacks in 41 games (26 starts). He is a more skilled pure pass rusher than Thibodeaux. Guys who can get after the opposing quarterback always get their money’s worth.

— It’s time to stop trying to figure out why the Giants are confusing Jalin Hyatt. For now, he should be viewed as a flawed wide receiver who has thus far been unable to make the necessary adjustments to become great at the next level. He was a productive college player at Tennessee, but the knock on him when he entered the NFL draft was that he was a one-trick pony – the one thing he could do very well was run fast and straight. That’s why he fell in the third round and that knock is visible on the field. With Nabers sidelined again due to a concussion, Hyatt got his most extensive playing time of the season: 84 percent of the offense (64 of 79). He ran and ran and didn’t do much. He was targeted for passes only four times and caught one, for six yards. It was his first reception of the season. Hyatt is 23 years old and there is talent to work with, but he isn’t helping the Giants at all right now.

Trailing 17-7, the Giants got the ball back with 1:52 left, needing two scores to tie or take the lead. That’s why Daboll, on second down with 55 seconds left, decided to send Greg Joseph outside to attempt a 45-yard field goal, instead of taking two shots into the end zone from the 27- Cincinnati meter line.

“We have a situation there that we have rehearsed,” Daboll said. “Go ahead and shoot that field goal. Get it back with a little more time. We needed two goals. So field goal and touchdown. We didn’t want to waste any more time. We felt like we were going to go ahead and kick the field goal there. Unfortunately it didn’t work out.”

Yes. Joseph sent the kick wide left, just as he did earlier in the fourth quarter on a 47-yard attempt. If Joseph had made the second kick, the Giants would still have had to recover an onside kick to get the ball back.