The New York Giants did not just trail at halftime on Monday Night Football. They hit a franchise gut-check. The New England Patriots walked into the locker room up 30-7, handing the Giants a 23-point halftime deficit that ESPN Insights noted as their second-largest ever on Monday night, trailing only a 25-point hole against the San Francisco 49ers back in 1984.
This came in the franchise’s 76th appearance on MNF, which makes it feel even uglier. New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye carved up New York in the first half, completing 16 of 20 passes for 208 yards and two touchdowns while drawing MVP chants from the Gillette Stadium crowd. He finished the night 22 of 28 for 271 yards and those same two scores, with eight different receivers catching a pass via the ESPN Box Score.
The New England Patriots did not rely on Maye alone. Marcus Jones detonated the Giants’ coverage unit with a 94-yard punt return touchdown to make it 10-0, part of a special teams avalanche that also included a fumbled kickoff and a botched 47-yard field goal attempt where Younghoe Koo’s plant foot slipped and forced Jamie Gillan to scramble into a sack. By halftime, New England had outgained New York 270-104 and scored on five of six drives.
The Giants looked like a team already out of gas at 2-10 and 0-7 on the road. Jaxson Dart actually started fine, going 8 of 11 for 67 yards before the break and hitting Darius Slayton on a 30-yard catch-and-run to cut the deficit to 17-7. But every time New York found a pulse, a mistake followed, a missed kick, a coverage bust, a turnover that flipped the field right back to Maye.
For a franchise that has already changed defensive coordinators midseason and sits at the bottom of the NFC, this kind of national-stage no-show stings differently. Monday was supposed to be a measuring stick for how close the Giants are to the Patriots’ fast-track rebuild.
Instead, that 23-point halftime hole turned into a neon sign. New York is nowhere near that level yet.
