How much more losing on big stages will Giants’ John Mara tolerate?

MUNICH — The Giants get another big-stage, standalone game this week — even though it’s not in primetime and also 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 back in New Jersey — at Bayern Munich’s soccer stadium.
If the Giants lose this game, it will be pathetic — no matter how you slice it. But it specifically would be yet 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 might just change his stated anticipation (after a 2-5 start) that coach Brian Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen will return into anticipation that they’re finished.
Mara’s team this season has already lost on a Thursday night to the Cowboys, on a Sunday night to the Bengals, and on a Monday night to the Steelers. Sunday in Munich marks the Giants’ third standalone game in five weeks (following the Bengals and Steelers matchups) — and fourth in seven weeks (when you throw in the Week 4 loss to Dallas).
So not only have the Giants lost four straight games — to send yet another season down the drain well before Thanksgiving — but they have lost two of them in standalone settings.
After Sunday in Munich, the Giants have just one more standalone matchup scheduled in the final seven games — on Thanksgiving in Dallas.
Losing standalone/primetime games is nothing new for the Giants. They did it in four of their first six games last season. (Daniel Jones is now 1-15 in primetime in his career, after the Monday night loss in Pittsburgh. That’s one reason, among many, that he is a goner after this season.)
After the first six weeks last season, the Giants played just two more standalone games the rest of the way. 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 victory after a 2-8 start — contributed greatly to them missing out on the chance to draft Jayden Daniels or Drake Maye, to replace Jones. So even when Mara’s team wins a standalone game, it doesn’t really win.
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Darryl Slater may be reached at [email protected].