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In fairness to the often-quick-to-reach football world, the New York Giants' quarterback debate entering Week 2 was not wholly manufactured. Quantitative and qualitative evidence both gave reason to question: How much longer should Russell Wilson start for the Giants?

Rookie Jaxson Dart’s strong preseason and first-round draft selection began the conversation, Wilson’s 45.9% completion rate in a Week 1 loss to the Washington Commanders continuing it.

Head coach Brian Daboll followed up Wilson’s 168-yard, no-touchdown loss to the Commanders planting further seeds of doubt when he did not dismiss a question about Dart starting Week 2.

“We’re going to get home, we’re going to look at our game,” Daboll said in his Week 1 postgame news conference. “Collectively, we all have to do better.”

By the time Daboll named Wilson the starter for Week 2 the following afternoon, the need to name him the starter at all was an undeniable storyline. Speculation had traveled.

Wilson and the Giants changed that narrative Sunday as Wilson completed 73.2% of his 41 pass attempts for 450 yards, three touchdowns and an interception. The Giants still lost, 40-37, in overtime. But they learned two key lessons in the loss.

The first: At 0-2 for the seventh time in nine years, and second consecutive season, the Giants must fix multiple areas to reliably beat opponents.

The second: Debating whether Wilson or Dart should start at quarterback is not currently one of them.

“I think somebody once told me: ‘The greater you’re great, the more they’re gonna hate,’” Wilson said after throwing for two yards shy of his single-game career mark. “I know how talented I am. I know what I’m capable of. I don’t need somebody to convince me of that.

“So, for me, I embraced the noise. I don’t run from it. And we have to keep answering the call.”

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As Wilson unleashed, Giants kept hurting themselves

The Giants’ first quarter encapsulated their final result well.

Wilson completed 11-of-14 passes for 153 yards, including a 50-yard sail to Wan’Dale Robinson. But the Giants committed seven penalties for a loss of 65 yards, including an unnecessary roughness flag that snipped 15 yards off the Robinson catch. So throwing for the most first-quarter yards by a Giants quarterback since 1978 proved only so helpful.

The trend slowed only slightly as the afternoon elapsed, New York incurring 14 penalties for 160 yards in addition to a series of declining and offsetting penalties. Entering the "Sunday Night Football" matchup, both marks were the worst of the NFL season per TruMedia Sports.

Only one game in the 2024 NFL season season featured more than 14 penalties by a single team, when the New York Jets incurred 16 in a loss to the Jets. The last time a team was penalized 160 or more yards: Nov. 25, 2021, per TruMedia data.

“It’s a lot of penalties,” Daboll said in a news conference that included a fitting 14 mentions of penalties across questions and answers. “We certainly don’t want to have that many penalties.”

While quarterbacks can help reduce flags with their alignment and operational efficiency, Wilson did not draw any of them. The laundry-happy day proved the top reason the Giants lost. And Wilson did not contribute.

Nail in the coffin two: the Giants’ inability to maintain the defensive edge that forced the Cowboys into three-and-outs on their first two drives as well as caused Dallas’ lone turnover.

Yes, 2025 third overall draft pick Abdul Carter hit Dak Prescott on the throw that Dru Phillips ultimately intercepted. But neither was celebrating a day allowing the Cowboys 40 points and 478 total yards of offense.

“[The offense] can do it,” Phillips said in the postgame locker room. “They showed and we’ve known they could do it. It’s up to us to be better on defense.”

The defense wanted to do better for a quarterback who punished Dallas with the deep ball to the tune of seven 20-plus-yard completions including all three of his touchdowns. And defenders wanted to do better for a quarterback whom the Giants hoped had sealed the game when Wilson found second-year star Malik Nabers on a 48-yard moon ball to reclaim the lead with 25 seconds left in regulation.

Instead, the Cowboys moved the ball just enough for Brandon Aubrey to use what Giants receiver Darius Slayton called his “bionic leg” to drill a 64-yard field goal and force overtime.

And instead, after each team traded scoreless positions, the Cowboys had the final say.

Wilson struggled on a second-and-3 that Daboll said “slipped out of his hand” and then threw inside by the numbers when Nabers ran an out route with 2:09 to play in overtime on what Daboll called a “communication” issue.

The Cowboys turned safety Donovan Wilson’s interception into a game-winning field goal drive as New York’s defense failed to stop a 27-yard George Pickens catch and 14-yard Prescott scramble.

Players and coaches continued to echo the words “tough” and “hurt” as they processed losing a road game in which they scored 37 points. But they also praised Wilson and his performance.

“I think he showed he’s resilient,” said Nabers, whom Wilson hit on 9-of-13 targets for 167 yards and two touchdowns. “To me, after that first game, he didn’t look back. He stayed with that same mindset. Stayed putting everybody up, stayed in high hopes.

“I know that’s what he’s capable of. He’s capable of more.”

Performance vs. Giants should protect Wilson’s job security — for now

With a 2025 win-now mandate from team ownership, Daboll and Giants general manager Joe Schoen entered the season in a complicated position.

They want to position the franchise to succeed this season as well as build a perennial contender for the future. But they essentially must both win and keep future hope alive to ensure their employment after this season.

Enter their quarterback decisions, which will correlate more with the Giants’ success than any other roster moves the club makes. New York showed its need to answer a position that has struggled when loading up with Wilson, 2015 first overall pick Jameis Winston and this year’s 25th overall pick in Dart.

Even with Wilson’s overtime interception, it’s tough to believe Dart would have outperformed a 450-yard, three-touchdown day. Preseason success routinely sows overconfidence in teams, particularly at quarterback when players face vanilla defenses from teams looking to save their best concepts until the regular season.

Wilson described last week at how his 14 pro years benefit his teammates.

How does he block out noise when a first-round pick is waiting down the row of lockers from him?

“My confidence never blinks,” Wilson responded. “I’ve been through everything. Iv’e been through all of the biggest highs there could be. I’ve been through a few lows. But at the same time, I also know that my confidence never wavers.

“And I think that confidence, one, comes from experience [and] two just from the work.”

Wilson has more of each bucket than Dart.

The test will be taller next week as the Giants host the reigning AFC champion Kansas City Chiefs on "Sunday Night Football." The Chiefs enter the match 0-2 for the first time in quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ career, Kansas City also on a three-game losing streak for the first time in his career for those who count streaks dating back to the prior season.

Two losses might say more about the caliber of competition Kansas City has faced through two weeks with a Brazil-staged game against the Los Angeles Chargers and a rematch with the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles, both one-score losses.

Regardless of strength of schedule, the Giants will face an opponent sounder and more experienced with one another than a Cowboys team with a first-year head coach and a hole left in the wake of a late-August trade of star pass rusher Micah Parsons.

Could a flop on prime-time television reignite the quarterback debate? Perhaps.

But even on New York airwaves, Wilson should be safe this week. And if decision-makers are honest, it should guide them for weeks longer.

The Giants may have numerous problems. But committing to a quarterback in Week 3 shouldn’t be one.

“I thought he played well,” Daboll said. “Made some plays. Attacked certain things we want to attack. …

“Again, this one’s tough. I’m not going to sugarcoat it. The guys battled. Dallas battled. And it came down to the end.”

The first of two Week 2 Monday Night Football games pits two teams who haven’t played more than the obligatory “once every four years” that the NFL schedule mandates. That is until this week, where these divisional winners match up two years after a Week 9 game in 2023 that might have amounted to CJ Stroud’s coming-out party.

Throwing for 470 yards and the game-winning touchdown in the dying second of a 39-37 thriller pushed Stroud forward as the Texans’ quarterback of the future, while the Buccaneers were still in the process of buying into Baker Mayfield being theirs.

While Stroud and Mayfield will be the headliners for the opener of our double-feature, there’s another unit that features a significant, potential game-swinging mismatch.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Houston Texans (-2.5, 42.5)

Tampa Bay played one of the all-time “could go either way” games with the division-rival Falcons in Week 1, leaving Atlanta with a crucial win. It sets them up to carry on as the favorite to win the NFC South and buys time for star left tackle Tristan Wirfs to return in October. If the Bucs can win the games they’re favored in, they’ll have a good chance to return to 10 wins and the playoffs. Strangely, last week’s win actually makes this game less valuable to Tampa.

Mayfield’s three passing touchdowns and just one sack allowed masked some issues in a passing game that only created 137 yards before Emeka Egbuka’s eventual game-winning 31-yard touchdown. In Wirfs' absence, Tampa’s moved its center to left tackle, and while that held up just well enough in Atlanta, Houston’s going to provide two big issues: a helmet-echoing prime-time atmosphere in their opener, and one of the best defensive fronts in the league.

Pro Football Focus ranked the Falcons’ defensive line 30th coming into the season, while the Texans came out of Week 1 with the second-best rating. Will Anderson posted a 40% pass-rush win rate against the Rams, and Danielle Hunter wasn’t far behind at 30%. Meanwhile, the Texans’ defense allowed 2.9 yards per rush, only losing in L.A. because the Rams converted first downs on over 50% of third and fourth downs.

Offensively, the Texans weren’t great on the road, but Nico Collins should be more of a factor, and the supporting pieces — Nick Chubb and Houston’s other receivers — should be more comfortable.

Going against a weaker offensive line, at home, the Texans should be able to get off the field more frequently on defense to help set up Stroud, who also has a better matchup against a defensive play-caller he had tremendous success against as a rookie.

Pick: Texans -2.5

Player props

Bucs WR Mike Evans Under 68.5 receiving yards (-115)

Evans is in the “Catch-22” situation of having the reputation of a Hall of Fame-caliber player, who also gets the attention of the opponent’s best corner.

In 2024, Evans had less than 70 yards in nine of 14 games, needing at least nine targets and as many as 14 in order to have a big statistical game.

With an offensive line still in flux, and the probability of a heavy dose of Texans CB Derek Stingley Jr., Evans having a big game is less likely than the -110 odds of a standard player prop bet.

Bucs RB Bucky Irving Over 17.5 receiving yards (-115)

It took a while for Mayfield to look his tailback’s way in the passing game, but when he finally did, Irving made one of the plays of Week 1 to score a 9-yard touchdown.

Irving’s other three receptions went for -1 yards, so his final tally of 8 yards is a little misleading. Unless, you think he’ll be kept from gaining yards on the checkdowns and screens that Mayfield should be frequently using to take some of the starch out of the Texans’ vaunted pass rush.

Texans RB Nick Chubb Under 50.5 rushing yards (-110)

Consider this less of a fade of Chubb, per se, and more a bet on the Texans to be able to throw the ball with more ease than last week, but without paying for the premium on a quarterback yardage over.

After an entire offseason to build back after injuries that cost him most of the last two seasons, Chubb still doesn’t have much in the way of explosiveness, maxing out at 13 yards for his longest carry last week.

With Vita Vea still clogging the middle of the Tampa defense, neither Bijan Robinson nor Tyler Allgeier were able to do much damage on the ground.

Unless the Texans lead so comfortably that Chubb is able to get a high-volume of fourth-quarter, clock-killing carries, he may be more of a complement offensively than the focus.

Anytime touchdowns

Bucs WR Sterling Shepard (+500 or better)

Atlanta's defense was able to put A.J. Terrell on Evans in Week 1, which forced the Buccaneers to test out what they had in WR Emeka Egbuka. The rookie out of Ohio State passed the early quiz, and now his touchdown odds (+185) have plummeted to just shy of where Evans’ are now (+150). Stingley Jr. should travel to match up with Evans, while Kamari Lassiter and the rest of the Texans’ secondary should be fully aware of Egbuka’s presence.

Shepard played 64% of the offensive snaps last week, and could be the threat that falls through the cracks in the red zone, after getting six targets from Mayfield in Week 1. He’s worth the first of two half-unit semi-long shot plays to score.

Texans WR Nico Collins (+135 or better)

It was a quiet Week 1 for Collins with just three catches, as the Rams clearly planned to make other Texans beat them.

Collins scored in half of the games he played in 2024, after scoring in half of the games he played in 2023.

I’ll save you the time crunching the numbers: if Collins scores in half the games he plays in, his fair odds are closer to even-money (+100).

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Throw in that he’s caught a touchdown in 13 of the 15 Texans’ home games he’s played in the last two seasons, it seems like odds of +135 — that imply a touchdown probability of just 42.6% — are a little short of the actual likelihood he scores on Monday.

Texans WR Xavier Hutchinson (+600 or better)

Whether or not the Bucs sell out to cover Collins near the end zone, Stroud’s other options should play better this week, including third-year receiver Xavier Hutchinson.

Stuck behind options like Tank Dell, Stefon Diggs, Robert Woods, and John Metchie on the depth chart last year, Hutchinson has yet to score a receiving touchdown in his career — which is why his odds are this long. However, Houston was comfortable enough to deal Metchie to the Eagles, and Hutchinson played the second-most of the receiving group in Week 1, hauling in two passes — one for 23 yards.

You can find more valuable betting analysis from Yahoo Sports betting contributor, Matt Russell, at THE WINDOW.