Giants’ lack of an offensive identity without Saquon Barkley threatens to undo entire operation

NEW YORK — The Giants didn’t just fail to score a touchdown in Week 1. They had no offensive identity in their first game pivoting off a Saquon Barkley-centric attack.

What does Brian Daboll, the head coach and play caller, want their identity to be this season?

“Scoring points,” Daboll said Wednesday.

Funny, but Daboll can’t start there. To score points, the Giants offense needs to lean into what they do best. And entering Sunday’s Week 2 visit to Washington, it’s still not clear what that is.

Meanwhile, Barkley was named the season’s first NFC Offensive Player of the Week for his three touchdowns in the Philadelphia Eagles’ opening win over the Green Bay Packers — a fact shared on social media by Giants receiver and Barkley friend Darius Slayton, by the way.

Left guard Jon Runyan Jr., who underwhelmed in his debut, pinpointed one missing element that the Giants view as critical to offensive success.

“A big part for us, with us being such a veteran offensive line, is being able to establish the run game early,” Runyan said Monday. “[That way] the coaching staff feels more comfortable being able to call those run plays early in the game, where we can get moving and start stacking plays and putting our offense into a groove.

“For whatever reason,” the free agent signing added, “I don’t think we were able to establish our run game early and got into the more drop-back [passing] part of the game.”

That’s a perceptive comment by Runyan. The problem with the Giants’ need to run the ball, though, is that they don’t have a running back like Barkley who forces the defense to commit extra bodies to the run consistently.

And Jones needs a running game to succeed. The Giants discussed that this offseason when they debated whether or not to let Barkley walk in free agency at all.

“If we lose Saquon, right, what’s our identity going to be on offense now?” Giants director of player personnel Tim McDonnell said in a free agency meeting, as documented by HBO’s ‘Hard Knocks.’ “And what’s our plan? What’s the next step of that, I guess is what I’m thinking.

“We’re losing a large part of our offense, our explosiveness, our touchdowns,” McDonnell continued. “Our quarterback, if it’s Daniel, depends on the run game.”

GM Joe Schoen interjected.

“We’re gonna upgrade the offensive line, and you’re paying the guy $40 million,” the GM said of Jones. “It’s not to hand the ball off to a $12 million back.”

Schoen’s rebuilt offensive line did not run block well this summer, however, and they didn’t move the line of scrimmage against the Minnesota Vikings, either.

Jones and the Giants’ three running backs carried the ball 20 times for 60 yards. To Runyan’s point, they started with rushes of two, zero, four and three yards on their four carries, respectively.

Their longest “rushing” play of the game was a swing pass backwards to wideout Wan’Dale Robinson that went for 14 yards.

Backs Devin Singletary (10 carries, 37 yards), Eric Gray (two carries, six yards) and Tyrone Tracy Jr. (two carries, two yards) couldn’t get going. Tracy did hit a 10-yard run, but it was called back for a two-yard gain due to a Robinson holding penalty.

And Jones carried six times for only 15 yards. Defenses adjusted to his 2022 deployment in the running game last season, and that continued Sunday.

On the Giants’ second drive on a short field in the red zone, no one on Minnesota’s defense followed Robinson on a Jones handoff fake before the quarterback kept it himself for a measly 1-yard gain.

This is exactly what showed up in the preseason, though. It’s not a surprise.

Singletary carried the ball 10 times for 20 yards during the first half in Houston with Jones and the first-team offense. One was a 1-yard TD run after a deep completion from Jones to Slayton.

But that was offset by two Jones interceptions, including a pick-six, and the lack of push in the running game.

Jones said before facing the Texans that the Giants were still figuring out their identity.

“We’re still working through exactly what our offense is going to major in, what we’re best at, what we’re not as good at,” Jones said in August.

No. 6 overall pick Malik Nabers obviously is a talented skill player that Daboll is trying to make the focal point of Jones’ passing game. He needs to deploy him properly, however, to maximize the return.

Numerous sources have said the last few days that Daboll and the Giants came out in max protection and heavy formations in Week 1 because they were anticipating constant blitzing from Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores.

Instead, Flores mixed up his coverages and dropped players who looked like blitzers into coverage. And at the start of the game, Jones was staring into complicated and changing defensive looks with fewer weapons running routes out into coverage.

Add an offensive line that was leaky on the right side and far from good enough, plus a poor running game, and that was the recipe for the quarterback to struggle with his decision-making.

That’s called getting out-coached.

“I think overall [I have to work on] just playing quicker, being cleaner with my feet,” Jones said Wednesday. “Just seeing it and trusting it, being decisive and going. I think certain decisions here and there could have done a better job.”

Truth be told, Tracy had an exciting summer, and the rookie should be the bellcow in the running game Sunday at Washington. He has strength and shiftiness, and he falls forward at the end of his runs.

Will that make a difference if Slayton (concussion protocol) can’t play and the team is relying instead on wide receiver Jalin Hyatt, who was practically nailed to the bench for 16 snaps in Week 1?

Maybe not, but something has to change.

Left tackle Andrew Thomas, who was stellar in pass protection against Minnesota, was asked if he was angry while walking out of MetLife Stadium after the embarrassing opening loss.

“Yeah, it’s frustrating,” Thomas said. “You only get 17 opportunities. So when you don’t execute, it’s definitely not a good feeling.”

It’s not a good feeling that the Giants haven’t scored a touchdown — even old friend Tyrod Taylor has one for the Jets.

It’s an even worse feeling that the Barkley void on their offense has not been filled. And while he runs wild for their rival, the Giants are left scrambling for answers not just to score points but to save their jobs.

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